Author: EggMonkey

It seems fairly safe to say that trust is at an all-time low these days. I’d suggest to read the news, but with “fake news” among the headlines, it’s clear that the fourth estate, the press, is not trusted the way it once was. In fact, it seems that none of the traditional “estates” of society – government, clergy, and citizens – are in high esteem. Certainly, government is an object of disdain among many, but even the clergy – ministers, preachers, priests, pastors, whatever – have lost a lot of trust among people. According to a December 2017 Gallup Poll, only 42 percent of people have a high degree of trust of clergy, which is down from a high of 65 percent in 1985. And a 2015 survey from the Pew Research Center indicates that only 52 percent of Americans trust their neighbors.

So, who can you trust? Within the church, we’re quick to say, “Trust God!” (and that’s the right answer). But do we really? Think about the words of a favorite hymn, “Trust and Obey,” by John Sammis:

When we walk with the Lord/ in the light of his word,/ what a glory he sheds on our way!/ While we do his good will,/ he abides with us still,/ and with all who will trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,/ not a sorrow we share,/ but our toil he doth richly repay;/ not a grief or a loss,/ not a frown or a cross,/ but is blest if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove/ the delights of his love/ until all on the altar we lay;/ for the favor he shows,/ for the joy he bestows,/ are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet/ we will sit at his feet,/ or we’ll walk by his side in the way;/ what he says we will do,/ where he sends we will go;/ never fear, only trust and obey.

Refrain: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way / to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

The song describes “walking with the Lord,” a life of doing God’s will, facing the struggles of life and faith, anticipating God’s favor and the joy that comes from it. The song leads us to believe that if we “trust and obey” God, we will be happy.

Unfortunately, it seems that our habits of trusting and obeying are often restricted to “religious activities,” behaviors that are supposed to identify us as Christians. And so many Christians spend a lot of their time, effort, and money trying to convince God to make them happy. Certainly, Christians meet together to worship, study, pray, fellowship, service, and more, but do those actions truly reflect our trust in Jesus? Or do we simply hope that Jesus will notice and reward us, eventually, in heaven?

Far too often, we understand that last verse of “Trust and Obey” as a reference to life in heaven; however, it’s actually a description of a life of trust and obedience that verse three tells us doesn’t begin “until all on the altar we lay.” It seems that trusting God isn’t a matter of doing religious activities with the hope of reward; it’s a matter of sacrificing ourselves – heart, soul, mind, and strength – and trusting God to do the rest.

This is what we can see in Proverbs 3:5, 6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” So, instead of trying to straighten ourselves out and hoping that God will acknowledge it with rewards, the Bible tells us to trust God in everything we do, and he will straighten us out. Do you really want to be “happy in Jesus”? Trust him.

Going into February, I’m reminded of the celebrations we had in grade school. When I was a kid, we didn’t celebrate “Presidents Day”; we celebrated George Washington’s birthday and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. We read stories about how “Honest Abe” read and studied by candlelight and about how young George could not tell a lie. We came to know Washington as the “Father” of our country and Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator.”

Certainly, our teachers taught those stories and lessons so that we might learn our country’s history, that we might learn how to be good citizens of our country, and that we might develop character traits similar to those great leaders. Those were good goals, and those were good plans for achieving those goals. Did we all learn the lessons well? Did we all become honest and studious like Washington and Lincoln? I suppose that’s best revealed in the way we have lived our lives since then.

That’s the reason why our next sermon series will take us through Luke’s Gospel, his account of Jesus’ life and ministry. The goal is for each of us to become more like Jesus, and the plan is to reveal who Jesus is by looking at what Jesus said and did.

