Glorious Mud

I made a point in a recent sermon  that sometimes we block ourselves from growing in our faith with good theology. I think some people thought it was a strange point and I’d like to explain why I think it is a point worth making. First, to make it clear, theology is not the problem. Having a sound theology is a good thing - it helps clarify our thinking about ourselves and about God. It gives us a framework for understanding who God is, what he has done, and how we take hold of his covenant promises. It gives us a scope of God’s awesome control and nature and our dignity and depravity. All good things. Sound theology is (to quote Paul) “holy and righteous and good,” but sometimes how we use it isn’t. Culturally, we have a very low tolerance for sorrow and negative feelings. We are like the character Joy in the movie Inside Out. We want to draw a little circle around our sad feelings and say, “This is your place, you stay in there. Don’t touch anything.” And the circle we draw i...

Oops. Thought I had already written about this Psalm. Guess I started and got distracted. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.   Psalm 18:1-2 The header this Psalm says that David wrote this on the day that God delivered him from Saul's hand. That had to be a good day for David. Saul was hunting David mercilessly and he had kept David on the run, hiding in caves, and continually exposed to danger. Worse, David was helpless to save himself. Once Saul climbed up into a cave to take a dump, and it just happened to be where David was hiding that day. Saul had no idea David was there in the darkness. Saul was completely exposed and David couldn't do anything because Saul was Israel's rightful king. As wicked as Saul was - as unjustly ...

Kelly, our wonderful  Trailhead Kids leader, sent me a link to a great blog over at Sojourn Church.  It is titled " 9 Reasons not to Ask Jesus into your Heart ."  You should read it because it is clear, succinct, and right. I am not a fan of asking Jesus into your heart.  I am not a fan of committing your life to Christ or making him Lord of your life or asking Jesus to be your friend, either.  Strange thing for a pastor to say, right?  Wrong. After I became a believer and started working in a Christian high school, I came to see just how short those kinds of sayings fall from leading people to the real gospel.  As a new believer (and a lover of all things English), I loved my job, most of the things about my school, and, of course, my students.  One of the key frustrations I had, though, was that so many of my students claimed to follow Jesus but so few of them seemed to know him or love him. So, about two months into the school year, I de...