Dogs & Doghouses

The number seven is sometimes recognized as the biblical number of completion. There are lots of sevens in the Bible (beginning with the creation account given in Genesis and ending with a few things in Revelation). So, I thought I would share seven things I learned from my first 7 years of being a Pastor. These are in no particular order.


1. We need the grace of God
As a matter of fact, the only way that any of this is possible is by the grace of God. Paul said he could do all things through Christ (the source of his strength). Remember this. The only reason we can step towards righteousness is because Christ is enabling us to do so. His grace is sufficient; it’s the only source of grace out there. God’s grace, given by the shed blood of Jesus Christ is what saves, nothing else. A hungry person needs food and God’s grace – not just food. The thirsty soul needs something to drink and God’s grace – not just water. Hell is full of people who died with full bellies, wanting nothing but God’s grace and the salvation offered through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

2. Learn and teach the Bible
If you don’t, who will? Lots of people believe things (not everyone knows why). The world is full of religion and ignorance about God’s Word; religion and ignorance leads to superstition. The Bible has never failed to console me. It has never failed to offer solace. Context, context, and more context; the Bible is not a box of Legos™ that you get to make up as you go along! Ignorant Christians worship an unknown God and have no better a clue than the Athenians who did the same.

There are enough books on psychology, sexuality, politics, the news, and, yes, religion. Believers need to preach and teach the Bible. If we don’t who will?

3. It’s ok to say, “I don’t know.”
This is only honest. Never feel as though you have to say something when you don’t know what to say. A thoughtful person can always offer, “I’ll have to look into it.”

4. Let God set the expectations
I’ve known any number of young preachers and church workers (myself included) who have been discouraged almost immediately after they get out of seminary. One of the things I was guilty of was reading, studying, and preaching the Bible, but at the end of the day I didn’t always accept what was there.

Seminary students are often under the impression that everyone is as “on fire” for the Lord as they are. They may think that everyone wants to know Greek and/or Hebrew, that church history is general knowledge, and that people love long sermons and will toil long hours to serve God. It takes about two weeks for an astute person to recognize otherwise.

Additionally, the world has also impacted our thinking on what we should “have” as servants of God. The ministry should be full-time. It should come with a parsonage, insurance, mileage reimbursement, and lots of excited helping workers. These are false expectations.

The Bible shows many different pictures of God’s people. Some, like Nehemiah and Ezra, are indeed willing to go the extra mile for the Lord. Most serve only after a period of kicking and screaming, excuse making, and/or trying to find someone else to do it.

I can put this in any number of secular frames for consideration:

• I want to ride with the Magnificent Seven but I usually end up with The Dirty Dozen
• Even the master chef has to set tables once in a while
• People don’t care how you build the house, they just want to see it completed

When we fail to allow God to set our expectations, when we stop accepting what we read in the Bible, the next thing to happen is discouragement. Being discouraged has caused any number of qualified men to leave their calling.

5. A church is not a building
The Bible example of a church is a group of people. This is in stark contrast to churches of today that are replete with mortgages, utility bills, schedules of events, telephones, entertainment centers, and any number of other treasures on earth. Serve and worship with people, not with the building. The goal is to glorify God, not satisfy our own flesh.

These metaphors might help:

• Would you rather have a dog or a doghouse (and please don’t answer with a sophomoric response about not liking dogs because you know what I mean)?
• A school of fish doesn’t meet in a building.
• A married couple may have a house, but not a home.

6. Legislate morality in your own life
James 5:16 tells us that it is the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man that availeth much (not the effectual fervent prayers of a backslidden, unconcerned, reprobate). The only reason Jabez had his coasts increased was because he was more righteous. Read the Psalms of David and don’t buy into the feel good prosperity gospel that’s for sale today.

We get to say yes or no to any number of things. Make sure we say yes to the right things and forbid the bad things.

I love it when people say you can’t legislate morality when it seems we’ve done a fine job legislating immorality. Just you keep your own nose clean because in the big scheme of things that’s the nose you will have to answer for.

