Dear Pastor Glenn

          At the seniors conference I attended in ______, the pastor who led some of the Bible studies was giving a list of sins that  people who commit them won’t get into heaven.  Homosexuality was named.  My acquaintance from Texas was raised in Baptist circles that taught “once saved, always saved.”  This lady’s brother went through a very ugly divorce, and turned to homosexuality.  In his last days, at his request, the sister prayed, read scripture, and reminisced about their growing up in the church, accepting Christ and being baptized.  At the conference, she was grieving his recent death.  Then to hear this “preacher” say that homosexuals won’t get to heaven devastated her.  I was wondering about scriptures that could encourage this woman in her heart ache.

 Dear ______,

          I’m sorry your friend had to put up with this heretical teaching that so upset her, and I’m appalled that the conference would allow someone to teach things that seem so totally incompatible with their stated doctrine.  I can only assume something was misunderstood somewhere, though there are people out there who believe that way.

          I suppose the idea that homosexuals can never get to heaven comes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, which says “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”  You can see the idea there; if you simplify the sentence, it can read “homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

          However, I want you to notice the entire context of that statement.  First, it also says that thieves, greedy people, slanderers and drunkards will not inherit the kingdom either.  I bet those middle two disqualify the preacher who said homosexuals cannot get to heaven!  In fact those statements would disqualify most all of us; I know they disqualify me.  We could add David, Abraham (adultery), Noah (drunkenness), and even Paul (slanderer) to the list of those who won’t make it.  The point is that all of us are sinners and none of us can, on our own merits, inherit God’s kingdom.  It takes God’s grace to give us that kingdom.  This is similar to Jesus’ famous statement about the rich, ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”  He followed that with these words, “with men this is impossible, but all things are possible with God.”  It takes a miracle of God for anyone to be saved.

          Second, notice the very next verse.  It clearly proves wrong any preacher who says homosexuals can’t go to heaven.  Paul adds for his readers, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (v11)  Notice the past tense.  Some of his readers were homosexuals in the past, but now they are sanctified believers!

            The consistent witness of the New Testament echoes Jesus words, “Every sin and blasphemy of men will be forgiven them.”  The only unforgivable sin is a rejection of Jesus.  You can read my teaching about that here.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace.  He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness; he forgave all our transgressions; he gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness; etc.  When a person trusts in Jesus, God counts Jesus’ righteousness on that person’s account.  On God’s ledger, such a person is no longer a homosexual, or a slanderer or greedy person either.  I hope this can encourage your friend.

In the grip of his grace,  Pastor Glenn

          Pastor Glenn’s sermons at Village Baptist Church are now available for download or listening on line.  Now available are most all the sermons in the current study of Acts and a few popular past messages, including the most-requested “Rebekah: Finding God’s Best,” “A Sabbath Fireside Chat,” and “What is the Will of God?”  There are some sound issues with a few of them, due to past sound system problems.  The Technology Team at Village has done a great job improving these recordings and fixing the sound system problems.  As future messages are added, the sound quality will improve dramatically.

          Thanks Village Tech Team!

Go to the Village Baptist website and click on the “Worship” tab.

Happy Listening!

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day,
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.  The rest

clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast.
They thought, “if only Casey could but get a whack at that.
We’d put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.”

                                                – Ernest L. Thayer

            I think often, this time of year, about the famous line “hope springs eternal in the human breast.”  As a long-time Colorado Rockies fans, we know that feeling of hope which springs eternal.  And like the Mudville fans, we too are usually disappointed by that hope, and we too have no joy when the scenario plays out.  If you don’t know the ending of the poem  .  .  .

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,
but there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.

            Here is another spring thought which relates to Easter rather than baseball.  When I read the following words on the opening day of Rockies’ baseball season, I thought again of that “hope which springs eternal.”  There is no such thing as eternal hope, when that hope is put in temporal things, like baseball.  But from God we have a living hope.  “In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)  The same power which raised Jesus from the dead is available, through God’s grace, to give us a hope which springs eternal.  And unlike baseball hopes, this one is rooted in non-temporal things.  This hope is given because of God’s mercy, which is eternal; it is through Jesus’ resurrection, which is both powerful and eternal; it comes from the new birth – birth by the Spirit of God, and that is living and powerful and eternal.  “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, by the living and enduring word of God.” (v.23)

            Do you, like the fans in Mudville, have a hope based on temporal things, or have you been born again and given a living hope based on eternal things?  This spring season, put your hope in Jesus, who was raised from the dead.  Then God will give you the true “hope which springs eternal.”

