Holding onto things loosely

The Bible does not condemn having material possessions nor does it speak against having wealth. It's OK to possess things as long as we do not allow them to possess us. In Matthew 6 Jesus warns against having all our treasures here on earth where moth, rust and thieves can take them away. It is much better, He tells us, that our treasures are found in heaven where they can never be taken from us. This tells me that, while it's OK to possess things, we need to hold onto them loosely.

As most of you know, I have an auction business. There are few things worse that having an estate auction where family members are fighting over the things that their loved ones left behind. I have witnessed some very ugly behavior between family members over items that two or more of them wanted. At a time when family should be coming together, they are bitterly divided over who should get Mom's cakepan.

Sometimes, problems do not arise between family members but occur because someone has a sentimental value attached to something that is far above market value. An individual once asked me about conducting an auction for her as she was moving to a smaller place in another state after the death of her husband. She took me on a tour of the home and told me the history of every item that would be sold. I knew she felt that each piece was worth far more than what she would get at auction. Finally, after telling me that a chest had belonged to her husband's grandmother, I knew I needed to speak up. I explained that it was a beautiful antique chest, but the fact is that the antique market for furniture is severely depressed. While she had sentimental value to that chest, it did not belong to anyone's else's grandmother and would be sold for a fraction of what she believed it's value was. She decided to use another auctioneer. I was told by someone who attended that auction that her items brought good money, but that she was very upset at the prices.

I tell people that what they sell at auction  may be treasures to them, but to those attending the auction, most of it is simply "stuff." Those attending the auction are looking for bargains. Pieces that are truly valuable will bring good money, but common pieces will not. If I am attending someone's auction and an item goes for more than I think it is worth, I don't buy it because there's a good chance that a similar piece will likely be found at the next auction I attend.

Don't let "stuff" destroy your relationships with family members. Don't hold on too tightly to "stuff." Don't allow "stuff" to come between you and God. I like nice things as much as anyone, but it's all "stuff." I won't take any of it with me when I enter eternity. It's far better to have laid up our true treasures in heaven where we can enjoy them forever.

Do you have enough faith to be an atheist?

 I seldom recommend books before I read the entire book, but I'm going to make an exception. I have started reading I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. If you enjoy apologetics as much as I do, you need to read this book! The information found in this book makes it a must read for anyone who wants to be able to defend their faith when challenged or who have their own doubts about some aspects of Christianity.

The authors begin the book by examining the importance of truth and how absolute truth has taken a hit in our postmodern world. They address some of the early writings of skeptics who deny that absolute truth exists and show why their  beliefs were wrong. In our pluralistic society the demand of many is that we be tolerant of everyone's beliefs. The authors point out how intolerant these people are, especially towards anyone expressing Christian beliefs. For me, that one chapter was worth the cost of the book.

As they go into the next chapter, the authors begin to look at the beginning of our universe. The material they present here is incredible. I have many apologetical books in my library, but this is adding to my knowledge of the cosmological argument for the existence of God more than I would have imagined. The book points out that even many agnostic scientists now acknowledge that the beginning of the universe is more closely related to the biblical account than any other theory that has been advanced.

This is as far as I have read. Future chapters will examine the reality of miracles, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the problem of evil in the world and much more. I am excited to read what the authors say about these things.

One of the things I appreciate about this book is that, while it covers very important subjects, it is written so that anyone can follow along. Some books written by philosophers and theologians are so academic that they are not very readable to the average person. This book is not like that. At the same time, it is not so simplistic that it offers no meat to the reader. 

If you want a book that will help you defend your faith when challenged, I can not recommend a better book. If you want a book that may help answer some questions you have, this may be the book for you. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty excited about this book! I think it should be in every Christian's library.

Has God let you down?

 Some of the saddest people I've met in life believe that God let them down in their time of need. Perhaps they prayed for a loved one to be healed, but no healing took place. Maybe a child of theirs fought addictions, and, despite many prayers, never overcame that addiction. Some who felt they were in a wonderful relationship suddenly learned their spouse was involved in an affair and planning on leaving. How could God let that happen? Others suffered financial reverses making it difficult to enjoy their old age. They had done nothing wrong, but their finances were lost due to the misdeeds of others. In all of these cases it's easy to question God. Where was He? Didn't He care? Why didn't He answer my prayers? It's not fair. The end result of all this is that these people believe God, if He even exists, cannot be trusted.