7. If you don’t want to be here, then go
I guess coming from a pastor that sounds callous. So let me add a little. In Matthew 18:15 – 17, Jesus specifically shows us how to handle problems in a church. I know it sounds shocking, but these guidelines work. Alas though, they take a certain amount of maturity.

For example, let’s say you have a big problem – like someone says something the wrong way or what you wanted to happen at the business meeting doesn’t happen. So you collect that and hang on to it and add it to your collection of other things people have said to you that you’ve taken the wrong way or you throw it on the pile of other things that didn’t happen your way at the business meeting. You really have one of three options.

First, you can take care of it the way Jesus said to by actually talking with and interacting with another human being in an adult, Christian manner; with an attitude of love and service to Christ. Second, you can hang around with all that bitterness in the back of your head and your built-in excuses for why you just can’t ‘enjoy’ services, infecting others with your crap attitude and saying your own share of incisive things. Or third, you can leave. My vote is to take option one. But if you can’t bring yourself to do that, then just leave.

For…

The man who has smoked two or three packs a day for the last ten years or so, who now battles his pneumatic lungs, rasping in lung cancer…

The obese woman who has trouble with her knees and back, and who would rather be in a motorized cart than walk on her own through Wal-Mart…

The alcoholic whose liver is eaten by cirrhosis, who skin is now jaundiced yellow…

And all the others who cry out, “Why me Lord, why me? Help this pass. Please give me more time!”

Galatians 6:7 - Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

I’ve been told by different people that a good pastor needs to visit his church members and the reason some people don’t go to church is because the pastor never visited them. One time when I went to see a church member in the hospital their roommate, someone I had never met before nor have I seen after, piped up and said, “I didn’t know preachers still made visits.” Church members sometimes wistfully mention that their son/cousin/neighbor (whatever) is in the hospital. It’s a hint – as though I’m a salesman and they’ve just handed me a hot lead and I’m supposed to get right on it. But if I’ve never met the person before (and sometimes when I have) I have a difficult time wanting to go see them. Conversely, some preachers are adamant in their stand to, “Not chase after church members.” When someone doesn’t attend services for a while the pastor has already fashioned his escape hatch to not to bother with them.

The same facets of opinion occur when it comes to making a phone call. Pastors get asked, “How’s brother so and so doing?” “Have you heard from sister (insert sick church member’s name here)?” Part of me wants to answer, “I don’t know, why don’t you call them and find out?” When someone informs the pastor, “You never called to find out about …” how often could that be answered with a, “Neither did you.” There’s a name for those types of back and forth dialogs. It has to do with who can keep the urine flowing the longest. But I digress.

Under a slightly different heading, the Bible tells us that the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Sometimes I view visiting in this light, as a sense of the visitor giving his or her time to someone else. It should be done because we want to. That’s when it will be most pleasing to the Lord.

And then there’s the scripture that tells us when we visit a brother or sister in jail it’s the same as visiting Jesus Himself. Zoinks!? And don’t forget about seeking after that one lost sheep. There are lots of sticker bushes for church members (and deacons and pastors) to get stuck in. Part of our mutual accountability means we are willing to go and find out what’s going on with one another – not as busybodies, but as concerned family members.

Myself – I crave me time. Family, work, and pastoring tend to take up one’s alone time and I know I don’t appreciate what it must be like to be lonely to the extent that I should. But, every time I go to a retirement home I see the forgotten people and am reminded. There are many people who can no longer involve themselves in life. And isn’t it interesting that their families ignore them to the extent that they do? I wonder, will my children change my diaper the way I changed theirs? Probably not.

So, let our compassion to one another be kindled. Compassion is an empathetic love, a kindness based on understanding or putting on someone else’ shoes for a while and really thinking about what it must be like to walk in them.

Hello, my name is (insert missionary name here) and my sponsoring church is (insert name and state of sponsoring church here). The Lord is really (pick one – a: blessing, b: opening doors, or c: burdening) the (insert name of mission here).

This past year we had (insert number between 40 and 200) professions of faith and (insert number between 40 and 200) baptisms. Additionally, (insert number between 5 and 15) men have surrendered to preach this past year.

