Whack-a-Mole Christianity

Ever since Sunday school I've had the picture in my head all wrong. It seemed everybody wanted to make those Pharisees in the Bible out to be such villains. How dare they get it so wrong about Jesus? How could they be such hypocrites. How could they be so blind to how much THEY needed the Savior?

I originally wanted to list all the occasions where these infamous Pharisees are recorded in indicting situations, and receiving rebuke from Christ. But here's one in particular that can serve as the prototype for most all of them:

John 8:3-5:

"The pastors and life-long church-goers brought in a woman caught stating she was a homosexual. They told her story on Facebook and said to Jesus,'Teacher, this woman was caught being sexually immoral. We all know that's against God's commands in Scripture, and we're commanded to ostracize her from our churches, stop talking to her, and shame her publicly. Now what do you say?' "

OOPS. I mis-typed that a little bit. But if you know your Bible well or looked up or Googled John 8:3-5 to see how far off I was with my hyperbolic translation, you realize I'm not taking any liberties. 

The Pharisees aren't our villainous scape goats of Sunday School stories. They are you and me (or at least they very well may be). 

What was Jesus' response to the Pharisees - the super religious people of the day - when they put him on the spot?

"If any one of you is without sin, let him throw the first stone at [the woman caught in adultery]."

**Let me make a disclaimer quickly before I proceed: I have a pretty specific crowd in mind as I write this. I'm writing this to, firstly, MYSELF, because for many years my own pride in my spiritual standing has been founded in so many silly things that don't count with God that I can't name them all. And despite the work He's done on my heart recently, I still have mental constructs and lies within my heart that I have to catch and correct daily. Next, I write this for every one of you who went to a Christian school, entered a Christian ministry position, or has a shiny church attendance record and - if you look deep down - believes this is something God pats you on the back for. I write it for the moralists and the politically active who like to throw their hat in with "conservatives" and "right wingers" and "Republicans" when it comes to social issues like abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and every other politicized issue that's making the world think Christians just want others to behave like them. Listen, if the shoe fits, WEAR IT.**

People...we have seen this verse umpteen times. We KNOW it's in the Bible that Jesus himself stood up for someone who was openly a sinner and, instead of siding with the experts in religion and theology, whose lifestyles were so outwardly commendable, he reminded them rhetorically that they too were sinners and, therefore, had no right to condemn. 

Moments later he spoke to this woman using a gentleness and grace that is all too rare these days:

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir." She said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." 

Jesus didn't entirely let her off the hook and convey there was nothing wrong with her sinfulness. But he showed her that, with Jesus, there is forgiveness. 

I'm at the point where I almost can't stand it anymore. In everything I read or see in society, or especially in social media (where hearts are really worn on the sleeve), my eyes and heart are bombarded with all the vitriol. The way some of us viciously attack others who disagree with us! The way we rip to shreds the intelligence level, the sanctity level, or even the level of humanity of those who oppose the Biblical viewpoint on hot topics these days -- my, my, my....I have had my moments too, sadly. But I can't handle this hatred, this animosity, and this verbal violence being a representation of what Christians are in 21st century America. 

It's gotten to the point where so many of us out there - in my close circles, or strangers on the internet, and anywhere in between - are going about their lives like being a Christian is a game of "whack-a-mole." "Oh, there's a sinner!" *WHACK!* "Oh, there's another sinner!" *WHACK!* "Oh - *gasp* a homosexual!" *WHACK WHACK!* 

We are in an age of continual outrage as Christians. And it has to stop. We are called to be witnesses, not to come out guns blazing with every disturbing headline in the news or law passed or repugnant thing you think a neighbor, coworker, or friend on social media did. 

Robert Paul Wolff said, "...Moral outrage is the last resort of the powerless." 

Is that what we feel? Do we feel powerless? Do we feel like no one is standing with us or standing up for us?

Do we realize how errant it is if we think it's US at all that are being offended? 

Make no mistake about it. We are all in the gallows to which we point our adamant fingers. 

Romans 3:23 reminds us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace."

Both pieces of that verse are critical for breaking apart our stony, judgmental hearts. We ALL have sinned. Who are we to place one category or quantity of sin above or below another's? Who are we to think that God can forgive my sins, but someone else's need to have a floodlight cast upon them for all the world to see, like a prisoner trying to escape a POW camp? 

Apples...oranges... Homosexuals...owners of lustful thoughts... Abortionists...haters and slanderers... Potty-mouths...potty-minds... Those who don't go to church...those who go to church thinking it makes them right with God...

