Why? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all ashamed by the subject matter or by the fact that a church is willing to talk about it. I’m embarrassed as a Christian and as a pastor because the gimmicky appeal simply perpetuates the negative stereotype of Christianity that it is a cheap and shallow religion. You see, many people already think that Christianity is an American religion that derived in the last few hundred years, and this kind of ploy only reinforces that perception.

Any student of religion knows that Christianity is certainly not a modern invention of American culture, and it is absolutely not even a Western religion as its origins and foundations are in the ancient Middle East. In fact, its Judaic roots go so far back into history that in its incipient form Christianity can make the claim that it actually predates all the other religions in the world today. But, you wouldn’t know that when you get a mailer or drive by a billboard like that here in the United States, would you?

No, you’d probably think that Christianity is an American invention created by the founders of our country as part of the great American experiment. As Christianity is often presented in our culture today, you might easily get the impression that it is a religion that exists to serve the needs of American citizens and to make their lives better here in this country. But, that is simply not what Christianity is about.

In his book Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman wrote this: “I believe that I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.” American Christianity, when it is portrayed as light and entertaining, is not really Christianity at all. It is, as Postman says, “another religion altogether”.

Personally, I’m having a hard time picturing James or Peter back in Jerusalem sticking flyers in the doors of their neighbors inviting them to come hear a series on “How to have great sex” or “How to be successful in your trade”. Had they done so, I’m quite sure more people would have shown up, but those people would probably have gotten the wrong impression about Christianity.

They would likely have drawn the conclusion that Christianity is there to serve their needs and provide them the keys to living a more fulfilling existence. And yet, that isn’t what Jesus offered to his followers during his time on earth. Jesus told his disciples that following him wouldn’t add more friends, it would subtract them. Following him wouldn’t make them more successful, it would likely take it away. And, following him wouldn’t give them a better life, it would probably cost them theirs.

When Jesus preached wherever He went, we see that He deliberately thinned the crowds who had gathered by calling them to count the cost of following after him. People came from all over, perhaps hoping to hear something they liked, but we read in the gospels that many turned away from him when Jesus didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear.

What resulted after this exodus was a gallery of followers who were fewer in number but who also were more sincere and devoted in their faith. This small band of disciples were more than willing to give up their comfort, give away their possessions, and give their very lives for the One who called them. And, it was this band of followers that, as it says in the book of Acts, “turned the world upside down”.

There is a story about the Italian warrior Garibaldi who long ago asked young followers to join his crusade to defend his country. They asked him: “What do you offer us?” His response was: “Offer you? I offer you neither pay nor quarters nor provisions. I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battle, and death. Let him know who loves his country in his heart, not with his lips only, follow me.”

This is akin to what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:34-39 when He said: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace (read comfort, pleasure and success) to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Now, admittedly that is not a very likable message, but it is the true message nonetheless. The call of Jesus upon his followers is to a life of sacrifice and devotion, not a life of comfort and pleasure. That message doesn’t sell too well here in America, but we must make a choice between selling success and telling the truth. And, the truth is that real Christianity isn’t cheap and shallow, it’s costly and challenging.

Hundreds of years ago there was a king named Abu Taber, when threatened by invading forces and visited by an ambassador with terms of peace, he summoned one of his soldiers, handed him a dagger and commanded: “Plunge this into your chest.” Immediately the soldier obeyed and fell dead at his feet. Then, calling another, he ordered: “Leap over that precipice and into the Euphrates.” Without a moment’s hesitation that soldier leaped to his death.

Then, turning to the ambassador, the king said: “Go, tell your master that I have 500 men like that, and that within 24 hours I will have him chained with my dogs.” And, the story is that even against overwhelming odds, Abu Taber and his small but devoted band of followers won that war convincingly.

What is the point of this story? Well, the point is simply that having fewer but more devoted followers is actually preferable to having more but less faithful ones. That is what Jesus chose for himself and intended for those who would follow him, but many wouldn’t know that by the caricatured version of Christianity that they experience so often today.

Rarely do people hear the convicting but truthful message about Christianity in our culture, that it is indeed as Neil Postman said “a demanding and serious religion”. The honest truth is that Christianity isn’t shallow and cheap, and it’s high time that pastors and churches stop presenting it that way.

If you are a pastor, elder or ministry leader of any kind, consider this a plea to stop trivializing our faith by peddling an inauthentic form of Christianity. Please stop the mailers, the flyers and the billboards that embarrass the church and make her look like a cheap tramp when she is the holy and unblemished bride of Jesus Christ.

For those of us that care deeply about preserving not just the message of our faith but also the legacy of our faith, we are asking that church leaders rethink how they sell the gospel in America. The truth is that Christianity is supposed to be a hard sell and many people just won’t be up to the task, so we are not doing them or our faith any favors by selling it on the cheap.

What I’m genuinely concerned about is that by peddling gimmicky Christianity we are not only filling our churches with insincere, halfhearted consumers but that we are also jeopardizing the legitimacy of our faith by encouraging it. This kind of selling doesn’t accomplish the mission that Jesus began and it even imperils the reputation of the Church in the world.

I believe, therefore, that the best thing we can do both for people and for our faith is to be up front and honest about the serious demands of Christianity so that we won’t defraud the people who come to our churches looking for genuine Christianity and so that we won’t defile the reputation of our churches in front of those who don’t.

It all started about a month ago when we left Phoenix for a family vacation. The first day of the trip, my youngest son Christian, who is only two years old and unable to articulate what he is feeling just yet, started to whine and complain about his mouth or throat hurting. We figured he was either just fighting another juvenile cold or teething his baby molars. Well, he moaned for a couple of days and then seemed to become himself again. We thought nothing of it…sickness and tears are status quo with any young family.