However, our needs continue. We are working on being a (pick one – a: self-supporting church, b: independent church, c: a cornerstone work) in (insert name of nation or state where mission exists). We need an additional (insert amount of dollars between $15,000 and $100,000) in order to (pick one – a: buy some land for the church, b: pay off our building, c: meet an emergency need, d: train up other missionaries) that the Lord is providing for us.

We have a booth in the convention center. Be sure to visit and God Bless!

I Corinthians 3:11 - For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (12) Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; (13) Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

One of my first ‘real’ jobs after college was for a small company. I worked there for about four years. Whenever I spoke with the owners, they impressed upon me that they were really close to the one BIG DEAL that would put the company over the top. The meetings were full of energy and promise; for the entire time I worked with them they were always really close to that one BIG DEAL. I didn’t realize it then but that template (lots of promise, lots of talk, the gold ring just out of reach) was going to be before me in every for-profit company I ever worked with. Alas, the BIG DEAL never materialized. The company won new business and made the next payroll, usually. But the talk about the gold just beyond the next bend in the road was mostly noise and wasted energy. I suppose businesses, large and small, need true believers.

The thing is, I’ve got a teeny, tiny, life and everything I do is going to be judged. Only those things I do for the cause of Christ are going to make it through the flames of judgment. What I’m saying is, if you are going to be a true believer, make sure it’s in the right thing. If you are going to give huge amounts of time and energy to something, make sure that something is worth it and that it will stand the test of God’s judgment.

Some messages get amens, some don't. Or, to quote a now deceased pastor I used to know, "We all have our favorite parts of the Bible." Divorce message (not popular because most churches now have divorced people in them), covetousness messages (not popular because that's what our culture revolves around), and messages about how we are immune to violence and what our entertainment industries do to us in the privacy of our own homes aren't popular because the average American watches between four and eight hours of television a day. These are just a few, you get the point I'm sure. BUT I know I'll get a rousing round of amens, each and every time, if I just preach against homosexuality. That seems to be the straw to break the camel's back. I wonder why that is?

I've been told that a sin is a sin. And by that is meant there is no ranking of the sins; that no particular sin is worse than any other particular sin. This reasoning places something like lying right up there with going on a killing spree. I'm not totally convinced of this, but let's just take it at face value (you might want to run that one by Ananais and Sapphira - Acts, chapter five). Though of course, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

So here's what brought this all on. I was thinking the other day that I know some Christians who could, if they dressed in yellow, pass for haystacks. They are that big. Like, grossly, morbidly, I never want to see you in shorts, obese. And I'm thinking, nobody is born morbidly obese, just like nobody is born a homosexual and that living a lifestyle of obesity has many related health problems and causes many societal ills, just like living a homosexual lifestyle. And furthermore, obesity limits what people can do for the Lord. It hurts their wittness (just like trying to live for Christ as an unrepentant homosexual would). But for Baptists, nobody seems to notice (or perhaps nobody wants to notice) the great big sin that is prevalent in many assemblies all across the United States. I believe that's called hypocrisy.

Mat 23:23 - Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (24) [Ye] blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (25) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

If I’m wrong about all this Bible stuff, let’s say there really is no heaven or hell, and that once a person dies it’s just a big long, dreamless sleep I still haven’t lost out on anything because I’ve lived a good life.


It’s easy for us to say something along those lines (I know I’ve said it myself a time or two). That’s a common attitude and a quick way for Christians to dismiss people who question the idea of having faith in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul, when working through a similar scenario, came to an entirely different set of conclusions than we do. Consider I Corinthians 15:13-19.

Paul concludes that if Christ never rose from the dead then:

• Preaching and faith are vain (meaningless)
  
• We are false witnesses (liars)
  
• We are still in our sins
  
• Those who have died before us are gone forever
  
• Believers would be the most miserable people on the planet
  

The big question is how come Paul’s thinking is so different than ours? We’re tempted to wonder what was wrong with Paul, or how come he doesn’t agree with us. But since his conclusions made it in the Bible and ours didn’t, let’s be careful.