There’s an interesting contradiction that exists within the modern church; it’s a conflict between our cultural affinity for celebrities and our spiritual goal to be more Christ-like. Our culture is fascinated by celebrities – athletes, actors, singers, billionaires, and others – and that fascination often leads many people to change themselves to be more like those celebrities. How many young, aspiring singers change their looks and style and mannerisms to be more like their favorite singer? How many young athletes wanted to be “like Mike” when Michael Jordan was at the top of his career? How many haircuts have been inspired by actors and actresses? There’s no denying that celebrity often drives the looks and lives of many in our culture today.

But when it comes to being a Christian, despite the fact that we wear the name of Christ, many of us don’t sound or act much like Jesus. However, many Christians bemoan that fact and look for ways to change, but instead of looking to Jesus, they look around Jesus. You can tell by the sermons and lessons that are preached and taught in many churches and by the articles, books, and podcasts that are popular among Christians today. A quick survey of the internet, from church websites to the few remaining Christian booksellers, reveals that there is far more attention paid to “7 Ways to Be a Better Christian [fill in the blank]” than what Paul reveals as the content of his preaching in 1 Corinthians 1:23: “We preach Christ crucified.” The result is that many people have become content to put on a “WWJD” bracelet and count on another quick self-help article or sermon of what someone has determined that Jesus would do.

The simple truth is this: if you want to know what Jesus would do, you have to know what Jesus said and did. That means getting into the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – and reading and studying Jesus’ words and actions from the accounts of people who actually heard and saw Jesus. Again, this is why my next sermon series is coming out of the Gospel of Luke. This is also why I’ve put together a yearlong Bible reading plan for 2018 that takes us through all four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. These studies will help us know Jesus better, and that is what will lead us to trust and follow Jesus so that God might change us to be more like Jesus.

I had called 2017 the “year of the Bible,” focusing sermon and lesson series on the Bible, its overall message, and how each individual part related to the others and to the Gospel message. It was my hope that we would grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus so that we might all become mature (Ephesians 4:13). While many of us have grown in our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, I’m not giving up on that hope and theme – I will continue to focus on the Bible! – but a new year gives us an opportunity for a new theme. With that, I’m looking forward to 2018 being a year where we focus on Jesus; so my theme for 2018 is “Trust and Follow Jesus.”

When people first discover Jesus, they have to go through a process of growth in which they learn who Jesus is, usually by learning what Jesus said and did, which leads to learning about what Jesus came to do. Through that process, people begin to trust and follow Jesus, and that becomes a lifelong transformation. It’s through that transformation that we not only trust and follow Jesus in our own lives but we help others learn to do the same. That’s discipleship, evangelism, and church growth in a nutshell. That’s what we’re going to focus on through 2018.

I’ll begin the new year just like nearly every other preacher in the world, focusing on what’s new. The first short series of 2018 will be “Meet the New You.” Many people start a new year with a clean slate; they want to wipe away the old and start fresh. That’s where we begin with Christ.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Unfortunately, many new Christians spend much of their time and energy trying to figure out what that “new creation” is supposed to be like. So they read books, magazines, and websites; they listen to preachers, teachers, and podcaasts, hoping to discover the “secret” to being a Christian.

The answer is actually pretty simple: trust and follow Jesus. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The “new self” is Christ living in “me.” To trust and follow Jesus isn’t just the beginning; it’s the whole of our new life in Christ. So we will begin and continue through the new year meeting this “new self”: Christ who lives in us.

As we learn who we are in Christ, we will continue to grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus by following Jesus’ life through the gospel of Luke. We have spent a lot of time in the first couple of chapters of Luke, where he recorded the birth of Jesus, but Luke continues through the life and ministry of Jesus up to his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Luke wrote this account for the early church, as he notes in the introduction, “So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4).

We don’t have to be confused about who we are as Christians because we can be certain about who Jesus is from the Scriptures. As we grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, as we grow in our certainty of Jesus’ life and ministry and purpose, we can learn to trust and follow Jesus and help others to join us.