All. Have. Sinned. They. Have. Sinned. I. Have. Sinned. 

Your sin is just as ugly and wretched when you think it's your job to point out every other sinner we should turn up our noses against. Their sin or category or label is public content. Yours may be more private. How would you like it if it WEREN'T? I know I wouldn't!

AND....all are justified freely by His grace. It covers them. It covers you and me. We are no different. These high horses need to be dismounted from, and spanked with a "yah!" to be sent galloping off into the hills. 

The point with all of this is: studying how Jesus interacted with the sinners of his generation shows that his way of addressing sin was radically a different way from how many in the Church seem to think it should be done. And we wonder why the culture is so anti-Christian! They're simply repelled by all the anger and vehemence and moral outrage. They see us doing nothing but pointing with our fingers instead of reaching out our hands. 

What are we afraid of?

Next time one of these people you think should be an outcast is found before you in your life, what if you engaged with them? What if you invited him or her to church? What if you stopped what you were doing, or paused where you were going, and had a discussion - lovingly and humbly - about whatever they wanted to discuss? What if you became a friend to that person? What if you learned their story? What would it cost you?

I'm betting it would cost you nothing, and grant you much. 

Ultimately, that would be the only way you'd ever have the opportunity to influence them to see the truth to which you and I hold so firmly, trusting in our Lord. They sure won't come to that truth if their head is bruised from our "whack-a-mole" mallet. 

Perhaps this is all summed up best by something written by a friend of mine, who works in ministry here in the Midwest:

"In all of this, I need to remember this very important thing: It is the Gospel that changes hearts. We're in a season right now where far too many Christians are trying to "stand up for the truth" by standing in opposition to same-sex marriage, as though getting people to follow God's Law is the goal. It's not. The goal is to introduce them to Jesus. Let your life be a testament to what he has done for you, and how much you love him, and let that be what brings people to him."

We cannot ask for legislation of morality, folks. We cannot expect that our country will be granted a renaissance of godly spirituality through the functions of government. Stop thinking it all comes down to picketing, boycotting, and crossing your arms with a big frown on your face. Unless your endgame is for the world to see Christians as a bunch of legalistic grumps. But good luck talking to anyone about God's grace in your own life that way. 

Let your guard down. Have conversations. Get into the messes with people. Let your light shine (don't use a flame-thrower!). God's powerful goodness and mercy will do the work. Just be the "jar of clay" (2 Corinthians 4:7) who's good at making friends and sharing the hope you have found for yourself. Love this world as your Savior has loved you and has found you desirable enough to save. 

We are ALL saved by the same grace. Praise God for that!

Enter the Fray

Don't you look away. Don't you dare.

If any of what I have to say stands a chance of sinking in the way it ought to, you must start with the grotesque truth. 

Before writing this, I put images like this before my eyes for the first time in a little while. I'd seen the flash in a pan stuff associated with the videos that have been released this summer, exposing Planned Parenthood. But it had been a while since I sat and looked at a picture of an aborted child. Not an aborted fetus, an aborted child. 

Looking at images like this didn't take long to bring me to tears. Those tears were of grief, for the hideousness of the loss of precious life. They were tears of anger, as I almost snapped a sharpie in my hand from clenching it so hard, thinking that this has been allowed to go on over 40 years. They were tears of intervention, a desperate pleading for mercy from God - mercy on our country, where images like this are of something legal, and not a crime. 

I remember a time when, as a high schooler, I used to point out to others, in my frustration, how contradictory it was for the law to count as two deaths the death of a pregnant mother in an auto accident. "What if she was on her way to an abortion clinic??" I'd say, and plead for your agreement that this was so backwards. 

Somehow...to my shame...this issue has dimmed in the spotlight of my heart and mind over the years since I first grappled with it. But recently, God has nudged my conscience repeatedly, and I've had my moment of realizing I must do more. 

Have you had your moment? 

Take an extra 2 minutes - please! - and click the link below for a slice of a message at Hope Church, given last Sunday. For right now, listen from 21:30 to 23:40 (though I'd highly recommend setting aside the 42 minutes to listen to the whole thing when you can, or go check it out at www.hopeinjesus.org. 

Hope Sermon - "Called" Part 6: Fair Exchange

There is a lot of outcry in our lands today, for many different reasons. And if your personal outcry, about which you've already taken action and are passionately committed to making a difference, is something else besides this, God bless you in that. May you stand strong. May you "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." 

But if not, listen up. God has called us. He has called you and I to do something about this.

