The Story Behind "Amazing Grace"

My Final Farewell

This is my final farewell to you all.  I've enjoyed sharing life and ministry with you and look forward to see you all again in Heaven.  I wish I could stay, but who am I to resist the clear call of God.  I heard the call of God though the voice of a man named Harold Camping.  Brother Camping has proclaimed with authority that the end of the world is soon upon us, May 21st to be exact (that's tomorrow).  In other words, like many of you, I've been called to Heaven and the train leaves Saturday.  I wish it were not true, but who am I to question an obvious man of God?

Sure, he predicted the return of Christ before (September 6, 1994), but unfortunately there was some kind of mixed signals between Brother Camping and the Ancient of Days, no doubt by fault of the Latter.  But all that has been ironed out, and now we have the correct rapture date. 

Unless of course, Brother Camping's prediction is wrong again, by no fault of his own of course.  Maybe I should go ahead and prepare a sermon for Sunday, just in case.  Chance favors the prepared mind, right? 

By now you may be laughing, or at least smiling, or maybe just smirking.  Or maybe you're a bit saddened.  Because what is the chance that many will be duped by another false prophet with more false predictions?  Sadly, the chances are pretty good, as there are not as many prepared minds as one might hope.  Jesus said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

Not everyone who claims to speak for God actually does.

"A Freakin" Leopard

Not long ago I spent some time reading about the Landmark movement of the late 1800's.  This movement emerged out of bitter competition between Christian denominations for the soul of the frontier.  Each denomination was claiming to be superior to the other, and the beloved Baptists were no different.  As a result, men of faith began bringing their desire for superiority to scripture, rather than letting the scripture speak for itself.

It's nothing new for a person to feel so passionate about something that they come to the scripture looking for a way to justify their so-called convictions.  However, this is biblical interpretation run backwards.  We are not to impose our thoughts onto the sacred text, but rather let us hear the thoughts of God in the text so that we may think them as well.

My son illustrated this as he read one of his animal books.  He came to the words "African Leopard."  Rather than read the words accurately as they appeared on the page, he brought something unique to the text; something that was already in his thoughts, something no doubt derived from his first grade culture.  Therefore,  instead of reading the words as "African Leopard," he read "A freakin' Leopard." 

Let us not be so careless as we read and interpret God's Word.  

Rock Bottom

The phrase "Rock Bottom" is often used to describe the lowest emotional and spiritual point in a person's life.  It has often been said that when a person is addicted to a substance they must hit rock-bottom before they can begin to recover.  Whether this is actually true or not (and I doubt it is) rock-bottom is a dangerous place to be.  For rock-bottom has been the scene of many desperate acts, including suicide.

So how does one arrive at this dark night of the soul?  In a word, choices.  A person's life is the sum total of the choices made.  If these choices are based on sound moral judgments of right and wrong, rock-bottom may be somewhat avoided, for a time.  Yet, if these choices tend to cast off moral restraint, rock-bottom may come more quickly. 

So what makes rock-bottom so bottomish?  The person at rock-bottom sees for the first time that they have been deceived.  They thought the choices they were making would lead to happiness and fulfillment, but now they realize they played the fool, and the shame of being so personally responsible for where they are is more than they can bear. 

Maybe your rock-bottom experience came from the choice to use drugs, or to have pre-marital sex, or to embrace selfishness, or any number of other choices.  Or maybe your rock-bottom is just realizing that every choice you make, good or bad, seems incapable of bringing any real joy or lasting fulfillment.  This sounds a lot like the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:14, "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind."

So what choices do you have a rock-bottom?  Its often here that a person begins to think seriously about God and faith.  I suspect that's why God the Son (Jesus) spent so much time ministering to people who were at the bottom.  People like prostitutes and thieves, out and out sinners.  But what I find so comforting is that even though God is personally offended by sin, Jesus never condemned a sinner who was humble enough to look up from the bottom and see that God had provided a Savior.

So what does this Savior offer for those at rock-bottom?  In a word, freedom.  The first step to being free from the guilt of your choices is recognizing that even though your sin has caused pain and grief for you and those around you, that God still loves you.  He loves you enough to come and take your guilt and its consequences upon Himself when he died on a cross.  He then was buried and raised back to life. 