As I stated earlier, we’re going to maintain our focus on the Scriptures. So here’s my New Year’s challenge – and it’s the same as last year: (1) bring your Bible to church; (2) read your Bible at home; and (3) participate in at least one Bible study beyond the Sunday morning worship service. To help us keep our focus on Jesus and to keep us in the Word, I will provide a new Bible reading guide that will have us read the Gospels several times throughout 2018; it will be available at the Welcome Center. [Or you can click here to download it.]

Happy New Year! Let’s trust and follow Jesus together.

What do you love about Christmas? That’s kind of a dumb question, isn’t it? What’s not to like about Christmas? We love the stories, The Story, the lights, the music, the food; it’s all good! And it doesn’t really seem to matter why a person celebrates Christmas, whether as a winter festival of lights or the celebration of the birth of Jesus, whether a person believes in God or not; it seems that everyone loves Christmas!

But what do we really love about Christmas? Is it the celebration of the holiday or the reason for the holiday? It has become a point of pride among us believers that we remind the world that there’s a Christ in Christmas, but it also seems that we’ve slipped past the glorious truth of the birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem and have landed on a cliché. Don’t believe me? How many “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season” ornaments, wall-hangings, sweatshirts, mugs, and Facebook posts do you see every year? (How many are yours?) No, there’s nothing wrong with those things, and it’s important that we remind the world (and perhaps each other) that we celebrate the birth of Christ and not a season. But maybe the celebration of the birth isn’t enough.

Maybe I’m putting too fine a point on this, but we ought to be more focused on the One who was born, beyond his birth. Yes, we know that Jesus grew up to be a man and that he lived among us for a while to preach and teach and heal and that he died on the cross and rose again, but sometimes it seems that even we who believe those statements are content to acknowledge the truth of those historical events, like his birth, and even celebrate them but stop there. We love the celebrations and we love the fact that we celebrate the truth behind them, but do we really love Jesus?

Sure, many Christians go beyond simple celebrations; many have re-ordered their lives based on the teachings and example of Jesus and the teachings of the New Testament. We have organized our calendars to accommodate the holidays and even weekly and daily schedules for worship, Bible study, and prayer. We have changed our habits – our speech, our actions, our spending. But do we really love Jesus? The fact is, it’s not love simply to go through the motions.

This is the accusation leveled at the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2. In his words to the seven churches of Asia Minor, Jesus directed John to write these words to the Christians at Ephesus:

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:2-4, NIV).

The modern church is actually pretty good at saying and doing things that sound and look right, but it struggles at love. Yes, we gather every week and profess our love for God, and we even do things that are done in the name of God and his love, but day-to-day life doesn’t reflect true love.

John defines love in his first letter: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10, 11, NIV). And he amplifies his statement a few verses later: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:19, 20, NIV). John reminds us that God’s love for us is reflected in our love for others, and if we have “lost our first love,” he’s telling us that we’re not reflecting his love to others.

Celebrating the birth of Jesus is important, but if it’s all focused on the birth and not the love that prompted the birth, the One who loved us to send Jesus, nor the ones to whom we ought to be reflecting that love, we’re missing the point. So, what do you love about Christmas? Whom do you love at Christmas? Do they know it? Do you show it? Love God! Love People! Celebrate Jesus!

With this newsletter you will find the November calendar. Yep, there it is, fourth Thursday of November: Thanksgiving. Just as April showers bring May flowers, Thanksgiving brings a note about giving thanks. It’s like clockwork; it’s expected. And, like clockwork, when we give thanks at Thanksgiving, we typically focus on what we have for which we give thanks.

Ever watch those syrupy sweet made-for-TV movies around the holiday? (They’re usually on the Hallmark Channel, go figure.) Even when the characters don’t specifically mention God, they always have a moment when they go around the table and give everyone a chance to tell what they’re thankful for. “I’m thankful for family,” says the matriarch or patriarch of the family in focus. “I’m thankful for turkey!” says the obligatory cute kid. “I’m thankful that I didn’t miss the contrived opportunity that we’ve been focusing on for the past two hours,” says the main character, relieved that he/she didn’t marry the wrong person/take the wrong job or whatever. While all those things are legitimate reasons for being thankful, there’s a degree of selfishness that distracts us.

