RCA Bible Class

I talk a whole lot from the pulpit and in my Bible classes about my RCA class and how special the kids are to me.  For those of you who don't know, I have been teaching a Bible class down at Riverside Christian Academy in the mornings for the last 3 1/2 years.  I can't believe the time has just flown by!  It's really a lot of fun!  For the last couple of years I have been teaching Seniors... about to graduate... about to set off on their own.  It's a great time to talk with them about important things that really matter to them and we have a great time doing it.

If you've ever wondered what I do down there... I just thought I'd let you know that I have been posting this semester's curriculum on this blog.  You can look at all of the handouts/ study guides and the syllabus by clicking on the "RCA Class" tab above.  I try to keep this site updated for my students so that they can access the study guides if (and WHEN) they lose the copy I give them in class.  For now, I'm keeping the exams to myself... but if anyone would like a copy of one to take at home, let me know.  I might be able to hook you up... but you'll have to let me grade you on it!

First semester has been a re-cap of the new testament from somewhat of a theological standpoint.  We've looked at Jesus' parables, his miracles, his major teachings and at how he described himself to the people.  We've focused on the church these last few weeks... looking at images of the church, conversion stories in Acts and at the practices that define God's people- baptism & Lord's Supper.  Maybe you'll find it interesting... its been a great semester!  Next semester we're going to turn and focus on "Finding Our Way"... and at the unique way God is preparing each one of us for service in his Kingdom.  I'll be posting that info in the coming weeks!

How to Play the Game of LIFE

Jesus told his followers that he came to bring LIFE... LIFE abundant, LIFE complete, LIFE full and LIFE eternal!  Check out John 10:10 this week... one of my favorite verses in all the Bible.  Life can also, however, be a real bear!  The stuff that this world has to throw at us can really get us down.  It can complicate life.  It can confuse life.  And it can make life hard to bare at times.  Have you ever been knocked down in the "game of life"?  Have other players lapped you around the board?  Have they built more hotels than you and sent you to jail 'without passing go'?  LIFE is the game we are all in and the hard-knocks of life affect every one of us.  Beginning this Sunday we are going to be taking a look at LIFE... at the life the world has to throw at us AND the LIFE that God has come to restore unto us.  It will be a series of lessons in simple and practical Christian living.  How does God call us out of the "rat-race" of living in this world and in to the eternal LIFE of Kingdom living?  That is the question for all of us who call ourselves Christians and struggle to balance the priorities of LIFE in this game we all must play.

religious right RIP??

This is from a friend's blog that I think gets this just right!  Having finished our "Faith & Politics" series, I think this article says what I have been trying to.

Religious Right R.I.P.

Cal Thomas gets it right...

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right. Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.

Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren’t anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts. The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which touched America and instantly transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result), are testimony to that.Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed. The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?

 

I opt for trying something else.

Too many conservative Evangelicals have put too much faith in the power of government to transform culture. The futility inherent in such misplaced faith can be demonstrated by asking these activists a simple question: Does the secular left, when it holds power, persuade conservatives to live by their standards? Of course they do not. Why, then, would conservative Evangelicals expect people who do not share their worldview and view of God to accept their beliefs when they control government?

Too many conservative Evangelicals mistake political power for influence. Politicians who struggle with imposing a moral code on themselves are unlikely to succeed in their attempts to impose it on others. What is the answer, then, for conservative Evangelicals who are rightly concerned about the corrosion of culture, the indifference to the value of human life and the living arrangements of same- and opposite-sex couples?

The answer depends on the response to another question: do conservative Evangelicals want to feel good, or do they want to adopt a strategy that actually produces results? Clearly partisan politics have not achieved their objectives. Do they think they can succeed by committing themselves to 30 more years of the same?

If results are what conservative Evangelicals want, they already have a model. It is contained in the life and commands of Jesus of Nazareth. Suppose millions of conservative Evangelicals engaged in an old and proven type of radical behavior. Suppose they followed the admonition of Jesus to “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows and orphans,” not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government, but as a means of demonstrating God’s love for the whole person in order that people might seek Him?

Such a strategy could be more “transformational” than electing a new president, even the first president of color. But in order to succeed, such a strategy would not be led by charismatic figures, who would raise lots of money, be interviewed on Sunday talk shows, author books and make gobs of money.

