Revelation, Suffering and Hope

On Sunday I spoke on Revelation. I guess most people aren't used to the idea of Revelation being encouraging!  I got a lot of thanks for the message. I also undermined the idea that God has to "fix" all of our problems before we can worship him.  Some of the best worshippers have been those who have died for their faith.

One person wrote me and said the message was "lifechanging".  I had to know more so I asked the person to expand and this is what they said. I thought it might encourage others...

Your message helped me to change my attitude towards suffering. I've been waiting so long for God to do things in my life since I've had a relationship with him and not to see it happen brings a lot of  discouragement.  [But now that you mention it...] suffering indeed has drawn me very close to Him, and has taught me more about Him than I ever imagined. Also I could never worship and love Him the way I do without the lessons it's taught me.

I was also impacted by your insight into the book of Revelation that its simply about Jesus being on the throne to be worshipped, and to bring hope to believers who were suffering beyond belief. I saw a story the other night about the musician John Waller who suffered 18 years with bipolar disease and had expectations for God to heal him. After a lot of let downs and trying to figure God out, he finally learned that it's best just to worship God and trust Him. Eventually God healed him at the appropriate time in his life. He wrote the hit , While Im Waiting which is a great worship song relating to his suffering.

I see now its best to embrace our suffering, cling close to God knowing He's on his throne, and worship Him for who He is and for how much He loves us.  

Amen and amen.

Cedarbrook Welcomes Pastor Dave Johnson

I'm happy that Dave Johnson will be joining us this Sunday. Dave pastors Church of the Open Door in Maple Grove, MN.  Even though I just met Dave a few months ago we "go way back". Let me explain.

Back in the 70's I came to faith in an upbeat contemporary church in Minneapolis. It grew and grew but then fell apart when the lead pastor was exposed in adultery. The church didn't handle it well. It got ugly and the majority of the people left the church...hundreds. (I learned many lessons on how NOT to do church through that era).

I heard that a lot of the people were ending up in a small church in North Minneapolis called Church of the Open Door. Some young guy had just taken it over...was preaching the Bible with clarity and life...and lives were being changed. His name was Dave Johnson.  He seemed to have a heart for not just preaching the Bible but seeing the Bible impact lives for good...especially healing emotional wounds.

I lived in South Minneapolis so I never visited the church...just heard the reports...and they were good. C.O.D. kept growing. They had to move out of their church  building into the old Robbinsdale High School where they continued to grow...up to 5000 people at one point.  Dave published a timely  book with one of his co-pastors...The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. I personally found it very helpful having seen my share of pastoral craziness...pastors wielding way too much control in their churches and hurting hundreds in the process.

I finally made it up to see Dave preach but he was on vacation and got a guest speaker. It took a few more years before I actually saw him speak.  But I wasn't disappointed when I did. He was full of passion. He was sincere. And he was real.  He had a bookstore full  of his teachings on cassette. I picked up two series that were profound...The Pain of Porneia...a look at how mishandling sex has hurt so many...and Women in Ministry...Dave's teaching on  1 Timothy and why he felt women should have equal right to ministry.  Both teachings had a powerful impact on me...Dave's word was probably what opened me up to my current belief in women in ministry.

Finally, I heard that Dave did a teaching on the Beatitudes that changed his church.  He converted some of that teaching into a book called Joy Comes in the Mourning.  It was the best teaching on the Beatitudes I had ever read...very practical. It really helped me to get a picture of what it means for the Kingdom of God to  come on earth as it is in heaven. I told Dave recently the impact the  book had on me and he was shocked because he wasn't happy with the book and it never sold well.  I guess the book was written just for me because I really liked it!

So now, 30 years after watching Dave from a far, I met him at a conference and we struck up a friendship, hence his visiting Cedarbrook on Sunday.  I have a ton of respect for anyone who commits themselves to pastor their church for 30 years, let alone keeps it together and even manages to grow it. Since Cedarbrook is still young (eight years) I have a lot to learn from Dave.

I hope you'll join us on Sunday and invite a friend to hear Dave. He gave me a sneak preview of his message. It will start in Colossians...travel around the Bible (as is his style) and encourage us about the hope of the gospel...that is, what makes it good news for you and me today.

How We Lost Our Audience...and how to get it back.

I got a lot of positive feedback from my message yesterday. I seemed to have hit on something that many people had questions about.  You can download "Lost in Translation" if you missed it.