In 2013, 3 people were killed by the explosion at the Boston Marathon, arranged by a terrorist. There was massive outcry for justice. 

In 1995, 168 people were killed in Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. There was a massive outcry for justice. When he was executed, you probably weren't sad about it. Maybe you even nodded in righteous approval. 

On September 11th, 2001, nearly 3,000 of our dear American citizens were killed when terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers. America went to war over it. The outcry still lives in the hearts of many, and we are a country divided to this day over the issue of how to view Muslims. 

Where is our outcry over abortion??

Where is our outcry over the 57,000,000 (that's 57 MILLION) babies who have died in America since the Roe v. Wade decision??

There are several reasons why we might not do something about this issue. The reason that it's not wrong, and that a woman has sacred rights to her own body that supercede those of anything/anyone growing inside her - - THIS reason is for a different discussion. If you uphold this reason, I really truly pray for you, and hope that your eyes are someday opened, and the lie is cast out. 

But other reasons exist too that have held far too great a power over us as Christians. We might agree it's terrible, yet feel powerless to change anything. "What can I do as one person?" might be the thought inside. Or we might feel at a loss for where to start. "What part of the warpath should I first step foot on?" we ask. 

Frankly, I think the biggest reason most of us do basically nothing is that we are like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are "overfed and unconcerned."

Hold on a second, you say. What gives you the right to lump us into that kind of company?

See what God said about Sodom and Gomorrah in Ezekiel 16:49-50:

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:

She and her daughters were arrogant, 

overfed and unconcerned;

they did not help the poor and needy.

They were haughty and did 

detestable things before me.

Therefore I did away with them 

as you have seen."

Sounds like the masses in America, doesn't it? Sounds like the corruption, the moral backsliding, and the general apathy that's out there on account of being a society that, for the most part, has it better than 90% or more of the rest of the world's population. We have fast food chains whose coverage maps shame those of cell phone providers. We have our flat screens, our smartphones, our jacuzzis. We have our flex spending accounts, our grocery stores with entire aisles dedicated to just chips.We have our IMax theaters, our $200 Nikes, our sofa sectionals, and our "bling." We have our cake, and boy, do we eat it too. 

That passage also sounds like you and me. Don't shake your head or cross your arms at me. We have everything...except the time of day for causes that matter. 

Disagree? 

What do our calendars look like?

What do our spending histories look like?

What do we most cry over?

Is abortion still running rampant in our country? 

Don't our children still die in the womb or on cold metal trays because we choose in favor of ourselves and our comfort, or because we don't know we have other choices?

Don't women still get bullied by someone else into thinking abortion is her duty in her circumstance?

Don't people that we know go on down the road, led by the conformity to a politician's statement, or the murmur of the crowd on social media, simply because actual conversations with others about sensitive issues make us uncomfortable?

We are the apathetic ones. We are the ones ignoring the outcry. We are the ones preferring to play Judge instead of entering the fray and rolling our sleeves up and DOING SOMETHING about this. We are the ones who, by veritably sitting by and allowing injustice to happen over and over, are no better for that than those carrying out the heinous acts themselves. And meanwhile we content ourselves to think,

"Somebody else will do something."

Somebody else is YOU. Somebody else is ME. 

Enter the fray with me, brothers and sisters. Stand up against the injustice being done, and find a way - any way you can - to take action, in prayer AND donation. In prayer AND adoption. In prayer AND foster parenting. In prayer AND volunteering to get the word out there that there is another option besides ending new lives God has started knitting together in the womb. 

One such place you can begin is in support of an organization like WELS Lutheran for Life (www.alife2.com). Their mission is "Saving the life of a baby, transforming the family from at-risk to thriving, and doing it all again tomorrow." They need your prayers, they need your monetary first-fruits, and they even need your hands, feet, and voices! They are acting on behalf of God's children who cannot speak for themselves!

The point is, let's not sit idly by any longer. The outcry has been reaching God's ears for over 40 long years. We are God's church. We are his "church militant," as some like to say. Well, then let's get militant already. Let's form ranks. Let's put on the full armor of God, and with boldness and an audacity for justice, march out and take action in answer to the outcry in our land! 

Please.....don't ignore this. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about this. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Enter the fray. 

For me, this all started because one day, I realized I'd only written my own posts on social media, or shared someone else's, about this issue...and that's it. One day God whispered to my soul that he wanted me to take a step (or a thousand, I don't know yet) farther than that. I have taken a couple steps onto the warpath for myself (beyond just writing this). I'm saying "Here am I, Lord, send me!" 