• Minus the resurrection, how come a life of love, devotion, satisfaction, and helping others isn’t a good life?
  
• Concerning this big ‘what if’ question do you see the significant gap between our understanding and Paul’s?
  
• How are our lives of faith different than Paul’s life of faith?
  

Part of the reason we have the attitude we do is because we have it good, anyway. Our fallback position is to just shut up and go the couch (and the potato chips). Paul’s fallback position included jail, an unceasing desire to preach the gospel, and the fact that his conversion on the road to Damascus so completely changed his life that there really was no going back.

• Again, do you see the significant gap between our lives and Paul’s?
  
• Do we have a tendency to just ‘pick up’ salvation along the way and keep going along?
  
• How much of a radical, no going back, change, has salvation made in our lives?
  
• Paul’s life included many voluntary sacrifices and sufferings (2 Corinthians 11:24-29). Do ours?
  
• What would it take for us to realize something like this, “If Jesus isn’t real then I’ve lived a life of ridiculous sacrifices.”?
  

Most of the time when we play “What if” we end up losing. Paul was quick to note:

I Corinthians 15:20 - But now is Christ risen from the dead, [and] become the firstfruits of them that slept.

So all is not lost and Paul is persuaded that everything he has done has been worth it.

• Romans 12:12
  
• II Corinthians 1:12, 6:10
  
• I Thessalonians 2:19
  

But the initial idea still needs to challenge our understanding of the way things are in our own lives. Granted, we’re well off, immensly so. But doesn’t that only mean Christ should have an even greater impact in our lives than He does? What parts of our ‘good life’ have we put on the line or foregone in an unretrievable way?

Luke 12:48… For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

This post contains adult Baptist commentary. If you are a parent that monitors your child's use of the internet - good for you and you may want to pass on this. If you are a parent that doesn't monitor your child's use of the internet then you're lazy and derelict in your duty AND chances are your child has already seen far, far, worse than this.

So anyway - All in favor of keeping news about sexual preferences private please raise your hand. I hope you raised your hand. To get right to the point, I'm sick of Sodomites and the incessant message and carping about being 'that way' and how it's ok to be 'that way'.

If Baptists could get the message out the way the Sodomites do, a lot more people would hear the gospel. Think about it.

Just recently:

...the White House had to rearrange things because 'gay' couples wanted in on the Easter egg hunt.

...there is an annual 'Day of Silence' (we should be so fortunate) in many public schools. This is the day when the recently recruited school age stay quiet. Why just one day? Why not a 'Month of Silence'? Now that would be nice.

...several states are considering making 'Sexual Orientation' a part of their early learning (pre-middle school) curriculums. That's NEA code for, "We're going to tell your children Sodomy is ok." Most large city public schools offer students access to places for Sodomite counseling/recruitment.

...scan any of the large city newspapers and you'll see something about them. They like to protest and march and show their outrage - they're awfully outraged to be such a gay group.

If my kids are in the car with me I don't turn on the radio because I know something will come up that has to do with sodomy. They don't use that word of course. The talk is of homosexual and gay. There are any number of phrases, innuendos, and half unspoken jargon words to cover the same territory. They're talking about sodomy and I don’t think my kids should have to have that discussion yet.

And television, don't even get me started on television. I don't even have cable. Every show has to have a Sodomite character (except Bible movies - those show Sodom without Sodomites). Aren't they always funny and affecting? Oh, and lately there's the commercials, "'Don't miss the exciting three episodes of Will & Grace." Thank heaven it's the final three. I can't wait for the reunion show in a few years. Do you think they'll visit one of the characters who is on his death bed because of AIDS because he decided to visit the bath house one dozen times too many? Wouldn't that be zany? How loud will the laugh track be for that one?

And what was that Oscar winning movie out not too long ago, Sodomy Mountain?

Canada (think about that, Canada of all places) as well as several European countries have outlawed certain Bible passages because it is considered hate speech against the ever sensitive Sodomite.

It's just so important to the Sodomites that everyone knows the choice they've made about what to do with their sexual organs. I understand already and quite frankly, it's not that impressive.