Our cultural fascination with being thankful at Thanksgiving is more a matter of expressing contentment, if not outright pleasure, with what we have, rather than giving thanks to God. The celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday is more about the appearance of gratitude, often out of sense of obligation. Just as when a young child has received a gift – one they can’t take their eyes off – and Mom or Dad must prompt them, at Thanksgiving many people seem compelled to mumble “thank you,” when all they really want to do is play with what they’ve got.

It reminds me of the parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14. Jesus said that two men went to the temple to pray, a Pharisee and a tax collector. He said, “The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get’” (vs. 11, 12). What a prayer, right? The Pharisee was going through the right motions; he was doing what was expected: he went to the temple and he prayed. But it says he “prayed about himself”; his prayer was totally self-centered. “God, I am thankful that I am like me and not like ‘them,’ especially not like him. By the way, God, you did notice all that I’m doing for you, right?” That’s a selfish prayer. He was focused on who he was and what he had and what he did. That’s not exactly the right attitude and perspective when you go to the temple to pray, and that’s exactly what Jesus pointed out in this parable.

How do you approach Thanksgiving? Is it with your eyes on the table, loaded with all the food? Is it on all the things you have acquired in the past year or throughout your lifetime? Is your “giving thanks” focused on what you have or even that you’re not like those people who don’t have? Do you approach Thanksgiving giving thanks to God for what he has given you or for who he is?

Yes, we ought to respond to what God gives us, because God is the one who provides every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). However, we must remember that God gives good gifts because he is good, not because we deserve it:

Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalms 100:3-5, NIV)

Be grateful for what you have, but go to God with your thanks because he is good, because he has given us all good things, and because he alone is worthy of our praise.

“Pastor Appreciation”

I don’t go by the title “pastor” because the biblical word for it refers to the guys we call elders. So, let me offer a word of appreciation to our “pastors,” our elders: Chuck Higgins, Gary McKibben, Jeff Wallace, and Dick Woolison. I am truly grateful for their leadership and care for this congregation.

We’ve spent much of our time this year focusing on the Bible, and I pray that you have been encouraged to spend more time reading, studying, meditating on, and maybe even memorizing God’s Word. Certainly, I pray that you have been trusting God’s Word and applying it to your life every day. While I have emphasized the value of reading and studying the Bible, as it reveals God’s nature, his words and actions throughout history, and his plans and purposes for the faithful, I have not ever really dealt with an important question that comes up occasionally: “What Bible should I use?”

The fact is, there are quite a few translations of the Bible out there, and those who understand the value of God’s Word are rightfully concerned about whether a certain translation is a faithful, reliable translation of the original manuscripts. The fact that the Bible itself reminds us that it is “breathed” by God and useful (2 Timothy 3:16) and that it warns against adding to it or taking away from it (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelation 22:18, 19) should prompt us to seek and revere accurate translating and handling of the Scriptures. To answer the question simply: most modern translations are trustworthy, and it is mostly a matter of personal preference as to what translation you should use for personal study and devotional reading.

Certainly, there are a couple of important exceptions. The New World Translation, which is published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and is the “official” translation used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, is often inaccurate and inconsistent in its translation of the original languages of the Bible due to specific theological heresies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, such as denial of the deity of both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, among others. The Joseph Smith Translation, which is considered a sacred text among only a few sects of Latter Day Saints churches and referenced within several other sacred texts of the Mormons, is a revision of the King James Version of the Bible and also contains many additions that support the heretical teachings of Joseph Smith. Without hesitation: avoid these.