The choice to make is one of faith.  Faith will allow you to turn away from a life of sinful choices and have Christ's death, burial and resurrection attributed to you.  The Bible says in Romans 6:3-4, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

In other words, you can die now and in eternity because of your sin, or you can accept by faith that God died in your place so that you could live now and in eternity.  You can have all your sinful choices forgiven by God, be lifted up from rock-bottom, and begin living a new life free from guilt, full of joy, and guided by Christ.

Who am I, and does it matter?

I remember watching the movie "Big" where Tom Hanks plays a boy magically transformed into an adult.  At the end of the movie he asks the leading lady if she would like to go with him to be a kid again.  She declined as she alluded to the fact that adolescense was hard enough the first time.  I can certainly relate.

I remember how high school contained groups of kids with various characteristics.  There were the computer guys who were immersed in the rise of technology.  There were the athletes who were born with excessive amounts of coordination.  There were the socially awkward who struggled to fit in anywhere.  There were the glamourous who had more hair than genuine self confidence.  And of course there were the power drinkers and druggies who were likely struggling to cope with some pain or disappointment. 

And this is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it seems obvious the teenage years are where one begins to search for an identity.  Who am I?  Where do I fit in?  These become the almost subconscious questions that drive so much of teenage behavior.  For some, an indentity comes easily as they are inclined in one direction or another because of solid raising or natural ability.  Yet for others, figuring out who they are is a bit more trying for several different reasons.

Whenever God told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses responded with the question, "Who am I?"  What is interesting is that instead of answering Moses question directly, God told him, "I will certainly be with you."  It seems implied that Moses' identity need not be his main concern as he is redirected to an aspect of God's identity.

In the last few decades we've heard a lot about self-esteem, being the estimation of self.  People either have a high self-esteem, low self-esteem, good self-esteem, or poor self-esteem.  It appears that God presented Moses with the revolutionary idea of no self-esteem, no estimation of self.

So do some people struggle because of a poor self-esteem?  Certainly.  But the key is not to have a higher estimation of yourself, but to stop focusing on yourself altogether.  So stop searching for your identity and begin focusing on God and His identity.  This is one of the big things Jesus did for us when he came.  He revealed God's identity.

In John 14:9 Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."    

Looking for your own identity?  Try discovering God's identity in the Person of Christ in whom we live, move, and have our being.

Real Men

I like knives, guns and action movies.  Am I not a real man?  I like chrome, horsepower and racing stripes.  Does that make me a real man?  I like my own opinion, things the way they are, and feeling superior to others.  Surely this makes me a real man.

By observing many men today, it would appear that all it takes to be a real man is to just do what comes naturally.  Things like drinking lots of beer, neglecting loving wives, and by reminding ungrateful kids at every commercial just how hard they work.  Things like weekly fishing trips, ridiculous purchases, and emotional shallowness.  Things like being too proud to admit being wrong, too insecure to accept correction, and too easily distracted by things that are just not important.

One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 27:17 "Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another." 

From what I've read, the best way to sharpen a knife is to use steel.  When using a mere stone, the blade can become rough and out of line.  But by using a sharpening steel, the blade will be smoothed out, leaving a nice straight edge.

The same way a sharpening steel will straighten out a blade's edge, a good man can straighten out another good man.  But the truth is most men don't like being challenged by other men.  As a result, they never acquire a sharper, straighter edge; therefore they are less effective, less useful, less equipped for that which they were created.

Might I submit to you that a real man is one who recognizes the value of being challenged by other men, recognizes the value of having his edge straightened out, and recognizes that a real man is one who is continually forged in the crucible of steel-on-steel training and honing and straightening.  A real man recognizes the value of other men, and rather than avoiding their challenge, he welcomes it.

Discussing Religion and Politics

The old cliche says never discuss religion or politics.  Are these two topics somehow cursed by a mysterious gypsy woman, causing all who engage in dialogue regarding these said topics to become indignant and even enraged?  Perhaps aliens from outer space have secretly planted chips at the base of our skulls causing us to automatically become infuriated anytime someone challenges us to think differently about said topics.  Or better yet, maybe we have all fallen victim to secret mind control experiments conducted by our government, and anytime religion or politics are mentioned subconscious triggers are activated causing us to block out any new ideas or perspectives.

Well, as entertaining as those possibilities are, I would like to submit that maybe we are just lousy at discussing.  Often we are too emotionally attached to our own perspective that we are rendered completely unable to reason through points and counterpoints with any degree of humble, rational, logical, serious consideration; much less yield to the more reasonable idea.  As a result, we acquire no better understanding, no deeper knowledge, no personal growth.

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord...