Nick’s Walk

I had another weird dream last night. I was part of a contingent of American soldiers holding down a building under assault from a great number of Germans. We were out manned and out of ammunition. The question was whether or not to surrender. I awoke before having to make the fatal decision. I wish I could figure out where that dream came from.  As Christians,  we are at war. Jesus talked about it often. We have more challenges than whether to surrender or fight on. For us, everything is different, including what constitutes victory or defeat and who determines the outcome. If you look at church prayer lists, we fight principally on two fronts: health and finances. As to health, you would think we believe we should live forever. To succumb to disease or injury seems the most horrible thing in the world. It’s as if we had no idea, much less appreciation, of a forever life. Our bodies are designed so that health is always a diminishing asset. We have a responsibility to take good care of these temples, but it’s because we need to be useful in the work of God and not eternal residents of them. […]

I am amazed by what’s happening in my yard this summer. I can almost watch the grass grow. I have weeds higher than my knees. It’s just too hot and wet to get out there and tackle the problem.  Back in the spring, I had glorious ideas about a summer garden. I planted seeds in seeding containers. I reconstructed my raised beds and filled them with garden soil. By the time my seedlings were ready to transplant, it had gotten too hot to do it. All I have are very fertile and empty raised beds. The workings of nature are a dramatic lesson. Jesus often used seeds, plantings, and harvests as illustrations in His teachings. We reap what we sow. The time for planting is limited and critical. We want to seed in the spiritual and not in the natural. One day we will have to explain our plantings and take a hard look at our harvests. I marvel at how limited our time is to seed in the lives of others. My children have long grown and gone. My grandkids are not far behind. My great grands are growing fast and my chances to affect them are minimal.  […]

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Lamentations 3:22-23 We like things that are new, new cars, new clothes, new restaurants. Everyone, old and young, gets a thrill from something new. Following Jesus is all about newness, but we don’t usually think of it that way. It’s generally considered to be old and old-fashioned. As followers, we are contemporary – the latest thing. It’s worldliness and sin that’s passe’ and old-fashioned. The world is really tired of sin. It’s old hat; they just don’t always recognize that.  The world is caught in a routine. We followers awake each morning with new perspective, opportunity, and challenge. The world is drug down by its history. We awake with eyes forward unleashed from a world that’s not our home and tied to a new heaven and a new earth.  Consider what “newness” means: We are forward-looking. The past is behind. What was bad is forgiven. What was good is credited to our Lord. The future is a path […]

If the local church is going to survive, it needs to up its game on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings used to be “church.” Not so much any more. Most couples work Monday through Fridays and take care of chores or kids sports activities on Saturday. On Sunday they are tired and just want to “chill.”  Even traditional church goers are falling away from Sunday mornings at church. There is just too much competition. The center piece for most Sunday morning church services is the sermon. I can get better sermons that directly address issues or questions I have on TV or online. There I’ve said it. The local pastor is competing with more talented better educated, more experienced teachers who are supported by staffs with vast technical and research resources. The local guy has to try to reach his regulars and any visitors with a one-fits-all message that he hammers together between pastoring duties during the week. The internet and tv guys can present very pointed, well researched and media backed messages. Lots of folks don’t even know what the Sunday message at their church is going to be and after a while they all tend to sound the […]

I read a thought-provoking article this week, “The Ridiculous Emphasis Christians Place on the Bible.” Take a deep breath before grabbing the torches and pitchforks. I think the article was intentionally provocative, but made some good points:     We didn’t have the New Testament in its complete form until 367 A.D., when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria listed all 27 books of the New Testament for the first time. That’s over 300 years of a church without a bible. A period in which the church took over the known world. 100 years after Jesus left, some churches had copies of the collected letters of Paul and a gospel or two, but that’s it. Many had collections with books of debated authenticity that were later ferreted out. No-one owned their own copy of the Bible for personal “Bible study” unless they were wealthy enough to pay the real cost to have it transcribed (see Luke 1:3-4). With the high rate of illiteracy, having a personal copy of the Bible would have been useless anyway. Most Christians wouldn’t have been able to read it. The period of the church’s greatest growth and expansion (33–mid 300’s A.D.) occurred during the time when there wasn’t (1) […]

There seems to be a lot of confusion about “sin” these days. You would expect that out in “the world” but there seems to be just as much confusion in the church. What’s that all about? What is sin? I have heard it said that sin is “missing the mark.” I guess that’s pretty good. I like to think of it as doing something that hurts yourself or others or failing to do something that helps yourself or others. I don’t think God just made up an arbitrary list of do’s and don’ts just to test us. I think He loves us and knows what is best for us. It seems even in “modern” times we are learning that a lot of the seemingly arbitrary rules of the old testament, like rules about food, are pretty good nutrition advice.  Sadly, I have learned that we don’t always know what’s good for us. Some folks just stick with the do’s and don’ts as recorded in scripture. That would seem to be pretty wise, but we seem to think that “times change” and that, therefore, the rules change. Most people I know aren’t smarter than God and it seems to me what […]

Not a great fan of Father’s Day. It seems wrong to guilt kids into honoring their fathers on a certain day each year. They either appreciate their dad or they don’t. The older we get the greater our appreciation. My own dad died several years ago. He did a better job of raising nine kids than I was aware of at the time. My daughter has grown into a fine woman and there is little I can do now to help her any further. My son died early several years ago, never having found his path.  There are guilty memories there that can’t be altered. I try to make up for those with his son. It helps. When you get to my age your fathering has pretty much ended. You may be occasionally asked for advice but the world has changed so much you feel pretty inadequate to give any really helpful guidance. About all you can offer is a patient listen and a hug. As to grand and great grandkids, you have neither responsibility nor authority. You hold your breath as they take steps you are pretty sure aren’t right that turn out to be fine. My descendants […]

Putin was hold up in a fancy New York hotel. I was part of a team sent to ask him questions. My senior pastor was the team leader. I was  Putin’s counsel. He was reluctant to speak at first. Then he gave some smarty-pants answers to the questions. Finally, he took my legal advice not to answer any questions and shut up. Then I woke up. Yes, it was a dream, a dream I had last night. It was one of those vivid dreams that require a few moments of stark reality before you can understand that it was just a dream. It’s always been fascinating to try to explain my dreams based on what’s going on in my life. This wasn’t too tough. These days there are people with no moral or legal authority conducting way too many “investigations.” Putin and the Russians have become part of our national psyche in a more pervasive way than they ever dreamed.  He’s moved into our heads (like he moved into a New York hotel in my dream.) It seems many of us are having trouble separating the real from dreams. Lots of folks dreamed of the first woman president and […]