An unholy trinity

May 7th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) The April 2008 issue of Biblical Archaelogy Review has a cover story entitled “Did God Share His Throne?” It presents archaelogical evidence for the co-worship of the true God and of Asherah, the Canaanite mother goddess, in “popular” ancient Israeli culture. While this is shocking and tragic, I believe many who bear the name of Christ have similarly defiled our worship.

We don’t have house shrines with twin thrones for Yahweh and Asherah, as pictured in the magazine, but, if I am typical, we make sacrifices for and try to balance an unholy trinity of the true God, comfort and the approval of others.

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3 ESV)

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. (Hosea 11:1-3 ESV)

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feeling out of control?

April 15th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) So the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  Ever wonder why self-control is last? I have this theory that, while they certainly overlap and we’re never perfected in love, that, to a certain extent, the order is chronological. Self-control: food, thoughts, temper, anxiety, wasting time at work (it’s a church blog…oops!), wanting a good thing but wanting it NOW… self-control.  The funny thing is that, while we have cultural language for requesting prayer for the sick or grieved and for wishing God’s blessings on one another, there’s no everyday language for progress in sanctification. “Please pray for Uncle George, he has the flu”, sure. ”May God bless your new marriage,” of course. ”I lost weight because the Holy Spirit’s increasing my self control,” huh? You just don’t hear that one. How about, “I’m no longer chewing my fingernails because God’s given me peace”? Or even, “I’ve stopped yelling at my son by the power that raised Jesus from the dead”? Well, it could happen, He’s a big God.  And I can’t help but think that Christians and a church manifesting the fruit of the Spirit bring glory to Christ. And isn’t that the whole point?

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Red Hot Monogamy

April 14th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) Imagine for a moment a culture where the men commonly wear clothing that is so low cut and/or tight that the men are often evaluated on the basis of their physical endowment. Sound scandalous? Too shocking for a church blog? Why then is it not shocking in our culture for even Christian women to routinely show cleavage and curves and be judged for them? Want a real challenge? Go shopping for a teen girl and try to find clothing that is both reasonably fashionable and reasonably modest. And if you find it, please let me know where!

 I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, I realize there are some men’s clothes cut to be revealing and/or tight. But, it is not a cultural norm like teens’ and women’s clothes. It is still considered shocking.

I was watching TV the other night and a Victoria’s Secret commercial suddenly came on with a woman wearing next to nothing. It advertised a push up bra on a woman who obviously needed no pushing up. Do men realize how demoralizing this porn culture is to us? On the other hand, I feel for my Christian brothers who can’t escape seeing scantily clad women everywhere they go. It’s amazing there aren’t more collisions due to men either ogling or working to avoid ogling.

The Bible is clear, the human body is beautiful and to be enjoyed within marriage: “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. A lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.” (Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV)

Sound too good to be true? Here’s the key: “Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.” (Proverbs 5:15-18 ESV)

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meditation on Easter Saturday

April 11th, 2009 Tim

They cast lots for Jesus’ clothing while He was dying on the cross. The maker of the universe was willingly expiring to save them from their sins and the only worth they saw in him was his seamless garment.

We’re glad for the Good Friday holiday from work but don’t bother going to a worship service to learn what it’s all about.

We buy our Easter dresses and Easter eggs and get photos with the Easter bunny but refuse to celebrate the one who rose from the dead. We’re too busy baking our Easter ham and setting our Easter table.

Or we do go to Easter service but mostly to check it off our list and show off our new shoes. We scoff at those who think the resurrection has anything to do with day to day life.

They cast lots for his clothes while he was dying for them.

If “God is dead” it is only because He chose to die for us. Only sinful arrogance could think otherwise. He is risen, He is risen indeed and one day all flesh will look on the one they have pierced and mourn.

They cast lots for his clothes while he was dying for them. God help us all. (Nancy)

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Tub or beyond?