Will you? The warpath awaits, soldier.

Pass the Salt

Another day started with sadness. My own life was just fine, actually. But it took less than an hour to become aware of yet another group of people for whom today, and many days to come, is a day of mourning. 

Another shooting. States away from me, sure. But in my country, happening to two people just out doing their jobs as news reporters. Another senseless act. More tears. More heads shaking in bewilderment. More eyes lifted up asking God, or just the skies, "Why my loved one??"

This life can have such a bitter taste. Sometimes I get so tired of feeling like the good is just being drowned out by the noise of the bad. I can even lose my joy for living in the now when I stop and think long enough on all the things we have done to mess up this world so terribly. 

After checking out news on the shooting in Virginia today, that claimed the life of a 24 year old female reporter and a 27 year old cameraman, I sat on my couch looking dismally at the floor. Then I sent the following message to my friend in China via WeChat:

"Can you imagine what it'll be like when we're with [God], and we get to like, Day 5 of no bad news, no crying, no fights, no pain, no anger over someone doing something?"

I answered my own question to myself silently for a moment as I awaited his reply. I really couldn't. I really could not imagine for myself what that will feel like to have gone days, then weeks, then months, then YEARS without those things that bring sadness in this life. See, I tend to focus less on the visuals and stuff like whether our pets will be with us in heaven. I meditate more on the way it'll feel to my human soul, to be forever removed from this existence, and instead alongside Jesus in a place of perfection. I want so badly to know what heaven is like, and I want even worse to be there now. Especially when the news is bad. And it so often is. 

Then my friend on WeChat broke the gloom of my despairing thoughts and yearning for what isn't, with this reply:

"Until that time, we must be that taste of what's to come. I believe that's part of what was meant by being salt."

Of course!! I realized I couldn't agree more. This had to at least one nuance of what Jesus meant when he talked about salt. 

For those of you unfamiliar with this, in the book of Matthew Jesus was recorded as saying,

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men" (Matthew 5:13).

Jesus said this during a famous sermon he preached while a large group of people was gathered around him on a mountainside. He'd just talked about how we who believe in him and follow God's ways will be persecuted and unpopular in this world because of it, but that we are meant to stand out, and meant to be different, and we'll be blessed because of it. Here he is telling those who get sick and tired of this world, like I often feel, that we are meant to be a flavoring that changes how life tastes to others. 

Many people don't know God but they long for hope. Even those of us who know God and love him can lose our hopefulness too, while living in the deep shadow of the fallen ways of mankind, in a world that seems like it's growing darker by the day. While on earth, heaven can certainly feel far away. 

But every Christian like me has a mission. We can change this bitter taste into something more flavorful, more savory. 

All it takes is a pinch of salt. 

With every kind act we perform to someone around us, or every seized opportunity to love those in our lives with a kindness and selflessness that Christ exhibited on a daily basis, we give a foretaste of heaven. 

There will be nothing that our hearts or brains can experience or contrive during this lifetime to truly capture the beauty, the relief, and the elation of what heaven will feel like to enjoy. 

But that doesn't mean we need to live as though it's a far off reality that nobody can know of until they get there. The life of a Christian is one that has countless opportunities to add the flavor of good news that, no matter how dark this world is, Jesus overcame the world's darkness, and defeated death and violence and malice and all the other sad headlines. He overcame all that by his death on the cross, and his resurrection to eternal life. He has promised to allow me to inherit all that because he loves me so much. He wants me to pass that deliciously salty flavor to the drab and boring and hopeless plates that sit at everyone else's tables. 

Those of us who follow Jesus will get to taste heaven someday, when our time here is up, because of God's undeserved and incredible love. 

And in the meanwhile, we can share something that's different with everyone else. Something that's new, and fresh. Something that isn't sad, depressing, or painful like so much else in life. Something that's reason for hope and peace because it speaks of never-ending tomorrows in a real paradise that will make us forget this place. Something that drowns out all the noise of the bad with the goosebump-inducing symphony of the good and beautiful - God's love.

We can pass that salt, and let everyone taste heaven now, through us.

Selective Amnesia

A Facebook meme crossed my timeline today that asked the question, "What would you tell me if I lost my memory?" In other words, what would you want me to know?

I don't know how many of you are like me, but my first thought was about how nice it would be to lose all memory of the evils I have committed in my thoughts, the words from my mouth, and my deeds. Not all of my sins of the past are at the forefront of my mind, but don't we all have some (or a lot) that are only a subtle trigger or a quiet, pensive moment away from recall? 

