User Friendly Witnessing

While the 4 gospels depict a Jesus as a person not always popular with the religious establishment of his day, the overall populace found Jesus quite appealing. One can speculate as to why - perhaps his ability to heal the sick and cast out demons - or his amazing teaching as one who had real authority; but I think the reason Jesus drew such a following was the simple fact that he was the kind of person that others just liked being around. For us to be followers and imitators of our Lord, it would help if we could be the kind of people that others just liked being around. In his classic writing, The Power of Positive Thinking, author Norman Vincent Peale lists ten rules, a kind of spiritual cadence if you will, in how we can become the kind of people that others enjoy being around. Do this, and your witness will be respected.

1. Learn to remember names.
2. Be a very comfortable person so there is no strain in others being with you.
3. Acquire the quality of a relaxed, easy-going manner in how you talk and listen.
4. Don't be egotistical. Be humble.
5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will want to be with you.
6. Study to get the "scratchy" elements out of your personality.
7. Don't hold grudges.
8. Practice liking people.
9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulations or share a sympathy.
10. Get a deep spiritual experience so that you have something to give to people.

Twelve Days of Christmas

Did you know that the famous Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is now believed by a number of historians to be a hymn incognito? During the reign of England's Queen Elizabeth I, who happened to be a very staunch Protestant, Catholics were not allowed to many of the privileges that once were afforded them. An unknown clever priest found a unique way to teach the essentials of the Catholic faith to Catholic children by disguising their beliefs in a hymn we now know as "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Here is what the symbolism once meant.

True Love gave to me - what God the Father gives to believers.
Partridge in a Pear Tree - Jesus crucified on the cross.
Two Turtle Doves - The Old and New Testaments.
Three French Hens - Faith, Hope and Love.
Four Calling Birds - Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Five Gold Rings - The first 5 books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.
Six Geese a Laying - Six days of creation.
Seven Swans a Swimming - Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Eight Maids a Milking - Eight Beatitudes found in Matthew 5.
Nine Ladies Dancing - Nine choirs of angels.
Ten Lords'a Leaping - Ten Commandments.
Eleven Pipers Piping - Eleven Faithful apostles.
Twelve Drummers Drumming - Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed.

I hope you think about these twelve gifts of Christmas beginning with Christmas day and the eleven days that follow Christmas. Let it be a time to reflect on the gifts that God has given us, and be thankful. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

- Dennis

What is a Tithe

The first New Testament "Tithing Parable" is told by Jesus in Matthew 25. He tells the story of three men who each receive differing amounts of money from their Master. To one is given $5,000 - to another $2,000 - and yet to another $1,000. The servants who receive the larger amounts double their investment, but the one receiving the least amount simply digs a hole and buries it in the ground, driven mostly be fear and the knowledge that his Master demands much from all his servants. When you read the Master's response in verse 27, he disciplines the servant for not putting his money in the bank to draw interest. The point - the Master demands an interest from how his money is invested.

This is what it means to tithe. A tithe is 10% of what you make given back to God. God commands us to tithe our 10% and live only on 90% of what we earn, which is a more explicit way of saying that God demands interest from the money we are given to invest: and all the money we make is possible only because of the God-given skills and abilities we are given by God with which to make money. Hence, it all is God's. What matters is that we return the interest - 10% - back to God when we make money. So, how can we practice the tithe in a practical manner? There are diverse views.

Some churches teach that all 10% of our tithe should go to your local church, and anything you give beyond that 10% is real giving and should be to chartible causes. Other churches, like the United Methodist Church, advocate splitting your 10% tithe between church and charity, but how you split it is up to you. Still, the Roman Catholic church advocates more explicit direction - 5% to church and 5% to charity. This is often called the "Catholic Tithe". My advice, as a United Methodist pastor, is to invoke 2 Cor 9:7 and make up your own mind on what you give-giving cheerfully.