April 6th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) The current CrossPoint life lesson series is called Beyond the Tub. It’s a call to extend ourselves beyond our comfort zones (”the tub”), for the cause of Christ. What’s your story?: life in the tub, life beyond the tub or somewhere in between?

This series is particularly timely for my family. My husband, Tim, mentioned some of the reasons when he gave the life lesson on March 22nd at the Seven Lakes campus. For me personally, one of the areas God seems to be calling me to risk considering life outside my comfort zone is exploring the possibility of making “home building” my full time vocation. Wow: “seems”, “risk”, “considering”, “exploring”, “possibility”, those are a lot of qualifying words! On the one hand, our kids are 13 and nearly 11 years old, seems like a weird time for mom to consider coming home. On the other hand, I can’t get a certain phrase out of my head. Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church did a sermon series on the book of Proverbs a few years ago. In one of the sermons, “Women as Home Builders”, Driscoll discusses the important and Biblical role of women to build a home where one’s husband, children and neighbors are ministered to. He mentions many areas of home building including finance, instruction, nutrition, aesthetics, hospitality, fellowship, and evangelism. He makes a great case for it being a crucial Kingdom ministry: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/proverbs/women-as-homebuilders. The phrase I mentioned is regarding women going “back to work” after their children are grown “to do something of real significance”. He does not think this is sinful but invites women to consider the eternal significance of ministering to unchurched neighbors and/or to younger Christian women, the latter  in a “Titus 2″ fashion.  He reminds women that millions of dollars, generations of legacy and, potentially, scores of people who don’t know Christ are in the hands of Christian women who make home building their primary vocation.

When I think about this possibility of going beyond my safe tub, I am both excited, a little fearful, and woefully untrained. It wasn’t that my Mom did a bad job, she was and is a great mom; it was more that I wasn’t really interested. I could live in that childhood regret or live in the regret of things I could have done differently when my children were little OR I could prayerfully seek the Lord’s guidance in going beyond the tub.

As we have heard in the life lessons and read in the Beyond the Tub book, there are many stories of what God has done and is doing through CrossPoint and there are many more stories and generations to come. I invite you to seek life beyond the tub.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (New International Version): ²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

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The view from the box office

April 2nd, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) There’s a scene in The Sound of Music where the 15 year old daughter sneaks back in to her house through the window of her new governess (live-in nanny). She’s soaking wet and is caught but then assisted, comforted and counseled by the governess (played by Julie Andrews) and she realizes that, contrary to what she had previously said, she really did still need a governess. For those who don’t know the story, Julie Andrews’ character, Maria, was the latest in a long line of women sent to care for the seven children of a sea captain whose beloved wife had died. In his grief he had pushed away everything of love and beauty, including his children. Maria and Captain Von Trapp later “fall in love” and marry. It’s based on a true story that happened during World War II.  It’s one of my mom’s favorite movies.

Another “love story” of that time period is Dr. Zhivago, in which the doctor “falls in love” with a young woman and leaves his wife and children on a cold farm in Russia to have an “affair” with Lara. The difference is that The Sound of Music elevates the importance of mothers, wives and home building while Dr. Zhivago elevates “love” (read “lust”) as more important than commitment.

Point of view is so important in movies: we are trained to root for the “hero”, often at the expense of virtue. One of my favorite movies is The Princess Bride and another is Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one, please!). Still, I realize that piracy is elevated as a virtue in both movies. If the first movie had been told from the point of view of one of the widows of a murder victim of Wesley as the Dread Pirate Roberts or the second movie from the point of view of the family of a soldier in the Royal Navy who died fighting the pirates, the stories would be very different. I don’t remember if a name was even given to the wife of Dr. Zhivago but Lara’s Theme plays on music boxes around the world.

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How’m I doin’?

March 25th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) Is it just me or do you, consciously or subconsciously, ask yourself “how am I doing?” nearly constantly?