This isn’t an Aprils Fool’s Day joke.  You have reached Pastor Glenn’s blog; it just looks different.  Today marks one year since I began this blog, so I decided to change the look for a while.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank all who have been reading these scattered thoughts over the months.  If God has used anything said here for growth or encouragement in your lives, then he gets all the glory.

For those who are interested, here is a summary of the most read postings I’ve made over the last year.  If you haven’t read these, they might be worth your time.  By far my most read blog has been one of the earliest ones called “Micaiah and Today’s False Prophets.”  This post continues to find new readers almost a year after I wrote it.  The second most read article is called “Burnout in Ministry.”   The fact that I’ve linked a few other articles to this one has probably helped, but I think it is an issue many deal with on a regular basis.  And tied with that one for second is “Life Can Be Empty.”  This article is a presentation of the Gospel using the book of Ecclesiastes, and because of it’s nature, I linked to it in the sidebar hoping it would get more readers.  (Now I see it’s on the top of the page)  Finally the fourth most read blog has been the recent “John Piper on the TNIV.”

Thanks again for reading.  May God, out of his glorious riches, strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge –that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

John 15:1-8.  I wrote a blog entry last fall called “Burnout in Ministry.”  It’s been one of the most visited entries I’ve written.  I wrote it in response to a discussion about burnout with the director of a college ministry.  Now I’ve been asked to speak at a retreat for the staff of that ministry on the topic of burnout.  I wrote then that burnout in ministry is always a result of relying on some resource other than God, though that reliance can take many forms.  I read this “Vine and Branches” passage in my devotions the other day and am now considering using it as a basic text for my talks at the retreat.

“If a man remains in me and I in him,” Jesus said, “he will bear much fruit.”  “If you remain in me and my words remain in you,” he added, “ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.”  That’s the positive side of things, but on the negative side of the matter, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.”  And “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers.”  That last phrase sounds like burnout.  In fact, as Christians describe their feelings of burnout in ministry, they often use words and metaphors very similar to these – thrown away, withered, fruitless.  Interestingly, Jesus added, “Such branches are thrown into the fire and burned!”

Notice that Jesus puts this metaphor in a context of reliance:  “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine;”  “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”  As a branch draws all its sustenance from the larger vine and is dead apart from it, so we must draw all our sustenance from Jesus.  Anything else will eventually end in burnout and ultimately amount to nothing.  As Jesus himself said,“Apart from me you can do nothing.”

I read Dr. Pegler’s musings the other day.  After talking about greed verses the desire for improvement in an economic system of capitalism, he asks the question, “From this, can we conclude that a form of capitalism is more in tune with our being made in the image of God than other economic systems?”  He makes a good point.  You can read his article here.

My first response and my comment to his article was along the lines that greed cannot drive capitalism, because to make a buck in capitalism one must meet the needs of others.  (You can read that comment in the link above also.)  After writing my comment, I was reminded of an e-mail someone sent me about the differences between a liberal and a conservative.  There I hinted that capitalism is the most biblical economic system because it puts a check on human depravity.  I did some digging and found the text of that exchange:

Dear Pastor Glenn,

You may have heard this before, but George Will was on TV last night and was asked the difference between conservatives and liberals. His response was:  “A conservative is most concerned with freedom, and is willing to accept inequities in outcome to preserve it.  A liberal is most concerned with equality of outcome, and is willing to accept limitations on freedoms to achieve it.”

I liked it because I thought it was concise, fair and relatively accurate.

Dear  .  .  . ,

It’s been months, and I haven’t yet responded to this e-mail, but I have thought about it often since you sent it.  I have two comments:

1.     I always thought a conservative, at least on an economic level, is concerned with equality of opportunity over equality in outcome.  I suppose one could say that true freedom would imply equality of opportunity – the idea behind a “free” market.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought George Will might be right.