In today's economy it is difficult for people to give what they do not have, and some cannot tithe due to economic restraints and expenses that outweigh revenues. In the body of Christ, those who can help those who cannot; so in your church, where ever you worship, if you can give more than what is required, do so; so that you may help make up the difference for those who cannot do what is required.

That is not fair - you say! God never said life is fair. God did tell us to bear one another's burden and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Jesus Wept.

Perhaps one of the most powerful verses in all of the Bible is one with the fewest words, found in John 11:35 where it says, "Jesus wept." The statement is in reference to Jesus' visit with Mary and Martha to see Lazarus. Word had come to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, and when Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had already died. When Jesus went to see the tomb, he found Mary and her friends weeping, and when Jesus saw this, he was deeply moved, and wept with them.

Often when this story is referenced attention is given to the display of Jesus power when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Some even see this event as a foreshadowing of the story's upcoming events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. But don't let get lost the emotion that ocurrs before Jesus display of power. Jesus had great emotion and he wept. Jesus was not only a man of great intellect and wisdom, who taught as one who had real authority. Like us, Jesus felt deeply about people.

To know Jesus is to know him with your heart, in that places where emotions run deep. Today, I encourage you the read the story of Lazarus' healing in John 11. When you do, read it with your heart and not just your mind. If you do, then you too may weep as you read, and a whole new meaning may emerge when you read Jesus' words, "I am the resurrection and the life."

How To Be Perfect

I've just started a new book that came out this year in 2011 written by Daniel M. Harrell called, "How to Be Perfect". It tells the story of 19 members from Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts who joined with their pastor in a month of obedience, living the life of faith as outlined in the O.T. book of Leviticus. What an experiment that must have proved. I'm looking forward to finshing the book. There is one comment I ran across on page 111 where the author Harrell writes, "To obey God's commands is to be like God." I found this both inspiring, challenging, and interesting. In the creation stories, the presumption of human sin is in our desire to believe we can be as God. There is a difference between "as" and "like".

To be "as" someone is to assume you can be that person. To be "like" someone is to try and imitate that person. When Jesus said to "be holy as God is holy" he was commanding us to be like God, to let our character reflect his holiness; but always with the knowledge that God is God, and we are God's creation. Too many of us live as if we are the god of their own lives, but too few of us live as if we are striving to be like God. Let the Holy Spirit be at work in all of us. Perhaps the words of our Communion liturgy will have more power when we say - "make this bread and cup be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood." We can learn how to live like Jesus - in grace.

Dennis

One Wish

Perhaps you have heard the story about a man who found a lamp on a deserted beach. He rubbed the lamp on its side and out popped a genie. The genie told him that normally he had three wishes to grant, but two of them had already been used up. He had only one last wish to grant. The man thought, then asked for the New York Times Paper - stocks update edition, dated one year from today. The genie said, "Granted" and the genie disappeared and in place of the genie was a copy of the New York Times dated one year later. The man turned to the stock section and said to himself, "Now that I know what stocks will be a year from now, I can make my investment now and be rich in just one year." The man was feeling pretty good about his wish until he dropped the paper by accident. When he bent down to pick the paper up something had caught his attention that made him stare in disbelief. The paper had fallen open to the obituary section, and the man's name was on the top of the page. Life is ironic to say the least, but it does give new meaning to Proverbs 3:5 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

What Do You Think About?

Perhaps you are familiar with Descartes famous quote, "I think therefore I am." This quote reminds us that what we become grows from the seeds of what we think. Much of what comes out of our mouth, along with the values we embrace, is first shaped by what we spend our time on in thought and meditation. Perhaps this is why we find Philippians 4:8 to read, "Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." In time, what you think will find a translation in how you choose to live. For years, we know that our physiological systems are a product of our food. Hence, we really are what we eat. This is no less true for a soul than for a body. We are what we think. Let's know what we should put our minds on. It can make all the difference in the kind of world we help to build for ourselves and for others.

Dennis