A week passed by and then I came down with an angry sore throat myself that felt like my entire neck had caught on fire. I knew it wasn’t the standard fare sore throat and it didn’t come with the usual cold symptoms, so I finally had it checked out. The doctor at the Urgent Care took a culture and diagnosed me with Strep Throat. Admittedly, I was shocked because I haven’t had Strep since I was in high school! Where in the world did I contract that, I thought? I wasn’t licking any playground equipment and didn’t recall any diseased people coughing in my face, so it was a mystery to me.

Well, I suffered through it and took my antiobiotics. A few days later, I was feeling better and we were headed home to Phoenix. Interestingly, on the last day of our vacation Christian once again started complaining about his throat and feeling cold despite the fact that it was 100 degrees outside. Weird, we thought. But then again, the common flu is always around and perhaps he was coming down with it. No surprise, of course, because I’m quite convinced that my children will contract just about every bug and virus that happens along in this disease infested planet. If I sound like a convinced germophobe, it’s because I am. My kids bring more germs into my life than I care to count and most of those eventually get passed on to me.

Anyway, Christian was quiet and sleepy for most of the drive home, which was actually quite nice since we expected him to fight the restraint of having to sit in a car seat for an entire 11 hours. We arrived home and promptly put him to bed. He didn’t sleep much and cried through the night. His fever spiked, and we knew he was socked in with something. We just didn’t know what it was. The next morning we medicated his fever with Ibuprofen and let him rest but he didn’t stop crying and wouldn’t improve for the next two days. Finally, exasperated, we decided to take him to the doctor.

At first, the doctor was perplexed with his symptoms but once he found out that I had just been infected with Strep Throat, he quickly surmised that my son had caught it too. He ran the culture and it came back positive. My two year old indeed had Strep Throat. Now, that is very unusual, I’m told. Kids his age don’t get Strep. At least, that’s what we had thought, so we never even considered that he could have contracted it.

We immediately started him on a round of antibiotics and his fever subsided within a day, but he then experienced some odd symptoms that perplexed us. The next morning when I went to get him up, he was crying and seemed agitated. I picked him up and held him, and then I took him downstairs setting him down onto the ground to stand while I got him something to drink. He stood there for a moment, his knees started to buckle and then he dropped to the ground.

Throughout the day his condition worsened and he refused to do anything but sit in misery on the couch and try to be distracted by movies. When he finally wanted to move, he asked to be carried. We noticed that his joints seemed to be stiff and painful and almost frozen. That night, when we put him to bed, we hoped and prayed that he would wake up a new boy in the morning. You see, we needed him to feel better because he wasn’t the only one who was suffering that day.

While my son was afflicted with this fever and apparent paralysis, my wife started to bleed. We had been 10 weeks pregnant at the time expecting our third child when the bleeding began. Although she had been spotting for a couple of weeks, we had hoped it was nothing unusual, but her bleeding increased significantly the day we returned from vacation. And, the miscarriage started the very day that Christian developed his condition.

So, while my poor son was suffering, my wife was also miscarrying and I didn’t know what to do. I honestly felt paralyzed by my concern both for my wife and for my son and wasn’t sure how I ought to be responding. It’s a terrible feeling to watch two people you love suffer and have to make a choice about who to help…A miserable, gut-wrenching feeling.

This dissonance was complicated by the fact that I was supposed to preach for the first time at my new church the following day. I knew I should have been preparing for my triumphant start at Bethany Bible Church the next morning but couldn’t find the time or the heart to even think about it. That night I went to bed worried for my wife and for my son. I am not really a worrier, but this time I was. My heart starting pounding in my chest because I was losing an unborn child and wasn’t able to care for my wife or even consider how it was affecting me. And, my two year old was digressing physically and I wasn’t able to figure out what was wrong.

It didn’t help that I went on WebMD and saw that untreated Strep Throat can lead to Rheumatic Fever, a condition that affects the joints and heart and can cause irreparable damage. I looked through the symptoms and everything matched what my son had been experiencing! I beat myself up wondering if in fact what he had earlier on was Strep Throat, and we didn’t catch it. Had we failed as parents in recognizing this in our son and wouldn’t it be our fault if he indeed had contracted the Fever because of our failure?!

All night long I languished, and I didn’t sleep a wink. I had all kinds of nightmarish thoughts plaguing my mind about my own failure as a husband and father to care for my family, and I wondered if my son would ever recover and be himself again. I pictured the cute toothy smile he gets when he’s happy and thought that he may never smile again. And, I thought about how he merrily skips rather than runs when he plays, and thought that maybe he would never skip again. These thoughts tortured my mind and heart and brought me to the brink of my sanity.

When I finally got up around 5 am after tossing and turning all night, I went in to check on my son, and he was moaning. I picked him up and his joints seemed to be locked up. He had not moved the entire night and his fever was back! I carried him to the bathroom and fumbled to find some medicine but broke down. I honestly was shaking and shocked and thought that I might lose not one but two of my children in one weekend!

Not to mention the fact that I was supposed to be at church in three hours to meet my new church family and preach my first sermon. At that moment, I went into my coma. I went downstairs and cried. I screamed inside to God that if He had allowed Satan to sift me that night, then Satan had succeeded. He worked me over, and I was finished. I couldn’t bare to leave my family and try to preach, let alone talk to anyone, and yet I didn’t have the option not to. I had no one to call and it would have been disastrous to not show up on my very first Sunday! I faced what might have been the hardest decision of my life.