2.     If Will’s definition of a liberal is right, it seems to me that the liberal view, again on an economic level, will always lead to communism.  There will be fewer and fewer freedoms as we strive to achieve greater and greater equality.  However, because of depravity, there never will be equality of outcome until there are no freedoms left.  The reason most Christians are fiscal conservatives is because a genuine free market actually puts a check on our depravity – it forces us to use our greed to meet the needs of others!

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Glenn

Any economic system that gets away from a free market, allows the greedy people in power to become wealthy a the expense of the common people.  A truly free market limits that abuse.

Does anyone else have some other thoughts?

          Here is the prayer I published the day after Barak Obama was elected president.  I thought it worth running again today.  Below are two other articles well-worth the time to read.  The first is from a sermon by John Piper titled “Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President.” Though given 16 years ago at the inauguration of Bill Clinton, it is relevant again today.   The second link is a prayer for our president offered by Albert Mohler.

John Piper’s message can be found here

Al Mohler’s prayer can be found here

Psalm 119.  I had the first few days of this week off and read part of this chapter during those days.  Here are some prayers that I marked for the upcoming year.  These are especially good for a teaching pastor.  “O that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!” (v5)  “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.” (v14)  “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.  Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.” (36-37)  “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” (72)  I hope to have that kind of delight in God’s Word during the coming year!  It is too easy for me to get caught up with temporal things instead of the eternal.  But deep inside I want to delight in (and invest in!) the eternal.  God’s Word is one of the few eternal things in this life.  Help me, like the psalmist to do just that.

        The old Catechism asked, “What is the chief end of man?”  And the answer was, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  The first part of that formula I can understand, the second is more difficult.  Yet here the old poem talks about exactly that: delighting in the things of God.  May you delight in God’s Word in 2009.  May it be your passion, your desire, the thing more precious than silver or gold.  That’s what we need more of in an economic downturn!

I’ve been thinking about burnout lately.  Not because I am struggling with it, though motivation in ministry can be an issue for me, but because I’ve been asked about it in some different contexts.  There may be times when someone struggles with burnout issues because of sickness or other physical imbalances.  Outside of that, I’m thinking that burnout in ministry always has the same cause, though that cause may take many forms.  Burnout comes when someone is relying on a resource other than God.

            Some people burnout in ministry because they are not believers and are just doing what seemed to them a good thing to do.  It may be something that they fell into or it may be copying someone who impacted them, but they are doing it without Christ because they never really trusted him for salvation.  These people will run out of gas before too long.  Either they will see the futility of what they are doing and lose motivation or they will run themselves ragged trying to meet needs they have no strength to meet.

            Some burnout because they pursue the wrong things.  They work for big numbers of people, or big buildings or more exposure and fame.  For a few, these things happen in spite of them, and the results are motivating enough without God’s help.  I believe this is the case with some of the big media preachers, though not all.  But for many more, the results never come and the unmet expectations wear heavy after a time.  I’ve been there myself and I know.  I decided years ago, when I was pastoring a very small church, that if God wanted me to spend my life preaching to only 30 people, I would be faithful to that task and leave the results to him.  Sometimes people seek approval or recognition in ministry.  They need positive feedback, and when they don’t get it, they get weary.  This also I know all too well.  It is encouraging to get good feedback in ministry, and we should encourage those who minister to us, but if that feedback is our motivation, we are pursuing the wrong things.  God will not empower the wrong pursuit.

            A special case of wrong pursuits is people who burnout because they are maintaining the institutional methods they were taught without conviction or passion that those methods are what God really desires.  Or they follow those methods thinking they are God’s only ordained methods.  In either case, God is not in it because they are not ministering from overflow of the relationship but from human tradition.  This is not to say there are no God-ordained methods or traditions, but to say that God uses different things at different times and in different settings.  Simply using what one believes to be a God-ordained method because of the past is not relying on him in the present.

            Another case of the above is those who burnout because they are not ministering in the area God gifted them to minister.  I believe the spiritual gifts God gives affect people to the core of their being, impacting even their motivations.  When people use the spiritual gifts God gave them, they are motivated and enthusiastic about their ministry.  When they minister in other areas, they wear out because there is not a deep motivation there.  I am gifted as a preacher/teacher, and, after 20 years of full-time ministry, the past fifteen as a teaching pastor, I have never tired of preaching God’s Word week after week.  However, when called upon to do counseling or to mediate between differing parties, I wear out quickly.  The co-pastor at our church has a great sensitivity to hurting people and is motivated to counsel them.  Though he does a great job filling the pulpit when I’m on vacation, it is not something he relishes doing often; it would wear him out like counseling does me.

Finally, some burnout because they do not take the needed sabbath rests God tells his people to take.  I’ve seen many a pastor who wouldn’t take a day off each week, because he thought there was too much to do and his work was too important to break away from.  Such thinking is arrogant; it presumes that God can’t operate without me, and that his principles don’t apply to me.  Ultimately it is relying on my strength instead of God’s.  Relying on God’s strength means always following his principles, even if it seems that less is getting done for the kingdom.  An acrostic I thought of years ago is appropriate here.  True REST is Relying on El Shadai’s Strength Totally; El Shadai is God Almighty.

As I’ve written in recent days, our ministry to others must be from the overflow of God’s ministry to us.  He must be the ultimate resource we have in ministry.  We must follow his principles, use the methods and gifts he’s called us to, take needed rests, and trust in him.  When we abide in the Vine, then we will bear fruit.  When the Spirit is evident in our lives, we will have joy.

Occasionally I’m asked what good books I’ve read, and I wish I had time to read far more than I do.  I had thought about doing a top-ten list of books that have influenced my life, but I can’t honestly say these are the top ten.  I’m sure there are books which had a great impact on me years ago, and though the impact may still be with me, I’ve forgotten about the books in my middle-age mindset.  Maybe I should call this ten books I remember having a big impact on my life.  Anyway these are all worth the time to read.  They are listed in the order I read and/or discovered them.

1970s Through Gates of Splendor      Elizabeth Elliott

            The story of five men who gave their lives to reach a tribe of head hunters grabbed my high-school attention and impacted me forever.  May I have that kind of dedication to Christ.  This story has come back into focus with the recent movie, “The End of the Spear.”  I haven’t seen the film yet, so I can’t comment on it.

1980s George Muller: Man of Faith and Miracles      Basil Miller

            This biography taught me once and for all that we can depend on God to meet our needs when we are doing his will and that one life can impact a generation.

            Knowing God      J.I. Packer

            Though parts of it read like a seminary text book, the content is life changing.  I love Packer as an author, and, of what I’ve read, this is his best work.

1990s A Slow and Certain Light      Elizabeth Elliot

            The title indicates her perspective and finding and following God’s will – not bells and whistles but a growing faith and certainty

            From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya      Ruth Tucker

            This different perspective on church history tells the story of the gospel going around the world through the lives of those God used to make it happen.  Tucker doesn’t candy coat their lives; she lets the reader know they were men and women with faults, yet God used them in his plan anyway.

            The Screwtape Letters               C.S. Lewis

This classic work on spiritual battle can wake up one to the subtle schemes of God’s enemy.  Convicting and enlightening, but fun at the same time.

2000s Desiring God      John Piper

            Like Packer, John Piper’s works are not easy reads, but they are usually well worth the effort.  This is probably his classic.  The subtitle tells what it’s about:  “Meditations of a Christian Hedonist!”

            William Tyndale – A Biography      David Daniell

            Tyndale is one of my great heroes from church history.  This is the definitive work on his life.  If you have a Bible in English, it’s because this man paid the ultimate price for you to have it.  His translation of the NT was the basis for every English Bible from 1535 until the 1970s.

            Basic Economics      Thomas Sowell

            Though not a Christian book, it still had an impact on my thinking.  It is a textbook about the free market system – how and why it works.

            It’s Not About Me      Max Lucado

            Everything we do is usually about us, but life should be about God.  If you’ve read this blog, you know my theme is “It’s all about God.”  Lucado says the same thing like only he can.

            What books have influenced your life?