In addition to talking about Desperate Housewives and Country music I talked about how it is that even though we have the best story in the world  to tell (the story of Jesus) yet so many people ignore it. They are unimpressed. The truth is, we've done a good job of losing our audience.  I looked at five ways we lose our audience and then what the Bible says about how to win it back.

One of the things we ("we" meaning most Christians) do wrong is we don't give people enough room to think about faith and dialogue with them about it.  When I was a kid and learning to fish I would always want to reel the fish in the moment my bobber went down but my dad told me to let the fish run with the bait for a while. I think that's true with us. We often aren't patient enough to let people wrestle with issues of faith. We just want them to believe and be like us!  But that's why people spit our story out of their mouth.

Jesus rarely "closed the deal" with people's faith questions. He typically just asked them more questions. He wanted them to fully understand the issues and not just believe a doctrine or make a decision. Jesus wanted to engage people in discussion...that is, a relationship. He's not looking for a convert as much as a disciple...someone that walks with him, talks with him and learns to do what he does.

I think there are more spiritually interested people out there than we realize. We just need to stop being religious and learn how to talk as naturally about our faith as we do sports or gardening.

A Reasonable Response to God's Story

On Sunday I followed up The Story series by asking the question, "What's a reasonable response to The Story?"  What is an authentic expression of our faith and thanksgiving for what God has done for us?  Paul and Jesus made it clear... a reasonable response is to give God everything...your whole life...every day! (see Romans 12:1 and Mark 12:20)

I hope you'll download the message if you missed it.

I wanted to spend more time in the book of Colossians but was short on time.  I talked about living a transformed life and it intrigues me how much of transformation hinges on US.  God does the changing but WE need to make choices all along the way that give God the right to do the work.

It's kind of like a doctor these days. They are very concerned about lawsuits so they ask permission to do everything. I'm going to do this. Is that okay?  I'm going to touch you here. Is that okay?  The doctor won't do anything without your permission and God is very much the same way. You need to invite God to do his work all along the way. It's a team effort!

I know we all want God to wave a wand over us and magically change us but we need to take action. In Colossians 3 Paul tells the people what THEY are responsible to do.

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Colossians 3

For Paul to command us to do these things he must be convinced that the power of sin has been broken in our lives. He couldn't command this if he didn't. In fact, he says elsewhere that the power of sin was put to death  when Jesus died. But now we need to LIVE OUT what is true.  We need to put away our old life and put on the new life.  The more we obey God's call the more we invite him to keep changing us into the image of Jesus.  I hope that's what you want for you life!

Raising the Spiritual Bar

Seth Godin is a business guru. I like what he said below about those who raise the bar of performance. He's talking about the business world, but what if we applied it to our faith?  

Some people I know work hard to lower the bar at work.

That was my strategy at gym class in high school. Not only did I do the minimum amount permitted, I worked hard to do just a little bit less than that. By the time the semester was over, the teacher was relieved if I even bothered to show up at all.

Most people seek to meet the bar. They figure out what's expected, and do that.

A few people, very few, work to relentlessly raise the bar. She's the one who overdelivers on projects, shows up ahead of schedule, instigates, suggests and pushes.

Raising the bar is exhausting, no doubt about it. I'm not sure the people who engage in this apparently reckless behavior would have it any other way, though. They get to experience a fundamentally different day, a different journey and a different reputation than everyone else.

It seems like many today, in the name of "grace", want to lower the bar spiritually. But I don't see us doing the "greater things" that Jesus promised by lowering the bar. What if we trusted in the power and goodness of God to do great things - amazing things -  in and through us rather than merely scraping by and then sheepishly smiling as we point to God's grace for our excuse? Grace means "gift". God graces us with forgiveness but he also graces us with the ability to do things we never thought possible. Let's raise the bar. Jesus did.

The Resurrection, Doubt and Mystery

If you missed Sunday I hope you'll download "Doubters Welcome".  People seemed to be encouraged that doubting the resurrection is not the end of the world. The disciples doubted but came around to finally believe and that's why they wrote their gospel accounts.

I spoke a little about "mystery" in the first service. I got a little more insight as I spoke during the second service and so I'll share that here.