There are also several other versions of the Bible, such as The Message and The Living Bible, that cannot really be called translations, as they do not follow the word-for-word or thought-for-thought guidelines of translation. These are paraphrases, “translating” thoughts and cultural imagery and feelings evoked by the passages, which is what many of us find in the sidebars and notes of our so-called study Bibles instead of within the text itself. Such Bibles were written by folks who do have a high regard for the accuracy of God’s Word but who also want to communicate with a pastoral voice instead of a scholarly one. While such Bibles are not technically accurate translations, many people use them for devotional reading, often side-by-side with an actual translation.

As for the rest – the King James, the Modern King James, the New American Standard, the Revised Standard, the English Standard, the New International Version (1984, 2011, or Today’s NIV), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (or just Christian Standard Bible now), the New Living Translation – pick the one you like. Some are easier to read than others, which is a matter of opinion; for example, the King James Version is a favorite among many people, but the vocabulary can be difficult (the English language itself has changed dramatically since the original 1611 translation, even since the current standardized text of 1769). To be honest, most translations, if not all, reveal some sort of biases of their translators, whether cultural, linguistic, or even theological. However, due to the wealth of ancient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, modern readers of the Bible can be confident that these are trustworthy translations, despite the ability of scholars to debate the nuances of specific word choices and grammar, especially as they relate to theology, church doctrine, and personal application.

As for me, I will likely continue to use the NIV (1984) as I preach and teach, primarily because that’s the version we have in the pew racks in the auditorium; if we need to replace those Bibles, we will have to reconsider, as the 1984 NIV is no longer in print. If I had to pick a new favorite myself, I would probably choose the English Standard Version, which is technically more accurate than the NIV but easier to read than the KJV and NASB. With all that stated, whether you’re in the market for a new Bible or just want to change things up, just pick one and read it!

It’s hard to believe that we are more than halfway through 2017. If you’re keeping up with our Bible reading schedule, we should be wrapping up the Old Testament as we go back and read through 1 & 2 Chronicles, recapping the genealogy and history of Israel before diving into the life of Jesus. If you were able to stick with it through the first half of the year and got through all the genealogies, the lists of countries and peoples who whooped on each other, and the seemingly never-ending cycle of rebellion, rebuke, repentance, and restoration, congratulations! You’ve just read the Bible that Jesus would have known, the Bible that the apostles and the early church would have known and quoted.

It’s easy for the church to focus on the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it’s easy to focus on the rest of the New Testament as encouragement and guidance. In fact, it’s so easy, that some want to ignore the Old Testament, even avoid it. That would be a terrible mistake.

First, the Old Testament is all about Jesus. From the first words of the text, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and the first words of God, “Let there be light,” we hear Jesus’ voice and see his fingerprints, as John reveals:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5, NIV)

We find the first messianic prophecy about Jesus there in the garden; as soon as the serpent tempted Adam and Eve, God promised Satan’s defeat and mankind’s deliverance (Genesis 3:15). Before Israel was a people, God promised Abraham that through him would come blessing for all, both for his descendants and for the world (Genesis 12:3), and Paul reveals that this was fulfilled for both Jews and Gentiles in Jesus (Galatians 3:8-14). Throughout the Old Testament, there is a hope for God to make good on his promises to Abraham, and even though they didn’t know it at the time, they were hoping for Jesus.

Second, the early church preached Jesus from the Old Testament. After Jesus’ resurrection, when he met the two men on the road to Emmaus, Jesus established the model and spoke of himself, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, NIV). Peter’s sermon on Pentecost came directly from the Old Testament prophets and history, revealing God’s plan for salvation, the hope of Israel and the world, through Jesus, and it led the crowd to respond in faith, being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. Philip the evangelist convinced the Ethiopian eunuch that Jesus saves from the prophet Isaiah. Everywhere Paul went in his missionary journeys, he started in the synagogues and preached from the Old Testament scriptures. And when Paul trained Timothy to be a preacher, he reminded him:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17, NIV)

There’s good reason for us not to ignore the Old Testament. It is all about Jesus. It helps us to accept and follow Jesus. It helps us to become more like Jesus. It prepares us for sharing the Good News about Jesus. Hold on to the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, so we might all grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus together.