Thankfully, I decided to trust God in my moment of terror rather than my own fear. I marshaled all that I had left, which wasn’t much, and after feebly talking it through with my wife, I left for church. Even as I drove out of the driveway feeling devastated and depleted, I doubted my decision to leave. The only thing I could do to console myself was to tell myself that God must be testing me…testing me in a way that I had never been tested. It was as if God was asking me if I really trust Him or just say that I do.

Well, I decided to put on my best face and meet the church, but I fell into tears almost as soon as I opened my mouth. Although I’m quite sure people were surprised to see me looking so devastated and depleted on my first day, I honestly didn’t have the strength to hide it. There was no way that I could conceal what was happening in my life, so I didn’t try to. I openly told the church how much I was hurting and that I honestly didn’t want to be there. I shared what had been happening with my family the last week and that I struggled leaving them at home that morning.

Actually, I did the only thing that I felt right doing…I asked the church to pray. I asked them to pray for my wife, my son, and for me. I asked them to pray for God to be strong in our weakness and to give his healing in our sickness. I cried and asked my new church family to pray. And, pray they did.

When I returned home from church that Sunday, I asked my wife how she and Christian were doing. She told me that they were much the same. At the very least, my son was not getting any worse, though it’s hard to imagine how things could have gotten worse than they already were. Stephanie was still in the throws of the miscarriage, and Christian was still miserable and paralyzed on the couch.

And yet, by that time, I had received word that my call for prayers had spread and that hundreds if not thousands were engaged in intercessory prayer for us that afternoon. Upon hearing this news, I saw a miracle start to unfold. I say it is a miracle because things turned that day in such a way for us that it could not possibly be explained away as coincidence or natural healing.

By the evening, my wife’s bleeding had subsided and my son was not just standing up for the first time in days but also walking and even smiling. We had done nothing different that day except watch the power of prayer working in our home. We could not believe the dramatic change that happened in our family within just a few short hours! In fact, some good friends came over to console us that night and witnessing the obvious relief that came over our household celebrated the goodness of God together with us.

As we drifted off the sleep that night, the first night that I actually slept in a week, my wife and I praised God for his kindness to our family and for rewarding the faith we had exercised earlier that morning. I now know that what I thought might be a test was indeed a divine examination of my faith. Choosing to trust God that morning turned out to be the right choice. The truth is that if I hadn’t made the extremely difficult decision to go to church when everything inside spurned it, then I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to call so many people to prayer. And, if all those people had not interceded on our behalf, then I don’t think I’d be coming out of this coma.

Now that my wife is on the mend and my son is himself again, I feel like the fog is lifting in my mind and that I am starting to heal. And yet, strangely, I feel a greater sense of my weakness than I did before. I can honestly say that I feel more fragile than I have ever felt, and I am much more aware of how easily my world can be crushed. There is so much than can go wrong in my life and much of it is completely out of my control. I understand that more fully now.

I can’t stand to watch people that I love suffer, and I am now keenly aware that I can’t do anything about it when they do. I can only watch, hope and pray and call others in my life to do the same. After that trying week in my life, I now feel more helpless and weak than I ever have before, and yet I believe that is exactly what God wants me to feel. It’s as if my desperation was superintended by God for me to appreciate my own powerlessness and to rely more on God’s grace.

For this reason, that week was both the worst and perhaps also the best week of my life. It was the worst because I really felt my own weakness, but it was also the best because I also really felt God’s grace. This was the week that I learned the real meaning of Jesus’ words when He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Yes, Lord, I can honestly and openly say now that your grace is indeed sufficient.

I consider this study to be foundational for us in so many ways because understanding and appreciating the supernatural relationship between Christ and His Church is fundamental to building any ministry upward and outward. So, I’m looking at this new series as a foundational series which will provide the groundwork for our first book study. On August 8 we will be launching into a verse by verse study of the book of Colossians, which is a gospel-centric letter with a high premium on applicable truth. For that reason, I am calling the series “Truth”, which will be a week to week unpacking of veritable Scriptures about Jesus, salvation, wisdom, forgiveness, legalism, life, etc.

Coinciding with my start at Bethany Bible Church will be a structural change that should provide some convergence and continuity for the church. Starting on July 11, the two chapel services will be combined and moved into the Worship Center, which will enable the Hispanic congregation to move into the Chapel and bring the two English speaking congregations together. The main worship service times will be 9 am and 11 am, with a 45 minute interlude in between for body life and program transition. The 9 am service will be traditional for those who prefer choir and more hymns than praise songs, and the 11 am service will be contemporary for those who connect more with a worship band and high energy praise though the message will be the same in both services.

Those who come will also notice some modifications to the Worship Center that will include maximizing the foyer area by turning it into a cafe and gathering place for people to come together before and after the worship services. Our hope is that this large enclosed space will become a bustling hang out for people to connect relationally with one another on Sundays. We want to make Bethany Bible Church a relationally driven congregation that fosters close knit friendships between families and individuals, and this is just one of the things we hope to do to accomplish that.

If you are presently unconnected to a church family and live anywhere near the Central Corridor, then consider this an invitation to join us for this new season at Bethany Bible Church starting on July 11. BBC is located at 6060 N. 7th Avenue in Phoenix, and the campus is physically located on the west side of 7th Ave. one block north of Bethany Home Road. With its central location proximate to downtown Phoenix between the I-17 and SR-51 freeways, the church is accessible from all parts of the Valley.

As for the ethos of the church, our hope is to become a strategic and integrated part of the urban renewal happening in downtown Phoenix, reaching out to the diverse community of people living around the church and creating innovative ministry that will connect to the increasingly urban culture in the area. At BBC we will be “re-imagining” how to reach out in our ministry context and doing a lot of “forward thinking” about how to best leverage our growing influence in the community.