Scripture teaches that God’s power (if that is what conservative Evangelicals want and not their puny attempts at grabbing earthly power) is made perfect in weakness. He speaks of the tiny mustard seed, the seemingly worthless widow’s mite, of taking the last place at the table and the humbling of one’s self, the washing of feet and similar acts and attitudes; the still, small voice. How did conservative Evangelicals miss this and instead settle for a lesser power, which in reality is no power at all? When did they settle for an inferior “kingdom”?

Evangelicals are at a junction. They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the One they claim to follow. By following His example, they will decrease, but He will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results. If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.

a post-election funny

Just thought I'd share a good funny on this post-election day. 

My middle son, David, who is six, has been very interested in the campaign and election yesterday.  I made them go to bed last night before many of the returns had started coming in... much to their disappointment.  They all wanted to know who was going to be the next President.  So, when I went in to wake them up this morning the first words out of David's mouth (even before peaking out from under the covers) was, "Who won the election?"  I told him, "Well, son, like I told you last night it looks like its going to be Obama."  He immediately responded... "What was the score?"

"Let us pray..." -Abraham Lincoln

As the civil war loomed and the nation was divided... what did President Lincoln do?  Pass a bailout package?  Blame his political opponents?  Ban the press from interviews?  Use the words "change" and "hope" a lot more?  No... he called the country to get down on its knees and PRAY. 

 

In fact he said, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

 

This is Lincoln's Presidential Proclamation he signed into law in April of 1830.  If only we had leaders with the strength of his convictions today.

 

President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation:

 

A Day Of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer

in the The United States Of America on April 30, 1863

 

  

WHEREAS, the senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and Just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution, required the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation:

 

And whereas, it is the duty of nations as as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:

 

And, in so much as we know that, by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

 

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request , and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

 

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

 

In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

 

Done at the city of Washington this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventy.

 

By the President:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

the issue isn't the issue

I'm just about tired of all the campaign commercials and political advertising.  Okay, I've been tired of it since about MARCH... but alas now we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  With only two weeks left till the general election, the candidates are ratcheting up their rhetoric... but its ALMOST OVER! 

I keep hearing that the candidates should be talking about the issues.  THAT'S what the American people want to hear about.  I'm not sure about everyone else, but I'm kinda sick of hearing about the "issues" myself, because I'm pretty sure that the issues aren't the issue.  Everybody is talking about the problems that face the country... there's the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the global war on terror, the need for better & more affordable healthcare for every American, overwhelming poverty, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.  The list is endless, really.  But I wonder... what's the #1, fundamental problem facing EVERY American?  Sin, isn't it?  Aren't we (as a people) in the shape we're in because of SIN... not just sin in a personal sense, but SIN in an institutional sense.  The truth is, its not just individuals who have "sinned and fallen short" but our entire world is fallen as a result.  SIN has so wreaked havoc in our world that we speak not only of lost souls, but we can speak of a fallen world.  And isn't that why we have the problems that we have... from abortion to the war to the economic failure?

Isn't the fundamental, bottom-line ultimately a spiritual problem?  If so, can we really "fix it" with a political solution?  I don't think so.  So, what is the "fix"?  This Sunday I'm going to pose this question... as we just have two more weeks left till the election, it may be a good time to stop and think... "Just what DO we expect a new President to do?"  Can either one of them really address "the issue" with a viable solution?  Can we?

a prayer for our nation...

Okay, Lord... You Have Our Attention

Our friends lost their house
The co-worker lost her job
The couple next door lost their retirement
It seems that everyone is losing their footing

This scares us. This bailout with billions.
These rumblings of depression.
These headlines: ominous, thunderous-
“Going Broke!” “Going Down!” “Going Under!” “What Next?”

What is next?

We’re listening. And we’re admitting: You were right.

You told us this would happen.
You shot straight about loving stuff and worshipping money.
Greed will break your heart, you warned.
Money will love you and leave you.
Don’t put your hope in riches that are so uncertain.

You were right. Money is a fickle lover and we just got dumped.

We were wrong to spend what we didn’t have,
Wrong to neglect prayer and ignore the poor,
Wrong to think we ever earned a dime. We didn’t. You gave it. And now, tell us Father, are you taking it?

We’re listening. And we’re praying.
Could you make something good out of this mess?

Of course you can. You always have.
You led slaves out of slavery,
Built temples out of ruins,
Turned stormy waves into a glassy pond and water into sweet wine.
This disorder awaits your order. So do we.

Through Christ,
Amen

God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day,
and he will not be slow to answer them. (Lk. 18:7 NCV)