Our independent nature and affinity for democracy sometimes gets us Americans into trouble. It’s not that we don’t recognize authority; it’s not that we don’t respect duly appointed authority. It seems that sometimes we just don’t recognize authority that is not established by election or by some other mechanism of group consensus, such as rules or laws. Other times we seem to question authority when it impinges upon our own sense of independence or expression of it, such as when we try to justify what we consider to be an unimportant rule or law – “Speed limit? No, I didn’t see the sign….”

When it comes to our spiritual or religious lives, our independence roars. In our tradition of the Restoration Movement, historically a loosely affiliated group of independent Christian churches and churches of Christ, the senior minister (preacher, evangelist, sometimes “pastor”) typically doesn’t have a whole lot of authority within the local church, as opposed to most other traditions and denominations where the guy behind the pulpit is considered “the guy” who calls the shots. In our tradition, the leadership of the church is typically found among the elders (see 1 Timothy and Titus), but even that role of biblical leadership is usually determined by elections and implemented by consensus of a board and, often, the congregation. However, even when there is a strong leadership team of spiritually healthy elders, those men will automatically point to the Bible as the final authority for the life and practice of the church.

So when someone asks, “By what authority?” The answer ought to be, “The Scriptures say….” This is why I depend primarily upon the Scriptures as I preach and teach; this is why we expect our elders and teachers to be not only biblically literate but wholly dependent upon the Bible. Strong, healthy leaders in the church rely on the truth of 2 Timothy 3:16, 17:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Unfortunately, while the Bible is the final authority for the church – for its leaders and its members – the Bible is often only consulted by many in the church and far less often obeyed by fewer in the church.

This is likely the result of generations of decreasing biblical literacy among even those Christians who attend church services and Bible studies most often. The decades-long decline in Sunday school attendance is likely only overshadowed by the decline in personal daily Bible reading and study. As time in the Word of God diminishes, so does its authority in the hearts, minds, and lives of even Christians who claim to be “people of the Book,” as our tradition was once known.

As disheartening as this might be for those of us who remember Sunday school attendance that once rivaled the attendance of worship services or mid-week Bible studies that were just as important as Sunday services, it’s not as bad as its consequences. As we lose our regard for the authority of Scripture in our personal lives and in the life of the church, we begin to lose regard for the authority of the One who gave it.

Paul reminds us that “all Scripture is God-breathed.” Certainly we remember that the Bible is the Word of God, right? As much as we once had and should continue to regard the Bible as authoritative, we cannot forget that its authority is established by the one who gave it. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” and he continued, commanding his followers to teach people “to obey everything I have commanded you.” This is why the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42). Let us follow their example and continue to devote ourselves to the Scriptures and submit even our strongly independent selves to its authority.

The Declaration of Independence tells the world, very clearly, what our Founding Fathers understood to be the foundational reasons for this country’s separation from England:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We take the idea of independence very seriously, and we celebrate it not only on the Fourth of July but throughout our daily lives. It is these individual unalienable rights that drive our culture – life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness – and nobody dare even suggest that our independence might have any limits.

This is abundantly clear – even painfully and embarrassingly clear – in the in-your-face world of social media, where grammar, manners, and decency are slaughtered in the name of free speech. It is evident among the ever-changing standards of right vs. wrong, where “right” is a matter of “what I believe” or “what I want” and not some out-dated concept of objective truth or religious faith.

And this is true in the world and in the church. Certainly we recognize it in the world, where people insist that they can say and do whatever they please. However, it’s really not much different within the church. Sure, we have the Bible, and we expect people to read it and live by it – until it becomes uncomfortable or unpopular. We pick and choose the texts we like and wield the Bible like a club against those who disagree with us (and maybe with God, if we’re lucky). However, when it comes to our own preferences, traditions, and sins, we get pretty independent pretty quickly.