About a year ago my home team did a short study on the book of Philippians: Running the Race. In the discussion questions of the first week there was a choice about our primary concern. One of the choices was something like “am I doing OK? Is anything I’m doing making a difference?” That really resonated with me. The corollary of that is the “fear of man”, choosing and acting based on how others would react.

In contrast to that is Jesus’ life. Especially in the book of John, he repeatedly says he does only what the Father tells him to do and says what the Father tells him to say.  In the book of Acts [Acts 4:19], Peter and John respond to the officials who tell them to quit preaching in the name of Jesus with something like “you tell me which is right, to obey God or you?”

I recently finished Keller’s The Reason for God. Many parts of it made an impression on me but the biggest was about the knowledge of God. I think it was chapter 2. Basically his point is that, deep down, everyone knows that there is a God, based on the fact that everyone accepts that there is a moral code that is not based just on what is beneficial for oneself or even one’s country. Everyone knows and behaves as if there are things that are objectively right or wrong. 

I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I have, in one sense or another, for over 30 years. But still, somewhere in my sub sub consciousness there was something of a belief that “this is really true for me but I’m not sure about all the other 5 billion people in the world.” Keller really broke through that. There is a God, He created the world, He created people in his image, he demands moral perfection, we all messed up and deserve condemnation. God, in unspeakably amazing love sent His own Son to become human, to take responsibility for all our moral failures and to reconcile us to God. That is the gospel, the good news. And it is true for me and you and the other 5 (is it 6 now?) billion people in the world. Jesus is the only way to the Father. No attempt at making ourselves morally, intellectually, or spiritually right works. [That discussion is fleshed out in the first two chapters of Sprituality of the Cross by Gene Veith.] As Keller says, any one who does not believe based on not feeling the need for God is “betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn’t feel the need for him. ”

As the Bible says, “what will become of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17, 2 Thessalonians 1:8)

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Freedom and Constraint

March 17th, 2009 Tim

Pastor Dan recently lent The Reason for God by Tim Keller to my husband Tim.  It’s very appropriate for the current life lesson series on doubt. I’m only in chapter three but it answers questions like “how can there be just one true religion?”, “how could a good God allow suffering?”, “isn’t Christianity a straitjacket from freedom?”, “hasn’t science disproved Christianity?” and more. There are people very close to me who say they do not believe based on some of these questions. But the main reason they express for not believing in Christ is clearly stated in Keller’s introduction:

“I have no beliefs about God one way or another. I simply feel no need for God and I am not interested in thinking about it.” But hidden beneath this feeling is the very modern American belief that the existence of God is a matter of indifference unless it intersects with my emotional needs. The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn’t feel the need for him. That may be true or it may not be true, but, again, it is quite a leap of faith.”

I believe that Christianity is the only truly consistent belief system. Judaism and Islam teach that Jesus was a great teacher but ignore that he said that he is “the way, the truth, and the life” and “the only way to the Father.” Atheistic evolution says that we are all here due to accidents unguided by any intelligent outside force. The “god” of evolution is survival of the fittest. Millions profess to belive this yet inconsistently root for the underdog, contribute to charities to cure diseases and complain about evil in the world.

Keller concludes chapter three, “Christianity is a Straitjacket”, with “at first sight, then, a relationship with God seems inherently dehumanizing, surely it will have to be “one way,” God’s way. God, the divine being, has all the power. I must adjust to God–there is no way that God could adjust to and serve me. While this may be true in other forms of religion and belief in God, it is not true in Christianity. In the most radical way, God has adjusted to us–in his incarnation and atonement”…”If he has done this for us, we can and should say the same to God and others. St. Paul writes, “the love of Christ constrains us” (2 Corinthians 5:14)”….”Once you realize how Jesus changed for you and gave himself for you, you aren’t afraid of giving up your freedom and therefore finding your freedom in him.”