Our hope is to preserve the rich heritage and reputation of Bethany Bible Church but also renew its relevance and influence in the ever-changing culture of the city. We want to continue the tradition of church planting that has defined BBC over the years but also explore new and unconventional forms that will thrive in these shifting times. We also want to partner more effectively with other churches and ministries locally to regain our voice in the culture and expand God’s kingdom in our city through the ministries of mercy, justice and compassion.

I personally believe that the urban centers in our country like Phoenix are strategic starting places to begin large scale spiritual renewal and that Bethany Bible Church is well positioned for this kind of change in our city. Therefore, I am eager to see who God assembles together for this purpose and anticipate what He is going to do through BBC in the months and years to come. So, hello Bethany Bible Church…and hold on tight!

As I prepare this sermon, I have also been reflecting on the memories we have made together and have laughed and cried a little as I recount them. There were some funny moments that we shared such as the time my staff turned my office pink because they know it’s my least favorite color and the time they gave me an “office survival pack” complete with hand sanitizer and toilet seat covers because they know I am such a germiphobe.

There were the silly skits we performed and crazy costumes we wore each summer at our KBX camps and the soaking water fights of which I was often on the losing end. And, of course, there were the blunder moments like the time that I fell off the stage at an evening service when I got carried away with my sermon and the time that Joel left his microphone on during my message one morning and was talking over me outside. I’m just glad he wasn’t in the restroom when that happened!

There were also moments of victory that we shared together such as when we paid off our debt and celebrated by “burning the mortgage” with that huge flame thrower and by erecting the amazing shepherd statue that had been waiting in storage for a reason to come out. And, there was the Sunday when we celebrated the many changed lives in our congregation through the cardboard testimonies and the time that we unveiled and beheld the amazing transformation of our pre-school building. I’ll also never forget the annual rummage sales that we put on when so many people collaborated in what had to be the biggest sale of its kind that I have ever seen! Who would have thought that getting rid of old stuff could be so much fun?

As well, there are some moments of defeat that we experienced together when some in our family went home to be with the Lord, some lost their jobs and homes, others suffered through painful illnesses, and still others watched their marriages and families fall apart. Those trials were tough for all of us, but they brought us together and we learned a lot about perseverance and the hope that comes with it through those experiences. And, I’m especially proud of those who handled these trials with dignity and taught us all so much about real faith and trust in the Lord during even heartbreaking times.

All of this is to say that there is much to remember and celebrate as my family makes this move out of NCC, and we have no regrets about either our call to serve at Northwest or about how we spent our time there. My family will surely be praying for the people and for the leaders during this transitional time and expect to hear once again of God’s faithfulness to His Church in the days and months to come. God has always taken good care of Northwest Community Church, and I am confident that He will continue to do so in the future.

So, from my family to our spiritual family at NCC, we want to say thank you. Thank you for taking us in and loving us so well these last few years. We have been abundantly blessed by your incredible generosity and overwhelming kindness, and we will never forget all the good that God did during our time there both in us and in the church. May the good work continue!

What surprises me most about the uproar over the Suns so-called “political” statement is that people really think that it is political. Silly me, but I think Robert Sarver is a businessman, and a savvy one at that. He’s no politician, and for people to take him as one is naïve. Given the fact that Sarver’s banker mojo has been all about profits over the years, how is it that people can’t see this for what it really is? I think Sarver’s decision to wear the “other” uniforms was 10 percent about conscience and 90 percent about profits. Do we really think that he would have made this decision if he thought it would be a poor business call? Of course not. Do people really think that Sarver only wants to sell Suns jerseys in Arizona? No way.

Make no mistake, Sarver’s decision to go “Los Suns” was an economic move and a brilliant one at that. It doesn’t take a genius to see that he took advantage of an historic opportunity to make his team a global topic of conversation and reap the rewards for it. After last night, even president Obama is now a Suns fan! I’m fairly sure we’ll see him donning the new jersey in his next political address. And, did anyone notice that Al Sharpton was wearing it too during his staged march to the capitol? I’ll bet that people who wouldn’t have ever bought a Suns jersey will buy one now and that those who already have one will now want to get the other. That boils down to huge profits for Suns ownership!

It seems to me that brilliant Mr. Sarver knows that as long as his Suns keep winning games, and especially if they beat the San Antonio Spurs evil empire, that he will win many more fans around the globe and sell much more team merchandise than ever before if he stages his team in the right way. Even though some of the hometown fans are crying foul over this and a few are even vowing to boycott this team, the truth is that their memories are short and they will forgive and forget as soon as the Suns advance in the playoffs. Many, in fact, have already forgiven them after their victory last night.

As for SB 1070, the recent legislation passed here in Arizona at the heart of all this madness, I’m personally perplexed at seeing my brothers and sisters take such indignant positions on the bill based on hearsay information and charged sound bites. I learned something a long time ago in journalism school that stuck with me and applies to the present situation…the media doesn’t really tell us what to think but does tell us what to think about. Today, the media is once again dictating the agenda for us and sounding the alarms that this is something that really ought to bother all of us.

Well, this subject should concern us, and we ought to care about its implications. And yet, why is that that we rush to judgments so quickly without even thinking through the issues? I’m absolutely amazed at how people could fully understand the content of this bill and really appreciate its implications in only days after the bill was signed! How is it that people on either side of this issue feel so informed to speak out so loudly in support of or against this bill without reading or even considering what this bill really says? It seems to me that it would be simple wisdom to withhold judgment until one has read this bill in its entirety and pondered its implications before pronouncing a verdict on it. The rash responses to this legislation on either side are, in my view, foolish.