Part of that curse of living with past sins is that Satan loves to remind us of how we've messed up or done evil. Even though Satan, whose other common name is the Devil, knows that God forgives all sin equally and irrevocably, his devious scheme is to drive doubt into our hearts that it can be so, and the more he gets us to remember our sins, the easier it can become to doubt God's forgiveness. 

We can live lives of "quiet desperation" (to quote Thoreau), where that desperation is rendered from a feeling that, despite the Gospel message, we still stand in shame, accused. In fact, that's what "the devil" means. Its Greek word διάβολος  (pronounced "dee-AH-bo-los" - think "diablo" or "diabolical") means "the accuser." That's his baddest trick. Accusing God's forgiven people and fooling them into forgetting grace by overwhelming them with the ghosts of their sins. 

In that first moment of reading the question of the Facebook meme, I almost felt a little stutter of the heart, signalling a hopeful "What if?" My inmost self actually instinctively wanted the prospect of my memory slate being wiped clean. It wasn't until my second moment of reaction that I realized all the beautiful things from my life - all gifts from God, made possible only because he has grace for me, because Jesus died to erase my sins - would be lost memories too. Imagine that: holding in one hand all your bloody, lustful, greedy, arrogant iniquities, and in your other, holding your proverbial photo album/video archive of every dear moment in your life....and actually considering letting go of the latter just to be rid of the former!

What would you choose, if you could? That's where I was...but thankfully, only for a moment. Then that moment was ended by truth coming back to my mind, to blow away the yearning for memory loss like a soothing southern wind on a chilly day in March. In swept words that I've known, but that, if Satan had his way, would be forgotten:

" 'This is the covenant I will make with

them...' says the Lord. ' I will put my

laws in their hearts, and I will write 

them on their minds.'

Then he adds:

'Their sins and lawless acts I will

remember no more.' "

(Hebrews 10:17)

That's what the symbol of the cross stands for. That my sin and yours has been acquitted, and dismissed from our record. God could be a harsh judge and hold it against us, as we do to ourselves. But he can't. He is a holy God who is bound by his own ideal that he will honor the sacrifice of Jesus. As part of his covenant of love (unconditional, undeserved) for people who follow him, God has to forget our sins. He "will remember them no more." He chooses, rather he selects, amnesia of our sinfulness. It's gone. Poof. Erased forever at the cross. 

Sometimes this prospect of forgiving myself as God already has seems impossible. Does it ever weigh you down too? Does it ever hold you back from things in life? Does it maybe just linger, like a pesky, haunting little spook that hangs out in the back of your mind, eroding your true joy in daily living? 

It's not impossible to let it go. It's not impossible to forget. It wouldn't require some all-or-nothing mind wipe either. We wouldn't have to be strapped into a lab gurney with electrodes and a metal crown of probes from some sci-fi film that would zap all memory out of us, just to rid us of the guilt. 

With Jesus, it can be left behind. Satan's accusing voice can be shut up. To quote a song from the Christian band Sanctus Real, "just hold onto the promises."

Youtube video of Sanctus Real music video "Promises"

Hold on to the promise that Christ made through his act of laying down his life on the cross, for you and me. Hold on to the promise he made by rising again from his grave to defeat even death. Hold on to the promise he made when, as he left Earth for Heaven, he told his disciples watching him rise into the clouds, "Surely I am with you always, even to the end of time" (Matthew 28:20). Hold on to the promise he made when he said, earlier in his lifetime, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (John 14:3). 

Hold on to the promises of God. He will remember our sins no more. He selects forgetting them. He chooses to lose those memories. So can we. It is possible!

And we can keep the beautiful memories at the same time.

The Number of Completion

It was a sharply cold night in early March of 2008. I was not myself. I was spiritually lost. I felt like a shell. I strongly disliked my life.

I had wandered the city streets near my apartment complex in Eagan, MN, with a beer in my hand, and even though my light mock army jacket wasn't keeping me at all warm, I endured the bitter cold a bit longer while sitting on a swing in a dark municipal playground, shuffling the shallow snow with my shoes. 

Looking up, breathing out frosty breath, gripping the icy chains, I peered to the overcast sky and asked aloud, "WHY, GOD?"

"WHY is it impossible to get anyone to stay?"

It was a swing of a playground where I'd hung out months earlier with a woman now vanished from my life. That day we'd passed through was one of those quintessential days of dating when two grown people, very seemingly in love, had lightheartedly played on children's play equipment. It was the scene of a memory that, for me, signified happiness I thought I would share for years to come. 