My point was that Jesus isn't threatened by our doubt or disappointed by our confusion and lack of understanding.  He would call that  "mystery".  I noted that mystery stories keep us on the edge of our seat. They engage us because we want to learn more.  Some people hate mysteries. They don't like the suspense. They want things cut and dried for them. Obvious.  But most people are intrigued by mystery. And if you think about it, doubt and confusion are central to what makes a good mystery.

Mystery is what keeps us dating that special person. I didn't learn all there is to know about  Lisa (my wife) on our first date.  She fascinated me and made me want to know more.  Thirty three years later I realize that there is still more to discover about her. This keeps me engaged.

Mystery is not a bad thing. It's good. And that's why God is happy to keep us guessing at times. Our culture wants everything mapped out and diagrammed. But when it is, we get bored  and move on to the next thing.

I think one of the reasons that young people today are not interested in Jesus or Christianity is because in past days  the church felt the need to answer every question and  solve every problem that bothered people about the faith. Church people felt that if we could answer every question we would win more converts. But the truth is...when you answer every question you eliminate the mystery. You make God boring.  We ask...is that it? I think Buddhism is cooler! (some might say).

Leave it to the church to make God boring!

My point in saying  this is that  if you doubt and don't always understand God...that's okay. Don't assume you are a failure and give up. Don't walk away. Walk toward God with your questions and you'll be surprised how much he has to show you about himself.

God's Idea of Payback

Yesterday I looked at four word pictures that Jesus left for us in his last week before his death and resurrection. Download "Lasting Images" if you missed it. One of the images was of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Jesus told Peter...if you don't let me wash your feet you have no part in me. In other words.. Peter, if you can't embrace my role as servant then you have no business being my disciple because that's who I am and I'm asking you to be a servant to others too. Peter needed to reshape his idea of Jesus/God.

If I would have had the time I would have developed that thought a bit. In the letter of First John in the Bible John talks about loving others. Notice especially verses 11 and 12...

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12

I like to contrast the way I think a verse will end with the way it is written. I find it interesting that verse 11 doesn't say...Since God so loved us, we also ought to love God.

Why not?  Typically we love people who love us. We treat people well who treat us well. To get us to love those who don't love us is nearly impossible. But that's our calling. So God says, look, I sent my Son so that you might live. Now, you don't have to do anything back for me but instead I want you to love others, even your enemies. By this people will know that you are my disciples and that I am real.

Do you see the wisdom in this?  Maybe this will help you love that nasty person at work or your grumpy neighbor or even that person living in your house who seems to constantly get on your nerves!  Don't love them because they are so lovable. Love them because God showed you so much love.

I hope to see you on Good Friday and Easter!

Race to Nowhere

I just got back from our screening of the independent documentary "Race to Nowhere". It documents the stress that students are undergoing in schools today and the sometime deadly results.  Thought provoking.

It was really an eye opener to me. I was amazed to learn about the level of homework that is typical in school today, even in grade school. I don't remember that at all for myself and not even that much for my own children.  But it seems that the way to get into the college of choice is to rack up as many AP classes and extracurricular involvement as possible.

Check out the Race to Nowhere website to learn more and watch the trailer.

You Too Can Be a Rabbi!

I didn't have time for one thought on Sunday but it's an interesting one. If you missed it, I gave an overview of what the kingdom of God looks like on earth by looking at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Jesus closes out his message by telling us that if we are smart, we will put his teaching into practice. The kingdom of God only comes when his followers embrace and live out his teaching.

But what strikes me as especially interesting is that Jesus expected all of his followers to become rabbis. In that day only the best and the brightest rose to the level of rabbi (teachers of spiritual truth). But Jesus chose and entrusted the common people to follow him, put his teaching into practice AND turn around and teach others. How empowering is that? Jesus wanted to release thousands of rabbis into the world, not just a select few. Look at these two verses...

...whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19

...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ...and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19,20

I think this is an area of incredible opportunity for the church...develop and release people to mentor other young believers. You don't have to be an "expert Christian". You don't have to be perfect. You just need to love Jesus and be willing to share what you know and don't know with someone else. You don't have to preach or teach. You can go for coffee or sit in a boat and fish...but you always have it on your radar to encourage someone else in the faith.

So who do you know who is younger in their faith than you that you can invite to do this with? A simple thing is to read a book together or just meet to discuss the Sunday sermon. I'd love to hear back if you do this.

Click here to download Sunday's message.