This, in my opinion, is the error of not only Sarver but all the many people in Arizona and around the world who have levied their opinion of this measure both ignorantly and prematurely. Now, I’m sure that there are some people who have read this bill thoroughly and understand both its strengths and weaknesses as well as its possible repercussions, but I’m willing to bet that most if not all of those people are the same people who have been debating it at the State Capitol for the last four months. The rest of us are new to the game since this bill was brought into the spotlight and signed into law, and we are only now presented the opportunity to digest and debate its contents.

So, in light of this, I really want to encourage my friends and colleagues to be patient and wise in how you respond to this situation, and please make sure you enhance your credibility to speak on this by first reading the bill and then prayerfully considering its positive and negative implications. Be willing and able to consider both sides of this issue before crystallizing your opinion and sharing it publicly. I, for one, have been holding my tongue on this because I need to do this myself before pronouncing my personal position on SB 1070 and its effects on our community.

At the same time, I don’t need to read a bill or understand its effects to know that harassment and abuse of any sort is wrong. Therefore, while I read and ponder this bill, I do and will continue to believe that IF there is any inequity or abuse that arises out of this legislation against the Latino community, then I, and I hope my brothers and sisters, will speak up against it and stand up with those in our community who are being unjustly targeted, regardless of their legal status.

Based upon my study of the Scriptures, I think there is vast biblical evidence that we should show care and compassion toward others whether they are “legal” or not. We are not the ethical police of the world but rather ambassadors of compassion for Christ who clearly loved the tax collector and sinner as much as He loved his disciples. From what I can see in the gospels, Jesus never withheld love from anyone because of their sin, and that model is affirmed by what the rest of Scripture has to say about the law of love, which governs all.

Therefore, we are not “condoning” illegal behavior by loving the immigrant or alien any more than Jesus was when he loved the tax collectors and sinners in his own day. He was accused of dining with sinners simply because He cared for them, and our choice to dine with sinners today is no different. Whether people’s sin is of the illegal kind or not doesn’t change our commitment to carrying on the legacy of compassion that Jesus began 2,000 years ago.

So, whether we support or regret the legislation that has been passed, I sincerely hope that our personal conviction will not prevent us from loving the people around us, whether they have proper documentation or not. My chief concern for Christians in this debate is that wherever we stand on the issue of illegal immigration, no matter how strong our feelings are about its effects, that we would never lose sight of our mission, which is to be ministers of compassion to the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

Ever since I read that book, I have honestly been haunted by his admonition. I have spent countless hours pondering the implications of this reality and wondered just what could be done to regain our voice in the culture and take back the influence that we have so easily surrendered. On a personal level, I have wondered what I can do to help grab the ear of a spiritually deaf culture, and I have prayed much about what that would look like for me specifically.

I have recently gained clarity about my own role in this cause as God has revealed to me just how I ought to be spending my time. From childhood I have felt a strong conviction that I was supposed to be a teacher of God’s Word but up until recently had not considered that teaching may actually only be part of my calling. I had never considered myself to be an “evangelist” and do not believe that I have that particular spiritual gift, so I assumed that I must instead be a “pastor” since these are often treated as mutually exclusive callings. After all, I had always been comfortable with the idea that pastors care for the sheep in the fold while evangelists go find the lost sheep in the field.

Well, I have come to appreciate that these two callings are not mutually exclusive and that even though evangelism is a spiritual gift, it is also a mandate. And, though there is much importance in tending the sheep in the fold, there is an equal if not greater importance placed on finding the sheep that are lost in the field. As Jesus said in Luke 15, there will actually be more joy in heaven over the one sheep that is found than over the 99 sheep that are already safely in the fold.

I realized recently that I have been spending the vast majority of my time in the fold, feeding, leading, and caring for the sheep that reside there and have not spent much time scouting the hills and searching the valleys for the wandering sheep outside. And, I have come to a convicting conclusion…that I think I will regret how I spend my life if I don’t spend more time in the field. Though I love the sheep in the fold and consider it a privilege to serve them, I want to spend my time on earth maximizing the joy in heaven. And, if God is most pleasured by seeking and saving the lost, then I want to spend my life joining the search and rescue mission that Jesus started.

All of this is to say that this realization means that I must make some significant changes in my life in order to realign my path with this mission. The implication of my newly formed conviction is that I can no longer serve as the Lead Pastor of Northwest Community Church as this position requires me to spend the bulk of my energy and time almost exclusively with the sheep in the fold. Therefore, I am resigning from my present position and will be assuming a new position that will allow me the time and energy to devote more of myself to ministering outside of the local church.

Toward that end, I have been offered and in turn have accepted a flexible and unconventional ministry role at Bethany Bible Church in downtown Phoenix to serve as their Teaching Pastor, in which case I will be responsible for teaching on Sundays and providing guidance to the elders and staff but will also be largely freed up during the week to minister outside of the church and around the community.

This is an opportunity that resonates and aligns with what God has been doing in my heart. Though my commitment to the local church and passion for teaching God’s Word is unchanged, I feel that I also need to find ways to go to where the lost are rather than waiting for them to come to where I am. In other words, I want to venture out into the wilderness where the lost sheep live and show them the way home.

My immediate plans for this new venture are to start up an urban marketplace ministry which will include Bible studies and discipleship training for business people, to volunteer time serving and supporting local mercy and compassion ministries, to begin teaching some college and seminary level classes, to further my education by pursuing a doctoral degree specializing in the study of the intersection of faith and culture, and to begin working on some writing projects that have been beckoning for years.