But she was gone. And I couldn't understand it all. Even though I was familiar with the grief of letting go of someone I wanted badly to share my life with, I never got used to the scenario. This time it was kind of the nail in the coffin. I was ready to give up hope. 

In hindsight this seems overly dramatic, and even silly. But when you're a young man (or a man of any age, some would say) who's grown accustomed to giving his heart away with deep fervent ambition, and who's grown to believe that love is always meant to be a movie-like battle, then there's only so many deathblows you'll take before hope runs out. 

If you're someone who's given up on anything before, I hope this story speaks to you. Have you given up on love? Have you given up on finding a gratifying calling in life? Have you given up on God? 

What is your impossibility?

I want to tell you about grace. God gives us things many times when we least deserve it. That's what he did when he sent Jesus Christ into the world a couple thousand years ago. Humanity didn't deserve God's love anymore at that time than they do today. Yet people like me and you are saved, in spite of ourselves, through faith in what Jesus accomplished for us. 

Grace, folks, is when God steps into your life and, in spite of the things you've been doing in ignorance, in violence, in selfishness, and self-pity, or with an ugly chip on your shoulder, he places a gift before you that is so beautiful and right. 

That, for me, was a woman named Jennifer Krueger. To this day I still call her my "Second Grace." First, 2,000+ years ago, Christ died on the cross to save me, spiritually, from my sins. Then, in 2008, he arranged the intersection of Jeff Ulrich and Jen Krueger to save me from myself and give me someone I couldn't possibly deserve. 

When we met I was unprepared, skeptical, wounded, and undeserving....but I knew what was good for me and did not let her get away. Three months later we were engaged, and by August 10th we were standing before God, a small group of family, and a minister, and declared our vows and love publicly and became husband and wife. First there was that small, somewhat private ceremony (below):

Then, in December of that year, we held a more formal and full-scaled "public declaration of vows" with all friends and family in attendance, to make it more official (below):

(Don't mind the weird facial reaction - the kiss marks were from all the females in the wedding party - I was VERY sure I wanted to be there!)

Today marks seven years since that beautiful day that we began our official journey together. 

It's commonly agreed on by Biblical scholars that the use of the number 7 in Scripture points to an idea of completion, or completeness, of something. If there were 7 years of something, that's how long God wanted that thing to go on until his purpose for it was complete (Jacob waiting and working to earn the hand of a bride, the length of a drought/famine, etc.). If there were 7 of something else, like the 7 seals in Revelation, that represented everything of that which the symbol represented being accounted for. In Genesis, God is reported to have used just 7 days to create the whole cosmos, down to every droplet in the oceans, every blade of wild grass, and every tuft of fur or hair on Adam and Eve's heads. The seventh day of that first week of human history, since his creative work was done and complete, he put his stamp of approval on everything by resting. 

I like to loosely make use of this analogy now. Not to say that my ability to love my wife and family won't grow or mature further (because it sure better!), and not to say that we've been through everything there is to endure in a marriage (because that would be silly to presume, and I just know we haven't)...but when I look back on the storyline of my life with the woman who married me, and the family we've made together, with two sons, Daniel (6) and Braden (just about 4), it's at this point that I feel some completeness embossing the print of this chapter heading. 

In seven years we've lived at more addresses than we'd care to, have held more unwanted, dead-end, part-time, temporary, or plain ol' annoying jobs than we'd care to, have lost grandparents to death, have had a sibling go through cancer, have spent thousands of hard-earned dollars on car repairs or buying new clunkers, have seen friendships end, and have dealt with the turbulence of a struggling economy. We've cleaned up the messes of many a poor decision, many a victimization at the hands of a rude or dishonest folks, and many a random crapshoot of this unpredictable life. 

In seven years, we've learned many lessons relationally, spiritually, financially, physically, and parentally. We've ridden the roller coaster of raising two children over 6 years (if you're a middle aged adult who's maybe even gotten to the empty-nester stage, yes, I know that sounds like nothing compared to your fuller spectrum of experience....but, as you assuredly recall, those first several years were very foundational to your parenting). We've lived in two different states, both near to and far from each side of our combined families, and have experimented to the greatest extent that we'd prefer with rental housing (both in management and in residence). 

In seven years, we've had joyful times, angry and bitter, battlesome times, worried and anxious times, placid and serene times, depressed and sorrowful times, and elated times. We've seen the mountain highs of being "in love" in the giddy ways that accompany dating, engagement, and being newlywed, and we've fought our way through the dark valley times when love was harder to find because of sin and self-centeredness. 

