The Christmas Gift

For years I’ve been heart-sick from the realization that the church of modern times, at least in the United States, is no where near the church God intends us to be in terms character, community, and her ability to transform lives. Nor does my life emanate with the clarity, confidence, and conviction that every believer should possess. As a pastor, these are agonizing thoughts to me for they are related. No individual can live the fulfilling life offered to him or her through Christ without the influence of a powerful Christian community, and powerful Christian communities cannot exist without individuals who are experiencing, not talking about but experiencing, the fullness of life Jesus died to give us.

Dallas Willard writes in The Sprit of the Disciplines[*] of the human condition and our efforts to address it through political and societal revolutions. He asks whether or not modern Christianity is the answer.

And amid a flood of techniques for self-fulfillment there is an epidemic of depression, suicide, personal emptiness, and escapism through drugs and alcohol, cultic obsession, consumerism, and sex and violence – all combined with an inability to sustain deep and enduring personal relationships.

So obviously the problem is a spiritual one. And so must be the cure.

But if the cure is spiritual, how does modern Christianity fit into the answer? Very poorly, it seems, for Christians are among those caught up in the sorrowful epidemic just referred to. (Willard, p. iix)

I am not throwing stones as much as I am recognizing a need and acknowledging a longing, a hunger within me and many, for that which I lack as a child of God and that which we lack as a church. It is sometimes hard to name what we lack, but we know we lack because the longing is real.

We turn many things to satisfy the longing. If it is not “escapism through drugs and alcohol, cultic obsession, consumerism, and sex and violence” then it is good things like a great worship experience, a moving prayer meeting, excellent Bible teacher with a great message, or dramatic works of power. While these are beneficial, they fall short as an end in themselves. We are constantly changing methods, changing churches, and sometimes changing spouses thinking that our emptiness is due to the circumstances around us instead of the circumstance within us. We keep looking to God wondering why he is withholding good things from us, and that is the problem. We are looking for the things instead of him. We are seeking what he can give us with his hand instead seeking his heart and face. He is THE GIFT and all other good gifts come with Him.

It is Christmas time. At Christmas time, we celebrate the entrance of Christ into the world as light, love, joy, and peace. These are not things he gives us as much as they are who he is. It’s a total package, but it comes by nurturing his character within us while we create community among us. For our common commitment to him compels us to be committed to each other – to the other believers in our fellowship. It can be no other way, as our relationship with him strengthens our relationship with each other, and as our relationship with each other strengthens our relationship with him. Until we get that, we get nothing. Let this Christmas mark the year we begin to get it.

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[*] Willard, Dallas. The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.

Success and Circumstance

As long as I can remember I have always wanted to succeed. When I was a child, the successful endeavor was scaling the newly erected fence that was put there to keep me in the yard or climbing the next door neighbor’s tree to a higher height. Granted, my endeavors and the measures of my success have changed over the years, but success remains a constant theme – even if I do still get an urge to climb a tree every once in a while.

In our culture we worship success. We are especially fond of the “self-made man,” the one born into humble or adverse conditions yet still achieving greatness through their abilities and hard work. I suppose that’s why I found myself puzzled when I read these words, words that indicate time and chance may be as big a factor to success as abilities or hard work.

"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all." (Ecclesiastes 9:11, NIV)

Recently I read Outliers, a book by Malcolm Gladwell.* The subtitle of the book is “The Story of Success.” Only the book is not your normal “how you can be a success” book. Gladwell weaves his customary outstanding research into a very interesting read on all the factors involved in success. He shares with us the stories of Bill Gates and the Beatles – focusing on what they have in common that contributed to their success. He takes us through time and space as we examine the Canadian hockey leagues as well as the century’s old practice of rice farming in China. He demonstrates how factors outside the individual’s control such as culture, history, intelligence and nationality – combine to impact one’s ability to succeed. He concludes…

…success follows a predictable course. It is not the brightest who succeed…Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers [the exceedingly successful] are those who have been given opportunities – and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them. (Outliers, p. 267)

His conclusion is success is not only about effort and innate ability, but it is effort and ability coupled with the right conditions – conditions often beyond our control – that give rise to success.

If you are like me you find Gladwell’s conclusions, coupled with the words of Ecclesiastes 9:11, almost discouraging. I want to believe my success, whatever it may be, is the result of the choices I’ve made. To be fair, neither Scripture nor Gladwell say my efforts don’t have an impact, but they both indicate circumstances beyond my control will frame any success I have. So as a disciple of Christ, what do I make of that?

First, God is in control of when and where I was born. He knew who my parents would be. He knew the culture into which I was born, and the historical context of my life. He knew the opportunities I would have and the obstacles I would face.