Two days ago I watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic which I actually really liked. It was fun and had a good message without beating you over the head with it. The main character acknowledges sin in a realistic and refreshingly honest way: When her secret shame was revealed she said “I shop because when I do, the world gets better. And then it isn’t anymore. And I have to do it again.” That hit a cord for me in the area of emotional eating. There is a verse I love that speaks to freedom within constraint. It is John 4:34 which in the English Standard Version says “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Finding sustenance in doing the will of God sounds like true freedom to me. (Nancy)

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Why ask why?

March 12th, 2009 Tim

(Nancy) The main point I saw in the life lesson Pastor Dan preached this past Sunday at CrossPoint SevenLakes was to leave the “why” with God and focus on the “what” of whatever situations and relationships God has placed us. A Scripture he shared has stayed with me all week:

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29 NIV)

I once heard that we should “walk in the light that we have” before expecting God to give us more and more light.

This morning I came across:

[Jesus said] “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:20b-24 NIV)

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Some call him Tim

March 8th, 2009 Tim

(by Nancy) What do you say about a man you meet under a moose? Someone who freely quotes Monty Pythons’ Holy Grail and Life of Brian (and no, I don’t approve of the latter movie’s ending)? A husband who grocery shops and cooks. Who regularly embarrasses his 13 year-old daughter on the way to Shift at CrossPoint SevenLakes with “success!” (She might slap him if he said the Klingon translation “Kupla!”).  He spent Labor Day weekend building a coop for her quail (but facetiously complains about those “noisy dawgs”).  When our HomeTeam had a birthday party for my 43rd, he put 19 candles on the cake because that’s how old I was when we met (under the taxidermied moose)…and everybody said “aww!” He brews his own beer (he makes a mean porter and IPA!) and taught our son how to fish. Right now Tim’s helping him pick music for his elementary school talent show audition.

This June will mark 25 years since we met and 20 years of marriage. We’ve been through ups and downs but he’s still my favorite person to spend time with and the main one who can make me laugh. I think it’s fitting that February 8th we participated in “officiating” vow renewals for other couples and then renewed our own vows with the Chessers leading us. Tim summed up that morning by saying “that’s the most fun I’ve ever had in church.”

A couple of years ago he picked out our adopted dog online from http://www.cap4pets.org/ : a part staffordshire terrier, part greyhound with handsome brindle markings. She’s protective, affectionate, energetic, fun-loving and a little quirky. They have a lot in common.

When he proposed marriage I threw him by responding “I think so!” but he married me anyway. I knew I’d been greatly blessed when he took care of me in the hospital for a week during our engagement (when I was sick with a viral illness). Someone who sticks by you while you’re throwing up and getting an IV put in is a definite keeper. He has taught me what it means to be loved.

When we married he was 27 and quite self-sufficient. One of my top regrets in life is that, one of the few times he really needed me, after his dad died, I wasn’t really there for him. He has taught me what it means to be forgiven.

Occasionally he’ll laugh so hard during his dreams that he’ll wake both of us up laughing. During and after high school he worked nights as a janitor to raise money to go to college, worked as a radio DJ during and after college, waited tables in a German restaurant (lederhosen and all) to live near me in Austin while I finished at UT, was a radio ad copywriter and producer, had a brief stint as a secretary (when the rest of the radio station staff was laid off, about a week after our honeymoon), became a small-town TV news producer, then went back to school to become a teacher. Except for brief stints as a telemarketer and financial planner, he’s taught high school English and Journalism for 17 years.

During a recent trial I wrote that my only two anchors were Tim and Jesus. Certainly I have no guarantee that we will grow old together but, if God allows, that is my wish.  This morning Nathan Huse led us in Matt Redman’s “Nothing But the Blood” and this line really stuck with me: “Your blood speaks a better word than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth”.  Jesus is certainly my greatest treasure but, after Christ and His forgiveness, Tim and our children are God’s greatest gifts to me, much greater than “all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth.”

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