I hate it when this happens—spent nine bucks on a movie and left frustrated. I could be frustrated for free.
It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. We had a free Friday night and impulsively decided to go to a movie. We picked the particular movie in part because it was an Oscar winner.

The plot was fairly simple. The guy’s wife had decided their marriage was hopeless and had given up on him. Not willing to let her go, he decided in hope against hope that he could win her back, and he set out to do it.

While trying to get his life in order, he met a young woman who helped him. She prodded him, pushed him, picked him up when he got discouraged, and coached him through the roller coaster ride of self-rehabilitation toward winning his wife’s affections once again.

His plan was working, and in time there was a meeting with his wife where she could see the new and improved version, and he caught her eye. But just at the moment it looked like his dream might come true, he turned from her to go with the other woman. And the theater audience cheered.

The crowd left the theater laughing and talking. We sat quietly, reflecting. Didn’t it bother these people they were cheering adultery? These are people from my town. Are we the only two people here who think it’s a bad idea to present something immoral as the route to happiness?

Do you at times feel like you’re part of a shrinking minority, on a different track from where most people are
headed? Does it seem like the culture is moving farther away from Biblical values?

There can be a temptation to dig in our heels and not let “them” steal something from “us.” Last week The Cincinnati Enquirer carried a news story about churches not renewing charters of Boy Scout troops because the national organization decided to start admitting openly gay scouts next January. Isn’t cancelling troop charters backwards? Wouldn’t we want to encourage Christian kids to associate with gays? Wouldn’t we invite gay kids to our church youth groups? Why not our scout troops?

Or it could be easy to give in and give up out of discouragement. But we read the last chapter of The Book and know how the story ends—we serve a mighty God.

There was a time when our cultural norms were largely shaped by Biblical values. It’s not that everybody did the right thing, but there was a consensus on what the right thing was. Those days have passed.

Christians won’t do much good by clinging to the remnants of a bygone era. The first century church was a tiny minority of the Roman Empire but it did rather well. If we’ll embrace minority status and live as salt and yeast, great things will happen again in our day.

One thing is sure—prayer is always in order. Steve Sjogren said, “Until we pray for the lost, we’ll likely be irritated by them.”

Give a great week,
Dick

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In the elders’ meeting last week we were preparing to pray. This particular prayer time was for God to work in supernatural ways through His church. It’s possible for churches to plan well and work hard to serve God, but to unintentionally be trying to build God’s church with human effort. When the life of the Holy Spirit isn’t empowering the church, it’s little more than a good Rotary Club.

To sharpen our thinking about God’s power, we read from the book of Job. Remember the story? Job was deeply afflicted—he’d lost his children, his livestock, his house. He’d been stripped of almost everything valuable to him—everything but his prickly wife.

Job’s “friends,” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to encourage him. Their words were more rebuke than inspiration. Then a young friend, Eliphaz, preached at length at the anguished Job.

Finally, God had enough with the babbling and He spoke out of a storm, recorded in Job 38. As we read that scripture aloud in the elders’ meeting, we heard God’s words asking the wise guys around Job what they knew about creation. Were they around when the world was made? Did they help measure off the universe? Did they help draw the boundaries of the seas?

Then as one of the elders read the words, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?” a ripple of laughter rolled over the room.

Have we given orders to the morning? Of course not! That’s preposterous.

Later when the words, “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with water?” were read, there was an audible chuckle.

Step by step, God walked the know-it-alls of Job’s day through His creative work. In the end, Job replied, “I know you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Having read those words and being reminded of God’s greatness and our limitations, we were ready to pray.

It could serve all of us well to read Job 38-42 every morning! Our days might go better.

When we are confronted with God’s true awesomeness and our limitations, the massive gap is laughable. Yet we persist in pride. And we get upset with God when He doesn’t do it our way, on our time schedule. Do you think He laughs at us?

Do you think God laughs when we’re too big for our boots? Does He smile when we’re lashing out at Him in the anger of disbelief?

Thankfully God is secure enough to not get His feelings hurt when we act like spiritual junior highers. But I don’t remember junior high as being fun. If we can just keep in mind that He’s great and we’re not, and that He leads and we follow, this could be a pretty good week!

Blessings,
Dick

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Is there a worse word than “hopeless”? When hope is lacking, there’s no reason to go on. But with hope for a better future, the battle can be won! Faith is inherently hopeful! These messages will make hope real and personal:

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It’s commonplace these days to see tucked into a news story a line like, “The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.” A quick Google search for the phrase “on condition of anonymity” turned up 3.5 million hits.

So is news reporting these days the art of finding somebody who will leak information they shouldn’t be talking about? Does the public’s desire to have the scoop now justify someone compromising their integrity?

Former Cincinnati radio icon Gary Burbank mocked his own industry saying, “Your right to know supersedes your right to exist.” And that was before 24/7 news.

Because we can know, should we? Because technology allows information to go global almost instantaneously, should we assume we need that information? And why does this question matter?

Obviously, information is both helpful and important. We all like to know the weather forecast to know whether we need an umbrella. On a larger scale, even a quick look at Nazi history affirms the value of a free press.

But knowledge is power. Or at least it feels like it. So in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, why did media outlets play and replay every detail? And why would people watch hours of repetitious coverage?

Was the interest an effort to try to make sense of something otherwise seeming senseless? If so, is this in part seeking an alternative to faith? Is it an effort to find an alternative to a simple Biblical explanation that it’s ultimately the result of sin—human beings prompted to evil by the one Scripture calls the destroyer?

Our minds are a gift from God. Intelligence is part of being made in God’s image. But it was the idea that human beings should know everything that led two people in a garden into an experiment we’ve paid for ever since.

Knowledge gives a perception of control. There’s a modern illusion that given time, study, and hard work, humanity can understand and fix anything, apart from God. Paul wrote, “ . . . knowledge makes us feel important . . .” 1 Corinthians 8:1 (New Living Translation).

So what do we need to know?
—Last Friday, cable news carried real-time live feeds of tornadoes descending on Oklahoma. Should I find watching and waiting for people to be injured or property destroyed a good thing? Is this helpful or voyeuristic?
—Do I need the news to tell the name of a teenager (a minor) who shot himself in front of classmates?
—“Helicopter parents” blow up their kids’ cell phones with calls and texts in order to stay on top of their kids’ lives. Does that really help the kids? Or the parents?

Often, increased knowledge only increases anxiety. Ignorance isn’t bliss—it’s ignorance. The right knowledge at the right time is useful. But knowledge can become an idol. It’s not our security, and it makes a weak god.

Give a great week,
Dick

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It was Sunday morning at the Free Church of Bremen, Germany. Free Church is a Pentecostal church and it was Pentecost Sunday, so this was bound to be good.

We were on our way to Oldenburg, Germany to visit the town from which Betty Oldenburg Alexander’s grandfather emigrated to the U.S. in the latter part of the 19th century. Betty has followed me to various parts of the world, so I was following her to explore the fatherland.

On the way, we visited some friends. That morning at Free Church we were seated next to Ukrainian friends Vlad, Tanya, and Masha Devakov who now live in Germany. During the meet-and-greet-time, they introduced us to a Dutch couple seated in front of us.

The Pentecost celebration brought together four churches, including a Russian congregation. The German and Russian governments have had their differences over the last century, but it didn’t inhibit the Christians from those nations from worshiping together.

The announcement time was primarily a promotion for a mission trip the church is sponsoring to South Africa. Slides from a previous trip made the experience look fun, inspirational, and meaningful.

And the morning message was by a preacher from India. It was delivered in English, and translated into German.

During an extended worship time people clapped, some raised hands, many swayed with the music—a bit unexpected. After all, these are Germans. There’s a picture of how the stars would be arranged if created by Germans—in straight lines in the sky. But worship wasn’t engineered at Bavarian Motor Works—it came from the Spirit.

Bremen is to Germany what Seattle is to America—cool, overcast and rainy. But that certainly didn’t characterize the morning at Free Church of Bremen. A visitor didn’t have to understand the language to catch the Spirit there. It seemed God was smiling on this international festival of praise.

When the apostle John wrote of heaven, he said people of every tongue and tribe and nation would come before the throne of God to worship. Since it will be that way in heaven, it is reasonable to believe God is pleased when it happens now on earth.

It’s not enough for walls to be broken down in heaven, or in a few churches. It’s God’s intent for that to be the norm.

In Cincinnati that means black, white, Jew, Hispanic, poor, wealthy—all these and more—worshiping, serving, and doing life together. This happens when people are open to God’s Spirit and willing to build bridges and walk across them.

This week as you pray and intentionally connect across social barriers, God will be smiling.

Give a great week,
Dick

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