Heaven is for NOW

Yesterday I introduced the message of Jesus in our study of the Bible. I said it focused on the Kingdom of God. In a nutshell, Jesus' taught that he brought the kingdom of God from heaven to earth and was inviting people...all people...to enter his kingdom. Now. Right then. Not when they died.

In other words, Jesus was allowing people to enjoy a foretaste of heaven here on earth by following him. Interesting thought. Maybe you've never thought of Christianity that way before. It's actually a radical thought...that heaven is now and our purpose as followers of Jesus is to create a community that looks like heaven...just like Jesus told us to pray...Your kingdom come. Your will be done...on earth as it is in heaven.

Download Heaven is Now if you missed my message.

When All Odds are Against You...

On Sunday I focused my message on the prophet Isaiah. But The Story captures a great story from the Bible from 2 Kings 18-19 that I didn't touch on. It's the story of King Hezekiah. You can read it in The Story Chapter 16.

The cliff notes version is that the Assyrian army had Jerusalem surrounded and ready to crush them.

5 Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. 7 And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 2 Kings 18

The King of Assyria wasn't too happy with Hezekiah's rebellion so he threatens him again. And then Hezekiah goes to the Lord in desperation. I love how he trusts in God when all odds are against him...

14 Hezekiah received the threatening letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes,O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. ...19 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

God responded by saying...

I will defend this city and save it for MY sake and for the sake of my servant David. 2 Kings 19:34

Amazingly God sent angels into the Assyrian camp and killed 180,000 of their men causing them to retreat and let Judah stand. Hezekiah didn't lift a finger. God did it all!

I mention this to you because maybe you feel that you are trapped today with all odds against you and no way out. Don't forget that the God of the Universe is with you and is willing to dispatch his angels on your behalf as well! Like Hezekiah, lay your biggest problem before God and ask God to deliver you for HIS names sake. And then wait and watch.

Be encouraged!

Remy

p.s. - if you want to be encouraged more please download my message from Sunday! It's a word of hope for people going through a hard time.

My Time With A Spiritual Director

I'm spending the week at a conference of the Covenant Church. They often offer opportunities to meet with a spiritual director so I usually take advantage of the offer.

Meeting with a spiritual director might seem a little spooky. It kinda sounds like you close your eyes and some mystic takes you to spiritual places. Not at all. It's very simple. They don't direct you at all. They simply act as facilitators so that you might get a sense of God's direction in your life.

I really like the time. My mind is usually consumed with solving problems or developing Sunday sermons. I don't spend enough time just reflecting. Spiritual direction helps me stop and listen. The director let's you say what's on your mind and occasionally asks a question to draw you out or makes an observation about a theme that they might sense.

This morning when I was with the director I became aware of how passionate I am to take Cedarbrook even deeper. We've spent so much time developing the church. I'm very proud of that but there are three areas I really want to see developed. One is a sense of community. I moved to Wisconsin to live in community. There is something in me that wants to develop that more among the Cedarbrook family. We are rich when we have a strong network of friends.

The second thing is helping people go beyond a Sunday faith and really learn to tap into a moment by moment faith where God is a living reality. I hope that we can help people with spiritual directors, mentors and coaches as well as our current ministry of theophostic prayer. God wants to be more involved in our lives than we realize.

The third area is to offer family oriented teaching; parenting skills, marriage enrichment and financial advice. The fabric of our culture is only as strong as the family. Our faith has a lot to do with family strength.

I pass this on for two reasons; you might want to seek out a spiritual director and you might want to know my vision for the future of Cedarbrook.

The ah-hah for me this morning was that even though we've accomplished a lot at Cedarbrook there are still many things that we haven't accomplished. I need to shift my vision casting from building the tangible infrastructure to less tangible growth areas.

Facing the Giants in Your Life

Yesterday I looked at the fall of Saul and the rise of David in Israel. What set David apart from Saul was his passion for God...his passion to honor God and not himself. God honors those who honor him.

Sometimes as I preach I feel like God is emphasizing a specific point through me. Yesterday I had that sense as I talked about David running into battle. My point was that David didn't pray for God's help and then sit back and wait for someone else to show up and save the day. He took it upon himself to do the hard thing...confront the giant. It's when he took that risk that God showed up giving him courage, faith, wisdom and skill beyond his ability. If he hadn't taken action Goliath would have won the day, not David.

