Nick’s Walk

I recently read an article about missionary work in China, written by a Chinese Christian. It was a lesson in sharing the gospel. Before encoutering Christ, the author, Bob Fu,  believed that Christianity was an “opiate of the people’s spirit” that was a tool of Westerners to numb the creativity of the Chinese mind. This attitude is not unlike what we encouter today in our own society. Christianity in America is considered by many okay for the uneducated and disenfranchized, but of no use to the educated and sophisticated. Bob had been approached, unsuccessfully by the “give them a tract and a bible” crowd. He recounts:  “One day I went to the apartment of a teacher who had been in China for more than three years, and I saw him playing the guitar, crying as he sang. He told me he was homesick for his family in California, and I was touched by his openness — such a contrast to the stern, cold teachers I had had before. The kindness and love he and his fellow Christian teachers showed was not to change China, but to offer life-giving truth in an authentic manner. Today’s would-be missionaries to China could […]

“Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”8 Give up everything you have, carry a cross, and hate your family. This sounds a lot different than “Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me.”Platt, David (2010-04-17). Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (pp. 10-11). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition. How often would you attend church if it looked like this? What if you had to walk miles to get there? What if you had to have lookouts to make sure “the government” didn’t know you were meeting? What if services lasted all day? What if attendance meant your family would disown, hate or kill you?Have you ever prayed until your tears pooled on the floor? Have you ever listened to a day long teaching and begged the teacher to come back tomorrow and stay longer? Have you ever had to hide a bible? Have you ever had to find someone who had memorized some book of the bible because you had no written copy. What have you given up to follow Christ? Whose relationship have you lost to have His? Who have you told about Him? How is your life […]

While going to and from church on Sunday I noticed that crews had been clearing tree growth from around power lines. (Notice how I cleverly snuck in the fact that I went to church on Sunday even though I was quite ill on Friday and Saturday. Thus establishing my spiritual superiority. I am so clever I amaze myself). The work of the crews reminded me that hurricane season is approaching and we are overdue having one that severely affects this area. I have to admit that I kind of enjoy hurricanes, not completely but there are positive elements. Storms are evidence of God’s power. I believe storms come from God. He does a much cleaner job of clearing away debris than road crews due. The work I saw on Sunday (when going and coming back from church) left trees looking misshapen and strange. Like a young boy with a bad haircut. God does a much neater job. Storms break our routines. It’s good to be shaken from our routines; no work and no school. We get stuck in our ruts and storms are kind of like snow days up north. Storms gather us together. During storms we usually gather […]

As the end times draw near, it will be tougher to be an effective Christian. We can’t stand alone. There will few enough of us as it is. Those of us determined to finish the race must be united, in our churches, in our communities and in our world.Unity requires Common Purpose, Communication, Competence,  Consistency and Jesus.Common PurposeAll who call themselves Christians are not on the same page. We can’t even agree who are Christians. For this discussion, let us say that unity requires coming together of all Christ’s disciples,  who believe our commission is to make more disciples for Christ. That should be simple enough.CommunicationWe must commit to talking to each other and not about each other. Communication is not just the job of leaders. We must all communicate at every level and between levels. Communication requires honest vulnerability. We have to admit that we are not perfect. That we really don’t like each other that much. But that doesn’t mean we can’t love each other. If we talked a little more with honesty and vulnerability we might find that we’re not as awful as we think. Competence Some of us are awful at our jobs. We need to […]

Now the eleven disciples worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 make disciples of baptizing them the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them I have commanded you. And behold, the end of the age. Matthew 28:16-20 I didn’t do anything yesterday. I had planned to spend the day in Baton Rouge at a Kairos meeting, but didn’t. I had a pretty good excuse. I was sick. But our intentions and our excuses aren’t important. We are defined by what we do, not what we don’t do. I remember a little saying that went something like “We don’t smoke or drink or chew and we don’t go with girls who do.” Sometimes I think we in the church think that’s what defines us: The things we don’t do. When Jesus left us final instructions they did not include a list of “don’t.” But more importantly they didn’t include the things we now believe define us as Christian. He didn’t say to go to church every Sunday or, in fact, to go to church […]

It’s a great thing to find someone who agrees with your position. The older I get the less often I find agreement out there in the world. For years I have had a somewhat contrary view about Mother’s Day. Don’t get me wrong. I love mothers. The mothers in my family have (and are) great mothers. But they are not saints. The fathers in my family have been great too. There are just too few of them. But they aren’t saints either. If you spend much time in church on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. You could conclude that all mothers are saints and all fathers deserve a public whipping. The support I found was in an article “Pastors, Don’t Use Mother’s Day to Bash Dads.” There is a general consensus that the quality of fatherhood is down. I don’t think that’s true. The problem is that there are too few kids being raised by a mom and a dad. They need both. If anything the quality of motherhood is slipping. Face it ladies. Are you as good a mom as your mom or grandmother was? Today moms are under great pressure. They are under pressure to work. Too […]

I got a mailing from the Honda dealer yesterday advising me that they could put me in a new Accord for the same monthly payment I have on my old Accord and without a further down payment. I threw the letter away. I’m not in a market for a new Accord. You and I get pitched for a variety of goods and services everyday. Most of these pitches we ignore because we are not “in the market” for what is being sold.  I have recently come to the realization that telling folks how great my church is is not unlike the pitch from the Honda dealer. The ones who really need what my church can offer aren’t in the market. They don’t perceive that they have a need for what I am selling. They are perfectly happy spending their Sunday mornings reading the newspaper, enoying a lazy breakfast or catching some sun at Starbucks. I’m not impressing them by telling them about our great worship, kid’s programs, or fellowship. Most of them have ipods, pads or iphones and can listen to all the music they want any time they want, while playing a game or catching up on the news. There […]

I had a strange dream last night. I was a child visiting a home with other children in a very poor place. It was the kind of dream that was just a flash, a very small snippet. I must have asked for a glass of water and the children told me there was none, but there was a place “down town” where you could get water. It flowed all the time. The dreamy look on their faces as they told about this place where fresh water always flowed was haunting. We are so blessed we are spoiled. We are so blessed that many of the references of scripture, originally delivered at a poorer time, have lost their power. I think of Jesus describing Himself as “Living Water.” He gave that description to a woman who was drawing water from a well at the hottest time of the day. We learn more about her through the story. We learn she is there because she is a woman of poor reputation. She can’t draw water in the cool of the morning or evening when most of the women of the town are there. She is a woman “with a reputation.” The […]