I've never got that far in my thinking, but there have been times I wondered why God didn't seem to respond as quickly or in the way I thought He should. What I've learned is that God never fails us. Sometimes we are unable to see His working in our lives. Certainly, there are many times He does things differently than we might have preferred. It's easy to forget that in His perfect wisdom He sees things in our future we are unable to see, He doesn't always give us the answer we might want right now because He knows of a better way to respond that will serve us better in the future.

While God will never fail us, others will. The church has failed many people. The church fails us, and we want to blame God. It's not God who failed us; it's the imperfect people who make up the church. I hate to admit that people have left the church because I failed to serve them as I should have. Sometimes I didn't meet their expectations, whether fair or not, and they chose to walk away. Sometimes the church lets people fall through the cracks. We become so busy with "church" things that we fail to see people when they are hurting. Failing to have their hurts recognized, some will decide the church has nothing for them and leave. And, let's admit it, the church doesn't always respond well to folks who don't meet their expectations. I'll never forget the church that fired their pastor, while he was in a hospital bed, because his unwed daughter became pregnant. Yes, churches can be that insensitive, and then they wonder why people leave.

Pastors can also fail you. It seems there have been so many pastors this year removed from ministry because of sexual misconduct. Others fail their congregations by their emotional immaturity or by failing to preach sound doctrine, Some fail due to pure laziness. The list goes on.

God will never fail you, but His church and His church leaders sometimes will. The good news is that for every toxic church and minister there are many who are faithful to serve and to preach the Good News. If a church or minister hurts you, don't lump all churches and ministers together. Find a good one and serve and worship God there.

Pete Rose and the MLB Hall of Fame

 "Charley Hustle" was one of the most exciting players to watch in baseball. He played with a passion not often seen today. He ran out every hit. His head first slides were legendary. It was amazing to see him watch every pitch into the catcher's mitt. He was an integral part of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine. It is unlikely that his record of 4,256 hits will ever be matched. Despite his record achievements in baseball he was banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame for betting on baseball while a player and manager.

He accepted a permanent ban from the Hall in a plea agreement with MLB probably thinking that in time they would reverse the ban. He was wrong. He died without his name being included with the other great baseball players. Since it was a lifetime ban, and he passed away this week, perhaps it is time that he is inducted into the Hall. After all, a lifetime ban should end when a person's life ends, shouldn't it? Perhaps Pete Rose as a person doesn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but his accomplishments certainly do. I doubt there are many saints in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I would imagine that at least a few included in that hall lived questionable personal lives. They are there because of their accomplishments in baseball, not because of their moral purity. Few achieved more than Pete Rose.

I am not for one minute condoning or approving his betting on baseball. I am saying I wish the MLB had seen fit to allow him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame while he was still alive. He gave so much to baseball as a player and manager. He holds so many records and won so many awards, and yet his accomplishments are not recognized in the HOF. I hope MLB will see fit to rectify that now that Pete is gone. How long do you punish a person for a mistake?

Actually, this post is not really about Pete Rose. It's about loving people while they are alive. Having conducted many funerals over the years I am always amazed at the number of people who send flowers to a funeral. How much better might it have been if they had given their flowers to their loved ones while they were still living. People say so many kind and loving words about the deceased; I'm sure they would have loved to have heard those comments while they were living.

I want to kiss my wife every morning and before we go to bed at night. I want to tell her I love her every time I leave the house and many times during the day. I want to tell my children and grandchildren how much I love them. I want to give them special memories that will outlast me. I want those people who are special to me to know how special they are while we both are alive. I want to give my flowers while we are alive.

Do you need to give some flowers this week to someone special in your life? Is there someone you need to show how much you appreciate them? Give those flowers. Speak those words of appreciation, Show them how much you love them.

Worship leader needed

North Madison Baptist Church in Madison, IN is in need of a worship leader. This person needs to be familiar with both traditional and contemporary music, be able to plan and lead worship and have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. This person will also need to be able to play a musical instrument such as piano or guitar. Due to health reasons we do not have a regular pianist.