I've heard people say...I prayed and asked God for help but he didn't do anything. But maybe God is saying the same thing! Maybe he is asking...why did you pray for help and then not do anything? I was all set to empower you to overcome your problem but you sat back and waited for someone else to save the day. You just missed a huge opportunity!

The best way to see God move in your life is to take a risk...seek to obey him in an area that you've previously accepted defeat and see if he doesn't give you the power to do what you never thought you could do. That's what makes Bible heroes heroes. They are ordinary weak people who trusted God to empower them to do what they thought was impossible.

Download the message here.

If you are behind on The Story I hope you'll get caught up! You can do it!

Book Review: Sacred Meal

Rating: three stars out of five.

Thomas Nelson Publishing has recently put out a series of books that deal with different spiritual practices. I've already read the book on tithing (reviewed earlier this year) and look forward to reading the one on sabbath (coming soon). But I just finished the book on communion called Sacred Meal by Nora Gallager.

Sacred Meal wasn’t what I was expecting. Maybe that’s why I only gave it three stars. Nora Gallager is actually an excellent writer. I really enjoyed her style; very easy going reflective thoughts. She weaved her personal experience and personal thoughts in and out of the topic of communion which was often very insightful.

But being more of a linear student type of a reader I was expecting a book that brought more history and biblical teaching to the subject. That’s not what Sacred Meal is about but that doesn’t make it any less valuable. To be fair, the quality of the book is five stars if you are looking for this style of work. (Although, my guess is that some conservative readers will feel like she totally missed the mark since her writing is based more on story than biblical teaching.)

Another curve for me was that Nora comes from the Episcopalian stream. That was interesting to me as someone who is not from that spiritual background. It’s always interesting to see how God works through different groups of people. On the other hand, I felt like she missed a lot of my experience coming from more of the Baptist/Pentecostal tradition. I would have liked to have heard more from other people with various communal experiences. But that’s really not her intent with this book.

Whether or not you should buy this book is based on what you are looking for. If you want in depth teaching on communion or a well balanced discussion from a variety of spiritual streams then this isn’t the book for you. But if you enjoy reading an excellent writer exploring her own thoughts and experiences from her particular church tradition then I highly recommend Sacred Meal. Nora is a gifted writer with a tender spirit who is able to use her life experiences as metaphor for God’s activity in life.

Note: I review books from Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for free books. But I’m not required to give their books positive reviews.

Let's Bless Others This Christmas

There's a good chance you missed Sunday because of the snow. I talked about adding some "legs" to our words, that is, adding action to our faith.

I mentioned in the second service that I'm an activist by nature. I don't do well just watching. I'm a "roll up your sleeves and get dirty" kind of guy! And that's the kind of church I want Cedarbrook to be. The saddest thing to me would be for Cedarbrookers to simply be satisfied with attending a service now and then and calling that "good". In contrast, the best thing would be if we came together to bless others.

That's what the Advent Conspiracy is all about. We are working at creating a new Christmas tradition of blessing others rather than simply blessing ourselves with presents and parties. I hope you'll download my message. The audio has my interview with Joe Draxler who has helped to dig wells this past year with Living Water.

My challenge to the church is for each one of us to set aside a portion of our Christmas fund to donate to either:

1. Stepping Stones Shelter here in Menononie, or...

2. Living Water International. We want to raise $10,000 to dig two wells this year. One in Honduras and one in Haiti.

Watch a brief video on digging wells in Haiti here.

Thanks so much! We will collect the money on Christmas Eve as well as the Sunday before and after Christmas.

Remy

Do You Come From The Land of Losers?

I really enjoy the story of Ruth. It's a classic gospel story of how God takes someone who society rejects (Ruth came from Moab...the land of losers) and makes them a faith hero.

You can download it now here.

We often sing about God being our Redeemer...but do you know what that is? My sermon outlines it for you. Boaz redeemed Ruth, pouring out his love on her in such an abundant way that she became a blessing to others. That's the effect God wants to have on us.

Ruth's story reminded me of Jesus honoring the Roman soldier who believed Jesus for his daughters healing. Jesus told him that he had never seen such faith in all of Israel. Wow!!!!!!!!!! That's like a major diss to the Israelites but a HUGE compliment to the Roman. Jesus took a spiritual outsider and made him a faith hero with his simple declaration.

It reminds me of what he said about the rocks. If God's people don't praise him, the rocks (Romans, Moabites, losers of this world) will praise him.