Second, God has a plan for my life. We see that in Psalm 139:16 where the Psalmist talks about the days of lives having been ordained before we were born. We see that in Jeremiah 29:11 where God is speaking to those in exile about the good plan he has for them.

Third, God judges success in very different ways than we judge success. I bet you’ve heard or read, “Whoever has the most toys when he dies wins!” Our culture in preoccupied with manyness and muchness, while God is interested in Christ likeness. When the Bible talks about Jesus being perfect, it is not only talking of him being without sin – but of the perfection achieved in his completion of his mission. We tend to judge our successes through contrast and comparison with others when God’s plumb line is to measure our efforts against his plan for our lives.

“…we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. (Galatians 5:26, The Message)

So then, I realize these three things:

1. God is in control of the things which I cannot control and is fully aware of their impact on me.
2. God has a plan for my life. There is purpose behind why, when and where I was born.
3. God’s standard for the success of my life is not determined by comparing my life to others. Instead, the measure of my success is found in my completion of God’s individualized plan for me.

With those realizations I can relax about those things that are out of my control, for I know God has not left the circumstances of my life to chance, so I am exactly where and when I need to be. I also need not worry about my life in comparison to the life of another. I am only concerned with completing the course he has marked out for me – not someone else’s course. So I go back to Ecclesiastes for guidance that now seems helpful rather than discouraging.

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…" (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10, NIV)

I’ll confess I do not understand why the passage refers to our lives as meaningless, but what I do understand from the passage is we are to live. Be glad. Be joyful. Now is the time of God’s favor for our lives. Enjoy living life with your spouse, and whatever you do, do it with all your might. After all, while we cannot control the circumstances into which we were born, we can control whether we make the best of those circumstances or not knowing that to do so, is to fulfill God's plan for our lives. This is success.

*Gladwell, Malcom. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008.

From an Absurd to an Obedient Life

I thought some of you might enjoy this selection from the writings of Henri Nouwen as taken from Devotional Classics, edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith and published by HarperSanFrancisco.

Nouwen writes...

From all that I said about our worried, overfilled lives, it is clear that we are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us. We have often become deaf, unable to know when God calls us and unable to understand in which direction he calls us.

Thus our live have become absurd. In the word absurd we find the Latin word surdus, which means "deaf." A spiritual life requires discipline because we need to learn to listen to God, who constantly speaks but whom we seldom hear.

When, however, we learn to listen, our live become obedient lives. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means "listening." A spiritual discipline is necessary in order to move slowly from an absurd to an obedient life, from a life filled with noisy worries to a life in which there is some free inner space where we can listen to our God and follow his guidance.

Jesus' life was a life of obedience. He was always listening to the Father, always attentive to his voice, always alert for his directions. Jesus was "all ear." That is true prayer: being all ear for God. The core of all prayer is indeed listening, obediently standing in the presence of God.

Living Water for India - A Christmas Missions Offering

Living Water for India

Our Christmas Missions Offering

A letter to Friends and Members of RCF from Senior Pastor, Ed Wandling

Little did the staff know when we selected a ministry in India for RCF’s annual Christmas Missions Gift that Mumbai, India would be so prominently and tragically in the news, but that’s exactly what has happened. While no one, including God, would want this senseless loss of life, there is now greater opportunity than before to influence India for Christ.

Times of India, an Indian Newspaper, conducted a survey in which it asked what one thing the people of India wanted more than anything else. Ninety-three percent of the people wanted clean water. Through Sower of Seeds International Ministries, Inc., we are going to be able to help meet this vital, physical need felt by nearly every Indian while spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The typical Indian family’s life revolves around obtaining enough water for cooking, washing, and drinking. Half the day is spent waiting in long lines or walking long distances to contaminated water sources. Thousands of children die every year due to waterborne illnesses, and water is often auctioned to the highest bidder - taking half of a family’s earnings.

Sower of Seeds is an international ministry, based out of Keller, Texas, providing water wells in India. One well provides 1,000 people with water for the next thirty years. Almost always these wells are paired with the ministry of a Christian Church, allowing the people of the church to become the town heroes as they point out Jesus Christ provided them with clean water – something their 30,000 Hindu gods had not been able to do. You can see the power of this approach.

Our 2008 Goal for our Christmas Mission Gift is to supply $4,800 to sink one well that will provide 1,000 people with clean, convenient water for the next 30 years. It’s an aggressive goal, and we have no money in the budget for it. So we will be receiving special offerings throughout the month of December to meet this opportunity. The challenge for us is to give above and beyond what we would normally give so our local ministry does not suffer while we support this important mission.

On January 18, Chase Wilsey of Sower of Seeds and Champions for India will be speaking in our service. It’s my hope we will be able to present him with a check of at least $4,800 at that time. Let’s make a difference, not only in the lives of 1,000 people for a day, but for a generation and for eternity!