But most of all, in seven years we've seen every opportunity to learn again and again what the love of a marriage is supposed to truly be. We've seen time after time, in example after shameful example around us in society, what it's NOT meant to be, and have agreed continually to not let that be us. We have made up (eventually, though sometimes more quickly than others) after every fight. We have apologized for as many wrongs to each other as we could think of or see. We have worked through the differences in preference, the pet peeves, the differences in personality and temperament, and even the really difficult topics, like how to maintain a healthy balance between fantasy football and family time during the NFL season. :) 

Thanks to countless great examples in our community or family or among friends, and thanks to great sermons at our church in Oconomowoc (somehow, these have been the best of our lives), we've learned over and over to remember that our marriage is a sermon itself. We've worked through tears and tragedies and selfish pride and hurt and anger to always arrive together once more at a place that recalls how much Jesus loved us, that he died for us, and forgave every wrongdoing. We wake up each day committed to demonstrating that marriage is for showing the world what Jesus' love looks like in everyday life. 

Through the experiences, the humbling lessons of life, the ebbs and flows of good times and bad, the memories, the joys of being parents to two active, sweet and rascally little sons, and the adventurous path of always learning about each other, we have been made complete. Seven years of completion....and we know we're right where we're meant to be, doing all the things we're meant to be doing, and loving the ones we were made to love. 

It all began when two mid-twenty-somethings who liked to call themselves "cool, but in the nerdy way" were nudged together by external forces, snapped out of their self-absorbed heartbreak comas, and began following God's path of learning to love the way he drew it up long ago. 

Sacrificially....

Passionately and tirelessly....

Unconditionally....

With a complete and peace-filled recognition that no cause is ever lost, nothing is ever hopeless, and, with God....ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

*Happy 7th anniversary, Jen, my sweetheart! I love you forever and always, and I'm even more overwhelmed at your devotion and the certainty of your love than I was when I first laid eyes on your lovely face. Thank you for being the better half of genes in these crazy, smart, fun little boys of ours. Thank you for never ceasing to forgive me when I fail to serve you correctly. Thank you for being reckless and generous with your heart, with me. Thank you for letting me be the one who gets to hold you close, and kiss you goodnight, for the rest of my days.
- Love, Jeff* 

Why Are We Surprised?

This is the face of the Christian these days, as the world sees it. 

I wish I were wrong. I wish I were overreacting, and that it's only in personal experience. The fact is, it's been a long time since someone accused me to my face of coming across this way (so I pray there aren't a bunch of people silently thinking it!). It's what you hear in the media. It's what you can see in the responses of non-Christians or non-spiritual types on social media platforms, when they rant and rave against our attitudes, judgments, and airs of superiority that come out in rantings and ravings of our own.

Look, I get it. I have been the chief of sinners, of the overly indignant and righteously angry variety, many many times. I have been the Matt Walsh-esque ranter and raver over the atrocities of our godless society, and have found justification in the manner of delivery because many others will yell "Here, here!" and "Amen!" along with me. 

And hey, I get it... I've seen the headlines. I've witnessed the manifestations of leftist living in my communities, and have shaken my head quietly to myself. Probably in the not too distant past my own Facebook page has occasionally had more frustrated posts shared that just bemoaned the loss of Christian values along with more popular outspoken Christians like the Robertsons of "Duck Dynasty" (and don't get me wrong, I love the show, love the values, love the family). 

The point is, what good are we doing by being so shocked at the horrible deeds of murderous ISIS members? What's accomplished by public outrage over the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage nationally? Are we fixing anything or getting anywhere when we rant and rave piously about how the government isn't kicking down the door of Planned Parenthood? 

Why all the ruckus? Why all the clamor and commotion in righteous wrath? Why are we so surprised at the way the world is living and operating today?

I say this not to discredit the evils in all these things. Rather, I want to encourage us all to wake up and smell the coffee. This is ALL - all of it - to be expected....IF we understand the times in which we live.

"The person without the Spirit does not

accept the things that come from the Spirit

of God but considers them foolishness, 

and cannot understand them because they are

discerned only through the Spirit. The person

with the Spirit makes judgments about all 

things, but such a person is not subject

to merely human judgments, for,

'Who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?'

But we have the mind of Christ."