Though I dread the thought of disappointing the wonderful people at Northwest Community Church with my decision, I know that being obedient to God’s call on my life is most important and trust that my church family will understand and support this new calling in my life. And, though my own family and I will miss seeing everyone that we have come to know and love at NCC, we are heartened to know that we will not be far away and will continue to serve the same city together in the days to come.

Solomon, the famous king over Israel, recounted his reflections on the nature of things in his journal called Ecclesiastes, and upon review came to the conclusion that the pursuit of worldly power, pleasure and possession is a wasted pursuit. He, for one, had it all. He had more influence than anyone during his time, he had more amusement to keep him occupied than he could handle, and he had more successes than any king or kingdom before or after him. And yet, Solomon called it all vanity.

Likewise, the Apostle Paul, who once was named Saul after the first king of Israel, had a resume unmatched by his peers, which he recounted in his letter to the Philippians. He was a faithful Hebrew, a respected enforcer, and a well known leader. He had the the reputation and respect that any man during his day would envy. And still, Paul called it all rubbish.

Johnny Cash lived the American illusion. He capitalized on his opportunities and promoted himself to the upper echelon of musical fame. With an unusual combination of authenticity and mystique, he captured the attention and affection of legions of fans, and for a time he lived on top of the world. But finally, he called it all dirt.

Vanity. Rubbish. Dirt. These words are honest and true observations about the nature of things in this world. Generations come and generations go, but only a few seem to peek behind the curtain. Most would rather ignore the warning signs and presume that the show on stage is for real. They would rather suspend their disbelief in life and trust that things will just work out.

However, once in a while, someone is curious and smart enough to peek behind the curtain to find out if it is just smoke and mirrors. And, they find out that it is. There is something behind that curtain, and it is behind there for a reason. The world shrouds the truth because it does not sell very well. The truth is that there is a pile of dirt and it does not smell so nice. And, that is why Solomon, Paul and even Johnny tried to pull the curtain down. Not really so we could see what is behind it but so that we could stop wondering.

You see, something profound happens when you stop wondering if the things of this world are lasting and fulfilling. It is the feeling of liberation not really from the things of this world but from the hope in the things of this world. After all, there might be some fun to be had playing in the pile of dirt, but I doubt anyone is going to want to want to live in it.

The reality is that we become free when we understand what life in this world cannot provide us. When we understand that the things of this world cannot satisfy, then we are finally released to look elsewhere. And, that’s the point Jesus came into the world to make. He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

And, what is the truth that sets us free? It is as the Scriptures say, “Do not love the world or the things in the world…for all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).”

So, thanks to Solomon, Paul and Johnny, for pulling down the curtain.

I am currently studying and teaching through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes and have been reflecting on the essential theme of the journal, which is a challenge to loosen our grip on the world and its grip on us. I have been looking at how the things of this world are transient and unsatisfying and how that realization ought to lead us to the only One who isn’t, Jesus Christ.

Well, in the process of disconnecting from this world and connecting more and more to God’s Son, I have come to look at things a little differently today than I have in the past. What I have been experiencing is an untangling of sorts from the trappings of the world that have captured my attention and energy for many years. And, one of those things that I feel I am being freed from is the snare of ambition.

For some reason I have always been interested in and motivated by success in whatever field I have been engaged. Whether it was in marketing, recruitment, demography, real estate or vocational ministry, I have always been motivated and inspired to drive for more, never settling for the status quo or mediocrity. The downside of that kind of drive is that you never feel settled and are often discontent, and that is something I have always been at odds with in my own life.

All of this is to say that after plumbing the depths of Solomon’s wisdom and meditating on it each day, I have come to a stunning and convicting realization about life here on earth. For me, it is a mystery solved that now just needs to be applied. The epiphany that rocked my world and hopefully will also rock yours too is that I think I have been praying the wrong prayer all along. All of these years, I have been praying for God to give me more…more income, more comfort, more enjoyment, more experience, more influence and more responsibility. More, more, more, and I have a feeling I am not the only one who has been praying this way.

And, here’s the thing. I have been trained to pray this way because that is apparently what ambitious people do. Those we admire seem to pray for more, those who write the books we read usually tell us we should pray for more, and those who teach us often encourage us to ask for more. The central example of this kind of praying perhaps is the best selling The Prayer of Jabez that unabashedly taught us all to ask God to “enlarge our territory” and ask God for more, which oddly enough isn’t really at all what Jesus taught us to do.

In the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew it says that Jesus taught his disciples how to pray saying, “Pray like this: Our Father on heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…” And, there it is. So simple and yet so profound. Notice that in his instruction Jesus does not tell us to ask for more bread but for enough bread. There is a difference.

Literally, Jesus tells us to ask God each day for enough food to eat, and by implication that includes clothing and shelter for the day. He does not instruct us to ask for more than that. In fact, just a few verses later Jesus tells us not be anxious about our lives, about food, clothing and shelter because God knows what we need and will add them to our lives. Conversely, Jesus adds that needing or asking for more is actually consistent with the lives of nonbelievers and not disciples.

When we read Jesus’ instruction to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” it is logical and helpful to connect this to the bread that God gave to Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. In Exodus 16 we read that God gave manna, or bread from heaven, to the people of Israel as their sole sustenance during their journey to the Promised Land. It says that with the dew of the morning, there came a fine, flaky bread that was more than enough to feed everyone each day. However, there was only enough for that day.

We read that the bread from heaven quickly rotted and melted away if it was not consumed, so God did not give them more than was needed for each day during their exodus. It says that they gathered new manna “morning by morning” or day by day as it was given, and that they did this for the entire 40 years that they wandered! What they learned from this providential experience was an important lesson for them and should also be an important lesson for us. The lesson is that God sovereignly provides for his children, and his superintended provisions are enough.