Romans 1:26 – 27 - For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

I fully believe anybody in their right mind can look out their window and declare, "There is a God." To note the diversity and beauty (the rich blue of the sky or the jagged and speckled orange of a lobster's tail, for example) of creation and ascribe it to an accidental event is foolish. The Bible tells us that fools (and only fools) tell their hearts there is no God. Psalms 14 and 53 bear this out. The only hurdle lies in the ability to see beyond the created and know there is a creator. This too is offered to all with eyes to see and, again, I look to the Bible as verification of this, "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all…" (Titus 2:11) And noticing the greatness of creation, and seeing our own tiny part in it, how great a God that must be?

I don't know how, but I trust that those who truly seek for God shall find Him and they will discover the salvation He offers. I don't think anyone will have an excuse that they did not know.

And we are given a choice in the matter - as God gives us life, it is ours to live. Free, moral will is what separates us from the animals. Else we would be nothing more than a separate herd from all others, going north and south with the seasons. We were given choice both for and because of the greatness of God. Ask yourself, where does the greater glory for God reside; from some robotic creation that He would entirely control - raising voices of praise as though turning the volume up on a radio, or from masses of people who, of their own volition, declare their maker's praise, in the midst of millions more who reject Him?

Herein resides the one great immutable law that all, believers and unbelievers alike must obey - this is the law of the harvest. One reaps what one sews. Plant onions you will not have garlic. Plant ferns and you will not have daisies. Plant nothing, and that's what you get.

It's a small glance around our lives to notice the suffering and wickedness of the world. People do wickedly, that’s what we plant, because we are sinful. Read the headlines. In Africa, tyrants steal the food and shoot at the soldiers of other tyrants while their subjects hack one another to pieces with machetes. Widows and orphans die in gun battles. Down the street from where I live children take drugs, fill their minds with hopeless songs and perform hateful acts upon others. Terrorists fly airplanes into buildings. So not only do we reap what we sew, but in many cases, we reap what others sew as well. Sin and death are terrible things to behold. These things don't happen because creation is Godless, but it is because people, in their choices, make Godless decisions. It's good that we see these terrible things, and cry out to God for help. Because there is a God, and because we are far less than He is, failing in our own right and knowing with intimate detail the calamities that befall each life, we need to cry out to Him.

Continuing in Titus, it's that vision of God's grace, bringing salvation, that calls us to, "…live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world:" come what may (Titus 2:12). The great creator God does not leave us stranded. There is hope. We know there is God. We know we need saving and we know the rest of the world needs saving.

And then there is hell. Remember what I said about all people being able to see the grace of God and that those who seek for Him shall find Him (as in Luke 11:9). If you are truly looking for the grace of God you will find it - no matter who or where you are. In many ways this is a mystery to me. But I know for a fact that using their God-given choice, people can go the other way. They can try, sometimes for all their lives on this earth, to be separate from God. In its most basic sense hell is God giving people what they have asked for all along, complete separation from Him. And yes, complete separation from God is going to be terribly painful.

I have no doubt in this.

(I wrote this last summer, but it's still true).

The other day I was mowing the grass and I caught myself singing the opening lines for the theme of “F-Troop”. You may remember them as well. It starts out like this. “The end of the civil war was near when quite accidentally….” I can remember almost the entire song. Isn’t it amazing what the human mind has the capacity for? I haven’t seen an episode of “F-Troop” for at least 20 years, but I still remember the theme song.

I bring this up because of some sobering words that the prophet Hosea spoke to Israel (Hosea 4:1-7). He said that God’s people were, “…destroyed for lack of knowledge…” and because God’s people had rejected knowledge, that God would reject them. Destruction and rejection by God is the price of willful ignorance of His Word. Our nation, by and large, is very ignorant of what’s in the Bible and there is a price to pay for only knowing useless things. And we who say we believe in Jesus Christ are sometimes more worried about having things our way than we are concerned about having things the Bible way.

Please take some time this week to read and then think about some part of the Bible. Let it change your life.