- 1 Corinthians 2:14-16

Americans today have lost the culture. It's a simple fact of the times. Every dominant civilization throughout the course of history has ridden the same roller coaster of morality in their own national history. Everywhere the gospel has thrived at one time has eventually turned its back on God's Word and kicked it to the curb. That may very well be what's happening, historically, before our very eyes as the 20th century has transitioned into the 21st and the new parameters of enlightenment are qualified by just how unChristian they can be. We are continually becoming a nation of "persons without the Spirit." And St. Paul says in the above portion of his letter to Corinthian believers that wherever there's an absence of the Spirit, there's an absence of wisdom. There's an absence of discretion and ability to make proper judgments. 

It's just such a sad thing to see happening, though. That's why we all get so worked up. Maybe at the center of it there is often a truly righteous zeal for God's Word to be protected and abided by, and although we may have said, like Joshua in ancient times, "As for me and my house, WE WILL serve the Lord," we're grieved in our souls to watch as so many other millions of people or families just have abandoned him, or never really knew him to begin with. 

But if you're like me, all this supposedly righteous anger and stern indignance comes out in its frowny-faced, index-finger-wagging form because we believe the lie that we're actually better than others. 

We forget that the sins we each commit every Sunday afternoon, barely hours removed from church fellowship, are every bit as damning as the ones committed by Muslim extremists, abortionists selling baby parts, crooked politicians, homosexuals, or criminals whose acts reported in the evening news make our blood boil.

If you're not a committed follower of Jesus, this message isn't for you. I pray for you, and hope that you'll find the peace and amazing promise of a heaven free of charge, thanks to Jesus Christ, that has been mercifully given to me and all true Christians. I pray that you'll understand we don't mean to be so.....mean...We're just upset that we look around in our world and feel sometimes, culturally, like it's all closing in on us and the values we hold dear. Frankly, we're proud of ourselves and the stand we want to make, and we just get - well, defensive! If we take it out on non-Christians like you and judge too harshly, when we should be focusing on our own problems and lives, we're very sorry. It's NOT how Jesus lived, nor how he wants us to live and represent him. Seriously.

But brothers and sisters in the faith we share in Christ, this message IS for you, and for me. 

We need to chill out. 

We need to stop believing the lie that A) we're better than the ones we think are ruining the culture, and we should shame them all back into line, and B) that this world's salvation is about us. 

This is our Father's world. The wisdom that comes through his Holy Spirit, that we're privileged to possess, comes only from one place, and when and where it's found, that's literally a miracle. By nature, every last one of us, including the pastors, including the life-long Lutherans, including the faithful Baptists, including the born-again Methodists, including the spiritually passionate and the ones who know every Bible verse hands-down...we were ALL born diametrically opposed to God and his will. If it weren't for his act of mercy, to reach into our lives, just as we wish he would with those in the headlines, we'd be JUST as lost. We'd be JUST as despicable looking to the pious ones. 

And as for the fate of our society, our culture, and our nation.... All we can do about that is live how Jesus lived, and pray about the results. 

Jesus' M.O. was not all about the table-flipping in the temple bazaar. It was love-centric. It was hope for redemption cloaked warmly in acceptance of the person, and value of their humanity and their eternal soul. It was sacrifice, humility, and a courageous willingness to lay himself down for another, no matter the personal cost. It was a submission to God's will at the expense of personal comfort or agenda. It was never about appearances and pedigree, and ALWAYS about what's on the inside, the heart of man. 

God doesn't call us to be judges up on high pedestals. We can speak his truth and convey his wisdom and reason with people who don't have his Spirit yet...but when the situation allows it, and with tact, with gentleness, and with a love and concern for their spiritual welfare, not with the selfish desire to be right or to be vindicated. 

God calls us to be faithful. What was Jesus' image of faithfulness? Did he get dragged to his crucifixion, kicking and screaming, frothing at the mouth with furious condemnations of his accusers and executioners? Did he rant and rave about how they'd get their just desserts in the flames of hell for treating him, God's own son, like that? 

Nope. He was silent, like a lamb before the shearers. As he was led to his own physical slaughter, he quietly bled, and prayed, and yearned inside for there to be room in heaven for all those he would save with his blood. And upon the cross, as the spikes pulled through the flesh of his wrists, and the jeers of his fellow Jews and Roman soldiers seared in his ears, he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

They know not. Remember that. Because they don't have the Spirit, like we do.

Is it in stark opposition to God's ways? Yes. Is it the kind of living that will earn hell? Perhaps. 

But we'll pray them and love them into heaven long before we'll finger-wag them there. 

And when they stand next to us in eternal paradise at the foot of Jesus' throne, we'll look exactly the same to our Savior who loved us all.