So, if God always provides enough, then why do we keep asking for more? There is a most interesting biblical passage in Proverbs 30. In verses 7 through 9, it says: “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

This is a most convicting truth. The author of this Scripture asks God for two things in life. First, he asks God to make him honest. And, second, he asks for God to make him satisfied. Interestingly, he asks God NOT to make him rich or poor, but rather to give him enough. He goes on to say that if God gives him riches, then he will become distracted and will forget God, and if God makes him poor, then he will become a thief and dishonor God. Therefore, he doesn’t want to be either rich or poor…he just wants to be content.

So then, how does all of this relate to us? Well, these Scriptures both explicitly and implicitly show us that we have perhaps been praying the wrong prayers. Rather than asking God to give us more, we should be asking God to give us enough. This means not asking God for more money, more food, more clothes, more space, more luxury or more amusement. Instead this means asking God for just enough of these things to be enjoy the life He has given us and be pleasing to Him while we are here.

In light of all this, I am convinced that asking God for more is not the right prayer. Rather, what we should be asking God for is “enough”. In other words, we should be asking for enough money to live affordably, enough shelter to live comfortably, enough clothes to dress appropriately and enough food to eat moderately. Anything more than that is more than enough and should be considered excess. And, if there is excess, then we really ought to think about giving it away and not keeping it for ourselves.

In 2 Corinthians 9, for example, we are told that God supplies seed and bread to us and each for different purposes. The seed is for investment and the bread is for consumption, and that means bread is to be kept for ourselves and seed is to be given away to others. Interestingly, God does not promise to give us more bread, only more seed. Paul writes: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (2 Cor. 9:10). Conspicuously absent from the passage is any promise that God will give us more “bread” to consume for ourselves. Instead, it says that God wants the excess “seed” to be invested in the kingdom to help others. Paul adds: “The ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” (2 Cor. 9:12).

So, what I have concluded in all this is that many of us, myself included, have probably confused bread and seed. I am quite convinced that we have been eating the seed and not planting it, and the end result is not only a materialistic culture but also a malnourished church. When we start presuming that more wealth means more to spend on ourselves, then we have tragically missed the biblical directive of generosity. Biblical generosity means only keeping for ourselves what we need and giving the rest away joyfully to others.

In my estimation, hoarding in the church is an embarrassingly obvious problem that is not only crippling the credibility of the gospel message but also compromising the mission of the church to care for others. The truth is that there is so much excess wealth sitting around in real estate assets, brokerage accounts and savings plans belonging to Christians that it is extraordinarily shocking that we can’t even take care of our own, let alone take care of others. At a time when the church’s credibility and mission in America is hanging in the balance, it is a shame that so many Christians are sitting on so much.

My point in saying all this is simply to share how I have been disturbed by my own selfishness and embarrassed by the collective selfishness that I see in the church today. As a pastor, I am honestly frustrated with the stunning inconsistency between what the Scriptures say about generosity and contentment and what I see in the everyday lives of so many Christians today. And, what really burdens me is the fact that so many Christians don’t even seem to notice it. They just keep on asking for more and spending it on themselves without ever asking if that kind of personal consumption is consistent with what the Lord desires.

In light of this revelation, my hope is that we would be courageous enough to confront ourselves with this issue and honest enough to talk about what needs to change in ourselves and in the church. Toward that end, I pray that a revolution would occur in the lives of believers everywhere and that we would finally be liberated from the things of this world that capture us like ambition, wealth and success. And, it is my belief that we will finally experience this kind of freedom in life once we learn to no longer ask for more but for enough.

The infinity symbol has been around for 2,000 years. In the first century the Romans used it to represent the number 1,000, which was a substantial number to them. Much later in 1650, however, the English mathematician John Wallis proposed that it stand for infinity, and that is the meaning that stuck then and still remains.

The word “infinity” is most popular today. We use it as a brand name for everything from cars to music speakers. We talk about how teachers have “infinite patience,” how kids have “infinite energy” and how the rich have “infinite resources,” but those statements are really inaccurate. The truth is infinity is a word that actually can only apply to God because only God is inherently infinite! That symbol must be exclusively associated with and attached to God alone because nothing else in the universe is infinite like Him.

The Scriptures tell us that God is both eternal and infinite, and these terms describe different aspects of God’s nature. Eternity is more about time while infinity is more about space. So, perhaps we can think of it this way…eternity would be represented by a line that runs east and west while infinity would be represented by two perpendicular lines with the other running north and south.

When we say God is eternal, we are saying that He transcends time, and when we say God is infinite, we are saying that He transcends space. Therefore, God is not only timeless but also endless, boundless or limitless. And, because He is without end, God is not measurable or quantifiable. Therefore, neither science or math can account for Him and must resort to a symbol as an attempt to capture the evasive concept.

For many centuries, our church fathers had a statement that they regularly invoked in discussions of matters like these. Their default assessment of mind blowing ideas was to declare “Deus Semper Maior”, which translated from the Latin means “God is always greater”. In other words, they resorted to declaring that no matter how hard we try to fathom and sum up the nature of God’s immensity, we will forever fall short of comprehension and description and must therefore surrender to profound mystery.

Interestingly, a scientist named Charles Meisner once had this to say about it: “I do see the design of the universe as essentially a religious question. That is, one should have some kind of respect and awe for the whole business. It’s very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he had run across did not have a proper respect for the Author of the universe.”

So, the real question when it comes to God’s immensity is do we really have a proper respect for the majesty of the Author of the Universe? The Scriptures tell us clearly that we worship a God who is larger and more vast than the entire universe and that awesome truth ought to overwhelm and humble us.