Yet, Paul was very clear when he wrote to the church in Corinth, a church that struggled with doing things God’s way versus their own. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20,

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Yes, the immediate context of the statement is in regard to sexual immorality, which was rampant in the culture and church then, just as it is today. However, this principle is at the heart of our identity as Christians: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

Obviously, that doesn’t sit well among modern American Christians who revel in their independence. The language alone of such a statement flies in the face of our hard-won freedom; it’s the language of slavery. Paul explained this identity to the church in Romans 6:22: “Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

It’s no wonder, then, that so many struggle with their American freedom within God’s church. It’s no wonder, when it comes to lines drawn between our expectations of freedom and God’s expectations for holiness, that American independence wins out over Christian faith. It’s no wonder, then, that the average American church is more American than church. And yet we wonder why the church is so easily marginalized in our country.

It’s because it is so easily dismissed among Christians. When biblical teaching becomes secondary to American history, when worshiping God can be shoved aside for patriotic observances, the church looks no different from the world. Add to that the expectation of personal holiness at the cost of personal freedom, and the church becomes completely countercultural. This is what separated the church from Jewish culture, from Roman culture, and it’s what drew many out of their culture and into the church. Are we really so independent that we’re willing to lose our faith and the church to the culture around us?

In the May 2017 issue of Christian Standard magazine there are two news items that have affected me personally. Both are tributes to ministry leaders I have known who have passed away.

Mike Grooms was the preacher at the church in Northern Kentucky where I was a part-time youth minister while I was studying at Cincinnati Christian University; he was a great model of a preacher and a great encouragement to me throughout my own ministry. Mike and his wife Enise served in ministry in the US and as missionaries to eastern Europe, and Mike preached until he passed away last fall. There is a scholarship fund in his name to fund the education of preachers at Zimbabwe Christian College.

Eleanor Daniel, PhD, was one of my professors of Christian education at CCU, and she taught throughout her life at several other Christian colleges and seminaries in the US and around the world, including Austria, the Philippines, and India. She literally wrote the book on Christian education, actually several books and training programs that have been used in many of our brotherhood churches over the past thirty-plus years to train Bible school teachers.

I am certain that Mike and Dr. Daniel led hundreds of people – more likely thousands – to Christ, if not directly, at least indirectly through an on-going legacy of faithfulness passed on through generations of Christians. It is interesting to me, then, to note that the May 2017 issue of Christian Standard focuses on families and how Christians and churches minister to ever-changing families. I find it interesting because if there is any place where any individual will leave a legacy, it’s in the family.

Not all of us can be preachers or missionaries or seminary professors, but each of us has a family, and therefore, each of us has a ministry field where we can and must leave a legacy. Psalm 78:2-4 tells us:

I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old – what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.

This is the pattern we received from the Old Testament, and it continued into the New Testament. Paul reminded Timothy of the source of his faith in 2 Timothy 1:5: “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.” While we often think of evangelism as sharing the Gospel with other people out in the world, for most of us, our faith begins at home, and it is passed on through the family.

Why would any of us remember the names Lois and Eunice if not for the ministry of Timothy? If they had not shared their faith with Timothy, how many people of the first century would not have heard the Gospel of Jesus? Perhaps we would not have these letters that Paul wrote to Timothy. That’s the legacy of a faithful grandmother and mother; it’s the legacy of a faithful family.

So what’s your legacy? Will you share your faith with your kids? Your grandkids or even great-grandkids? Maybe you’re not a parent or a grandparent; maybe you’re an aunt or an uncle who can share your faith with nieces and nephews who need to know Jesus. Yes, we need help for VBS and for our nursery and for Sunday school and for other areas of ministry, but don’t forget that your spiritual legacy begins with the family.