And the apostle Paul talked about how God has grafted on branches (non-Jews) onto God's vine.

Isn't it great to know that no matter how far from God you might have been or may even be yet today that you can be an insider RIGHT NOW by faith? I hope you'll let God "redeem" you fully so you are so blessed that you can't help but bless others.

Book Review: Your Money God's Way

If you are a person of faith and find yourself falling into money problems on a regular basis, Your Money God’s Way, might be a good shot in the arm. Amie Streater is a pastor who works full time at a megachurch teaching financial principles and counseling people in financial trouble. Her book is filled with anecdotes from her interaction with hundreds of people.

Amie is a straight talking, in-your-face kind of coach. I appreciated her directness and willness to call stupid stupid. Some church people can talk themselves into buying just about anything and even go into debt and then justify it either with the Bible or convincing themselves that “God told them to do it.” Streater doesn’t put up with such silliness and tackles seven myths, or what she calls “counterfeit convictions”. An example of just one is “I can’t really afford this, but I’ll just put it on my credit card. When the bill comes, God will provide!”.

I struggled a bit with the style of the book. Maybe it was because I was expecting something more along the lines of Dave Ramsey with principles and practices. But Streater’s book is more like sitting down with a wise counselor who isn’t afraid to tell you what’s wrong with your thinking and then gives you a laundry list of what to do at the end of each chapter.

Overall, I think it’s worth the read…especially if you have trouble making common sense financial decisions. This book will set you straight!

Disclaimer: I review books for Thomas Nelson in exchange for free books. But I am not required to give them a favorable review.

Meet Kyle Gunderson our new Associate Pastor

I'm excited to announce that our search for an associate pastor has resulted in calling Kyle Gunderson to Cedarbrook. I think he and his family are a very good fit for our church family.

Kyle Gunderson is only 29 years old but has ten years of youth pastor experience. He pastored at both Maple Grove Covenant, a church of 700 people and then International Falls Covenant, a church of about 300. In both churches he took struggling youth groups and grew them. His current youth group is at 80-100 students.

Kyle attended Bethel University for his undergraduate studies and is just now returning to Bethel for his Masters in Biblical Leadership (distance learning program). He is married to Anna and they have three boys ages 5,3 and 1 (Andrew, Joshua, Caleb).

Kyle wasn’t looking for a new job. The Covenant leaders called him and suggested he consider our position because they felt he would be a great match. All three Covenant executives told me that they consider Kyle to be the best youth pastor in the Northwest District. They speak very highly of him and are excited at the possibility of him joining a growing church like ours.

Kyle is very relational, a strong leader and shows good organizational skills His Strengthfinder (a type of personality test) strengths are:

· WOO- Winning Others Over. Everyone he meets he views as a potential friend.

· Belief- He is passionate about his beliefs.

· Positivity- He is quick to smile and have a word of encouragement

· Includer- He always wants to “add one more” to whatever is happening

· Self Assurance- He is confident of both is abilities and judgment

Kyle is filling a new full time position at Cedarbrook, that of Associate Pastor. Christine Ruth filled this on a part time basis a few years back but Kyle’s role will be much broader being full-time. His primary focus will be to develop and oversee the Youth Ministry but he will also assist me in general pastoral oversight of the church along with preaching on a regular basis.

Kyle’s current church requires a three month notice so he will not be able to join us until mid-February at the earliest plus he has a house to sell. Please pray for both his transition out of his current position as well as his transition into Cedarbrook and Menomonie. Change is stressful! But I think it will be a good change.

I think Kyle is a high capacity leader that will bring a lot of good to our community. Thanks in advance for welcoming him to Cedarbrook.

Remy

Why does God kill people in the Old Testament?

While I'm into answering hard questions (see earlier post) I might as well tackle another one. With our current overview of the Bible on Sundays you can't help but notice a few people dying as a result of God's anger. Most people quietly ignore this and hope that nobody notices or dares to ask but, come on... something's not right here. At least that's the first thought.

So, what's up? Well, there are some easy answers that many people quickly opt for.

1. The Bible is wrong. God never did this. So forget the Bible. If you must believe in it, believe the good parts that work with your spirituality.
2. The Bible is right and therefore God is crazy, angry and hates people.

Forgive me if I don't go down those roads. I try to see the Bible through the eyes of Jesus. He didn't jettison the Old Testament and I think he had a little clearer picture on things than any of us. So that leads me to believe that we must be missing something. Now, what we are missing...I'm not sure. I can only speculate. So that's what I'll do here just a bit...

