Galations

I love the Bible app on my iPhone. It let's me bookmark my favorite scriptures. Last night I was up with my sick 4 year old most of the night, so I was reading some scripture...on my iPhone. Somehow that doesn't seem as spiritual as reading out of a 25 pound King James Bible.

Anyway, I came across a Galations 1:10. It says, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia. These were churches that Paul may have started, but were later led away from Christ centered teachings. Paul was rebuking the churches for their willingness to follow whatever theory or teaching that came their way. It's crazy how little things change.

We are so quick to adopt popular ideas whether they are biblically based or not. Who are we trying to please? Why do we put on a show for anyone. God is calling us to a life that is extraordinary, but most of us can't get past what other people think. 

When I was younger I never wanted to worship in the adult service because of what people might think. Did I really expect my parents to hang their head in shame if they saw their son worshiping? The crazy part is that I think I didn't want to worship because of what would be expected of me if I did. I might be held more accountable in the future & people might think I should always worship. Pretty selfish.

OK. When I look at my life today, the temptation to be a people pleaser is still there, but it's different. There's a different set of expectations because I'm on staff at a church. Don't get me wrong. Pastors are held to a different standard of living & I'm OK with that. I'm not really talking about what I do, but why I do it. 

What is my motivation for the things I do. Do I live like I do to fulfill my obligations as a pastor or am I doing it because I am so in love with God that it causes me to live differently? Am I living to please people or God? It's easy to get the 2 mixed up & not even realize it. 

There's a story about a pianist who was performing at a concert hall in New York City. He had prepared for months & was ready to play before a sold out engagement. When he walked onto stage he noticed an old man with a sour look on his face, sitting on the front row. He had his arms crossed as he sat back in his seat. The pianist played the entire show & the old man hardly moved at all.

At the conclusion of the performance the crowd erupted. Everyone across the concert hall stood in applause...except the little old man. As the pianist exited the stage to cheers & applause, he began to cry. When his manager stopped him backstage he asked, "What is wrong with you? They loved you tonight."

The pianist replied, "No they didn't. The old man in the front row hated it." The manager said, "What difference does he make? He is only 1 man." Through his tears, the pianist said, "That man is composer of the music I played tonight. If he isn't satisfied with my performance, then it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks."

  
Who are you trying to please in your life?

Good Enough

Good enough is a phrase that's been in my thoughts lately. I recently caught myself thinking that about something I was doing & couldn't believe how it made me feel.

We live in a society that wants to figure out what the minimum standard is & then just barely attain it. We want to figure out how little we can do & still get by. I have said before, but it used to drive me crazy when some teenage boy would ask me, "how far is too far" in regards to his relationship with his girlfriend. I used to respond by telling the boy to ask the girl's father. Whatever he said would probably suffice for me too.

You might think how could someone do that? I would never do anything like that. Oh yeah?

When was the last time you were driving & you thought, I can drive 5 over the speed limit? Yeah. Me too.

We are constantly trying to figure out what we can get away with. That's why we want to know what the dress code is, what the office hours are, or what the minimum expectations are.

When I got out of college & had to start paying income taxes like a real adult, I had to get a tax guy. It made me feel more important to have "a guy". Anyway, I sat down with him & said that I want to pay as little taxes as I could without going to jail. If I could get away with paying nothing, that was cool as long as I didn't have to go to jail.

We try to make the same deal with God. "OK God, what can I get away with?" We want to do as little as possible without any negative consequences.

What if we started asking questions like, "How Holy can I live? How can I have more integrity? or How can I become a better man, husband, or father than I ever dreamed?"

How would the world be different if we started living our life without the phrase, good enough?

Hunting-The Mel Masengale Way

I've never been a hunter,  but I'm not morally opposed to it either. There are a ton of hunters here in Enid. I was recently invited to go bow hunting, although I'm not really sure what a bow tastes like or why they're fun to hunt.

Hunting never appealed to me. I don't know if it was the thought of sitting in a deer stand at 4:30am in the bitter cold or the fact that I had to remain totally silent for hours. It also didn't help that I was(am) a huge sissy.

Hunters are called sportsmen, but sometimes it doesn't seem very sporting. I don't see any deer in a human stand setting out hamburgers in a mall parking lot waiting for a human to walk by. They don't watch us electronically with their remote cameras & plot our demise, but it might be cooler if they did.

I came up with a few ideas to improve modern hunting.

1. No more guns. I am all for the 2nd amendment. I lived in Texas too long to be anti-gun. My plan is to issue a dirt bike & a baseball bat to every hunter at the start of hunting season. If you can ride along side the dear & club it, you have yourself a kill.

2. No more limits on what you can get. If you can get it on dirt bike, it deserves to be killed. If Bambi can't keep up, he's goin down.

3. Get as many as you can-we have to keep the population thinned.

4. Televise it. This would be must see TV. Can you imagine the human drama that would unfold as a man rides headlong through a barbed wire fence at 50 miles per hour? We would have paramedics on hand, safety first. 

Those are some of my ideas. What about you? Do you have any ways to improve hunting? If so, leave a comment & let us know. 

May the Force be with...me?

I'm sitting here watching Star Wars, Episode 1(The Phantom Menace). It's probably my least favorite of all the SW movies, mostly because of this guy. I really love the Star Wars of my youth. Like many people of my generation, we grew up watching the movies, playing with the action figures, & staring at my poster of Princess Leia. They didn't all stare at my Princess Leia poster, that was mostly me, but you get the point. 

It's amazing how this story has influenced a generation. It influenced creativity & dreaming. It pioneered computer generated images & took special effects to new heights. It also challenged modern spirituality.

I don't think George Lucas intended on turning religion upside down, but new outlooks & a few cults have been spawned by his films. Lucas incorporated mythology, philosophy, & a strong Buddhist influence into his story telling. 

When the movies were released, many churches were quick to condemn it as heresy. They denounced the theology of the films without a second thought. I don't think that they were threatened by a motion picture, but by something else entirely.

Galileo Galilei was one of the greatest thinkers in human history. When he said that the Earth had an orbit around the sun in 1610, the church was incensed. This was contrary to their teaching that the Earth was the center of  the universe & they felt that it was an affront to their theology. They had Galileo held under house arrest for the last 10 years of his life. The Catholic church didn't fully admit it's mistake until 1992. It only took 382 years, a brisk pace by most church standards.

I find that we are not all that different. We don't like the thought that we might be wrong. My pride says to fight vehemently & then figure it out later. We are quick to judge & slow to listen. Proverbs 1:5 says, "let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance-."

We don't like for our theology to be challenged. We feel that if something we believe is proved wrong, then our whole belief system goes down the toilet. This isn't the case. The church marched on even after scientific advances revealed the truth about our solar system.

It is good for our faith to be challenged. When I was a freshman in college I had a professor named Dr. Dexter Marble at USAO. He challenged every belief I had about God & I am a better Christian for it. He forced me to examine my own beliefs & understand why I held them as truths. In the same way, when we admit that we don't have all the answers, we are allowing God to reveal things to us in unusual or unorthodox places.

When asked why he went back & fixed the original Star Wars films, George Lucas replied that a film is never finished, only abandoned. Technology changes & allows you to do more. You get more money or time to do what you might not have been able to do before. 

We have never really arrived as Christians. If we ever get to the point that we can't learn or grow, then we are dying. It's OK to not have all the answers. "I don't know," is one of the most liberating things we can say. Just like films I think that our relationship with Jesus is never finished, only abandoned.