The church will celebrate its 175th anniversary in November of this year, but we are basically in a restart mode. Like many churches, our attendance has not recovered since Covid. I served as the Transitional Pastor of the church for about a year before accepting the position as pastor about two months ago. I am convinced that God has great things in store for this church so this is an opportunity for someone to be part of building something great for the Kingdom of God.

If you believe God is leading you to serve as our worship leader, please respond to this post. I would be glad to meet you and share my dreams and thoughts about the future of this church. 

Dealing with doubt

 Even the strongest of Christians may have times of doubt. Billy Graham tells the story of a period in his life when he began to question some things he was preaching. At a conference he was asked to lead early in his ministry he walked into the woods near the conference center and began to ask God if the Bible was really true. After a period of time he rose to his feet absolutely convinced that the Bible was true, his faith was true and his calling was to preach the truth. Perhaps his most famous line after that experience was "The Bible says...."

Studies find that nearly 60 percent of young people leave the Christian faith after their 15th birthday. A number of reasons have been identified, but one of the major ones is that no one is willing to answer their questions. They may have serious questions and doubts about Christianity, but they find their church is not a safe place to ask those questions or express their doubts. One 17-year-old girl told me that was the case in her youth group. She asks a lot of tough questions and spends much time reading her Bible, but she said when she asks questions in the youth group she is either ignored or given simplistic answers that really do not answer her questions. Unfortunately, this is too often the case.

Churches must be a safe place for people to ask their questions. No person should be made to feel ashamed for expressing doubts about their faith or for asking questions. In fact, questions should be encouraged for they show the person is thinking critically about Christianity, and answering the questions may help them solidify their faith.

There are two warnings when we attempt to answer people's questions or address their doubts. One, we don't want to make up answers when we don't know the answer. Young people are especially tuned to such answers and can see through them. It's far better to admit that we don't know and we will attempt to find the answer and respond to them at that time. There will also be some questions we will never be able to answer, and we need to honestly admit that. Here is where the faith factor of Christianity comes into play. But, we don't want to fall back on that response too often. There may well be an answer to the question that we can find with a little research.

The other warning is that we need to understand the purpose of the question. As someone has said, behind every question is a questioner. We need to know the questioner so we can understand what is behind the question. If a six-year-old child asks, "Who made God?" that is a much different question than if it is asked by a university biology professor. In the first case, the child is probably asking out of genuine interest. In the second case, the question may well be asked as a challenge to Christianity or being asked because the professor is honestly seeking God and needs answers to some of his questions. Our answer would be the same in both cases but would need to be framed differently. It's important to know the questioner and the reason behind the question before answering.

Jesus asked a lot of questions, and He was not afraid of questions. We need to be like Him. Don't be afraid of questions but respond to them truthfully, biblically and with grace.

Ministry challenges today

In 2021 I published an e-book titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? It had been a few years since I had published a book, and I didn't realize how much the publishing world had changed. It was nearly impossible to find a publisher willing to look at any book that did not come to them from an agent, and it seemed many agents were more interested in the author's social media followers than in the content of a book. I finally gave up and released it as an e-book with Amazon. Of course, the problem with that is that same year 2.3 million self-published e-books hit the market. It's easy for these books to get lost in the shear volume of available books.

I wrote this book because pastors and churches are facing new challenges as our society continues to change. Ministry today is much different than when I first began as pastor in 1981. While there is nothing new under the sun, the issues people now face are much more in the open than they were in the recent past. The church is constantly being challenged to address issues that previous generations of pastors never had to face. If we are to speak a word of hope to our culture we must understand these challenges and think about how to best address them.

The book contains chapters on several of the bigger challenges facing today's church. Issues such as racial reconciliation, mental illness, poverty, addictions, suicide, sexual issues and many more are included in the book. I tried to bring some of the latest studies into the discussion of each topic and show how the church can speak to the issues lovingly and, at the same time, be true to what Scripture teaches.

I seldom promote my books on this blog because that is not the purpose of this site. However, like I said earlier, so many e-books are published each year they can easily get lost in the crowd. This book sells for only $6.95 and is available on your Kindle devices. If you think it might be helpful to your ministry you can find it here. Thank you.