1. God kills people to make a point in a very barbaric culture to very barbaric people. This is a culture that killed people over a donkey. If you were going to communicate to people that you were holy and not to be messed with, how would you communicate that? With note cards? God tends to relate to people throughout history in different ways based on the context. Note how in the New Testament this only happened with Ananias and Saphira. It just happened once in a limited way...just enough to remind people of his holiness but not willing to "go there" as a regular practice.
2. Judging God's actions through the eyes of our culture is impossible. We have no idea the context of the times. We can only guess. It's interesting to watch Moses have a change of heart in Exodus. God tells Moses to get down from the mountain because his people were worshipping a golden calf. God wants to wipe them out and start over. So Moses begs for their forgiveness. He even offers to die on their behalf. So God forgives them. But what does Moses do when he actually gets down to the pagan party? He gets angry enough to break the Ten Commandment tablets. My point is that even Moses had a change of heart when he saw what was really going on. He got angry just like God did. My guess is that if we were there we would see things differently.
3. As I mentioned in my post below, I don't think the death of people necessitates them going to hell. God is making more of a point about himself than he is of the people. He is holy and blatant sinfulness cannot stand in his presence.

As I said, I don't really have the answer. But I think we have to be careful before we are quick to assume that the Bible is wrong or God is crazy. It is just possible that we don't see the full picture. The Bible's overall message is consistent enough that when I see something that I don't understand that I simply put a question mark by it and trust that someday things will be made clear.

Sin, the Ten Commandments and Hell

In our study of the Ten Commandments recently one small group had questions about what I said about breaking them. I said that breaking the Ten Commandments doesn't disqualify you from heaven. It disqualifies you as God's agent on earth, being his representative. I said this in reference to the 3000 people that were killed by the Levites who worshipped Aaron's golden calf. I guess that this thought was so foreign to some people's previous understanding that it threw them for a bit of a loop. They had always assumed these people, and others like them, were destined for hell.

The simple answer is to look at Aaron himself. Not only did he worship other gods but he was responsible for creating a graven image that led people astray. But not only was Aaron not killed in Moses' assault but Aaron became the high priest. So, if Aaron didn't die and became high priest I'm guessing that the 3000 that died that day didn't go to hell. They were just taken "out of the game". This is a testimony to God's mercy.

This is all predicated on Abraham's covenant with God. God's covenant was "one-way", meaning that even if Abraham (or his people) failed God that God would not fail him." As Paul said to Timothy...though we are faithless He remains faithful.

Now, if Aaron absolutely rejected God, then I can't be so confident of his arrival in heaven. God won't drag anyone there who doesn't want to be there. But clearly God forgave him and gave him another chance.

On a similar note and larger scale...people often misread the teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven in the New Testament. People often assume that to not be included in the Kingdom of Heaven means someone will not go to heaven. In some cases this might be true but primarily it means that a person has not embraced the moral teaching of Jesus on earth. We too often think of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place apart from earth. But Jesus and the apostles spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven as the place on earth where people are obeying God. This might throw you for another loop but you can be a believer and not be in the Kingdom of Heaven. You can be "saved" (that is, you'll be with Jesus when you die) but not be living out the Kingdom lifestyle on earth. They are two different things just like Abraham and Moses' covenants were both different. You could be a Jew who didn't live out the Ten Commandments but you are still God's child.

I realize that these thoughts might be brand new to some. But that's just because the Kingdom has not been taught well in most evangelical churches. Nor has salvation. Salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven have been seen as being in the next life. But Jesus said that they both start now. Eternal life starts the moment you believe. We bring the kingdom of heaven to earth to the degree that we obey Jesus' teaching. But just because we fail to live out the teaching doesn't mean we'll miss out on heaven. And the opposite is true, just because we obey his teachings doesn't mean we'll make it to heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is more than a moral code. It's a relationship defined by a moral code.

My point in bringing this up is that it equates well to living out the Ten Commandments. The better we live them out the better we represent God and bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. But failing to live them out doesn't send us to hell! You and I can be glad for that!

I hope I haven't only muddied the waters. But if nothing else I've pointed out that things aren't as simplistic as the church has often painted them. Let's be careful with our assumptions about hell and who goes there.