In 1 Kings 8:27 we read “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built?” And, in Jeremiah 23:23-24 it says “‘Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the LORD, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” Further in Eph. 4:10 it says “He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.”

So, if it is indeed true that God fills the entire universe, then how big does that make Him? Consider this simple but amazing fact…You can fit one million earths inside of the sun, and the sun is actually a small star. There are other stars in our galaxy that are 800 times larger than the sun. The next closest star beyond the sun is Alpha Centauri, which is four light years away. That means that if you were to drive your car at 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) to Alpha Centauri, it would take you 30 million years to get there! And get this…There are 200 billion stars in our own Galaxy and there are a 100 billion other galaxies!

The fact is that the universe is so big and our God even bigger that we just cannot even comprehend it. We simply cannot get our limited minds around this limitless concept, and that is why so many bright Christians through the centuries who have dared to contemplate this have willingly surrendered their pride.

Augustine, the ancient scholar and theologian, for example, while puzzling over the immensity of God one day when walking along the beach observed a young boy with a bucket running back and forth pouring water into a little hole. Augustine asked, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole.” And it was then that Augustine suddenly realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind, which was an impossible and futile task.

My response to my own contemplation of this overwhelming concept has been to wonder a couple of things. First, if God is that big, then how small does that make us? And, secondly, if God is that big, then why does He care so much about people who are so small? The honest truth is that God’s immensity makes me feel tiny, but at the same time, God’s immensity also makes me feel secure. Let me explain why.

When I read King David’s words in Psalm 8, I gained an appreciation for what God’s size has to say about my own. David apparently had the same appreciation and asked the same question when he wrote: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

And God’s answer to David’s profound query? “Yet you have made him a little lower that the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; and you have put all things under his feet.” So, the answer to the question about the relative worth of tiny people like us is that we have value because God gave it to us. He made us valuable when he created us and gave us glory, honor and dominion.

And, why did God do this? I mean, why in the world would God be so generous with us? Well, the answer to that question is born out of His immensity. You see, God cares for us because just as He is infinite in his size, God is also infinite in his character. Meaning, God’s immensity doesn’t just describe his stature but also his character. Because God is infinite, whatever God is, God is infinitely. And, this means that God is also infinitely just, generous, merciful and loving!

Therefore, I have found that God’s immensity, though profound and humbling, has much to say about Him and about us. Though it’s very humbling to be contemplating such things, I have also found a great sense of security in understanding that God’s character is truly as infinite as his size. And, because of this realization, I can honestly say this particular mathematical symbol definitely speaks my language.

The reality is that this simple prayer is the common default for so many of us because it is something of a tradition. T.S. Eliot once said, though, that “a tradition without intelligence is not worth having”, and the simple truth is that this particular tradition lacks the biblical intelligence to support it. Let me explain the essential problem with our traditional mealtime prayer.

In the New Testament there are actually two words that are used when Jesus prayed over a meal. The first is the Greek word eulogeo, from which we get our English word eulogy. The term means to “speak well of” or “praise”. The word occurs in Mark 6:41 which says, “Taking the five loaves and the two fish he (Jesus) looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people” (ESV).

Note that in the verse it says Jesus “said a blessing” before He broke the bread. In other words, Jesus was speaking well of or praising, but what exactly was He praising? Was Jesus speaking well of the food or of the Father? In the passage it seems obvious (“He looked up to heaven”) that He was not blessing the food but rather acknowledging His Father. Interestingly, the term eulogeo is also translated as “giving thanks”, so Jesus was therefore giving thanks not to the food but to His Father in heaven.

According to Jewish tradition, before every meal the faithful Jewish man or woman would offer this blessing: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the world, who has caused bread to come forth out of the earth.” And, before consuming wine they would offer this similar blessing: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the world, who has created the fruit of the vine.” So, Jesus’ thanksgiving or blessing would likely have been similar to this prayer, which is clearly not directed toward the food but toward the One who provided it.

The second word that was used when Jesus prayed over a meal is the Greek term eucharisteo, from which we get our English word eucharist. The term means to “be thankful” or “offer thanks”, and Jesus used this word at the last supper with his disciples. In Matthew 26:26-27 we read: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks (eulogeo) and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took the cup, gave thanks (eucharisteo) and offered it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you’” (NIV).

The reality is that it was common for Jews to offer a blessing for each food served during a meal, and Jesus was likely offering the traditional blessings with the bread and wine. And notice that Jesus does not, in either passage, bless the food or wine. Rather Jesus, in both accounts, blesses or give thanks to His Father. So, the principle that we can lift from the biblical and historical evidence is that we should pray before our meals, but we should bless the Father when we do, not the food.

So, how did we Christians end up blessing the food instead of our Father anyway? For most of us it is simply a matter of ingrained tradition or habit, and we have never been educated on it or challenged to even think about the issue before. The confusion over this matter actually started with a mistranslation from Matthew 26:26 in the King James Version that unfortunately continues to make its way into many current translations of the Bible today.

In the KJV it reads “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples.” The problem with this translation is that the word “it” is actually not in the Greek manuscript. And, that is why it is italicized in the KJV. It does not say that Jesus blessed “it” anywhere but rather that He simply “blessed” or “gave thanks”. It really is amazing to think that this one tiny addition to the text has twisted the way millions of people pray before their meals into something that Jesus never intended at all.

When Jesus taught us to pray for our food, or anything else for that matter, He taught us to honor the Father first and foremost. His instructions to us in Matt. 6:9 were “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” so what Jesus modeled for us is that when we pray before a meal, it is essential that our prayers of thanks be God-centered rather than self-centered, or perhaps we should say food-centered.