The Da Vinci Code Movie is coming out this week. I get the feeling that there are some Christians who are afraid Dan Brown’s story will somehow usher in some kind of evil darkness devoid of Christian thought.

Google “da vinci code Christian” and you find that the Da Vinci Code needs debunking, breaking, deciphering, dismantling, and cracking. You can find out the truth about it, whether it’s fact or fiction, and why it has appeal. And every one of those links is on the opening search page. I didn’t have to hunt for them. Sheesh!

I got an email Jerry Falwell this morning with the subject line “The Da Vinci Code Deception.” My first instinct was to delete it. I do that a lot with his stuff because I’ve grown tired of his combative approach to every issue and what I perceive as his need to be right about everything.

But as I started thinking about writing this, I went back into my deleted items because his stuff is usually pretty well thought out, even if it is belligerent. I was hugely disappointed to find it was just an advertisement hawking a book of his own on the subject!

Our church has even had a few weekend messages devoted to the subject. I think they were a good idea because the approach was to try to give folks an idea of what all the hubbub is about.

Now here’s my thing: Are Christian leaders really afraid that the Scriptures that have withstood assaults for millennia are suddenly going to collapse because some guy writes a novel? Come on!

If I based my world view on something that flimsy, I would want it shaken up a bit!

I want to base my life on capital ‘T’ Truth. If some new mystery/thriller was all it took to shake my belief system then how true could it be?

The author even claims it as fiction. Does he stir the pot and muddy the waters? Of course he does. I bet he thinks the more controversy, the better since it equals free publicity. Publicity sells books and lines his pockets. If you read Dan Brown’s faqs you’ll see what I mean.

So we are in a rather ironic situation where Christians, in their effort to stand for truth and confront evil, are doing all the heavy lifting to make sure that the offending book gets as wide an audience as possible.

I think they’ve missed the point. God is big enough to manage His own reputation. He doesn’t need my help. (Sure I try to do little things to make Him look good. But that’s really more for my benefit than His. It’s not like His reputation is dependant on me!)

The problem is most people have never put any real effort into figuring out what they actually believe so they end up chasing what ever new idea comes along. It’s as futile as chasing the wind.

Sailors know you don’t chase the wind. You certainly can’t control it. The wind is going to blow where it will. All a good sailor can do is set his sails to the best of his ability so he can harness the wind to get where he wants to go.

When folks chase each new idea that comes along they are like a sailor steering all over the compass trying to chase the wind.

If they actually invested some time getting familiar with the source documentation, they might actually come to understand the things they believe and not be so prone to wander off after the next big thing. They could set their sails based on that truth and steer a straight course through life.

It’s high time Christians got a little passionate about the things they are for and stopped worrying so much about all the things they are against!

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Gorgeous and I had over 20 folks to the house for dinner Sunday afternoon. Now our house is not nearly big enough for that kind of affair, which made it a very cozy, casual shindig. Just the way we like it. I didn’t realize we could fit quite so many people around the coffee table!

The idea, according to Gorgeous was to let folks sit outside on the patio if they wanted. But something about it being nearly 90 degrees put the kibosh on that whole plan. Or maybe it was the gnats, I don’t know. Everyone stayed inside.

But the food was great. Josh brought his famous banana pudding (mmm…. pudding). And the highlight of the meal was Allison’s potato salad casserole dish stuff. I never did find out what she calls it, but we all agreed it was killer.

The whole thing got Gorgeous and I talking yesterday morning about how we are going to plan to have a bunch of folks over like that at least once a month. Maybe not on that scale, mind you, but we really like hanging out with folks. Unless you are intentional about stuff like that, it never seems to happen.

Then yesterday I read this great article by David Fitch about how the reality of life in our American suburbs is making the lost art of hospitality more difficult. In it he says,

Inviting someone over for dinner in the hostile suburbs is regularly considered pathological. Suburban people are either too busy, too self-protected, or too worried what your agenda might be to ever come over.

Gorgeous and I fully intended to get to know our neighbors when we moved into this house. Two years ago. The bottom line is it is kind of hard. And it is not because our neighbors are not great people. Its just that the tyranny of the urgent seems to always get in the way.

I think the rummage sale Gorgeous had last month may have turned the corner for us. Nothing like parading your junk out in the drive way to get the neighbors to stop by!

The bottom line is hospitality in our day and age seems to be pretty tough. The challenges Fitch points out in his article make sense as to the causes. But that doesn’t mean we can just roll over and forget about it.

Greg pointed out in our Easter message Sunday morning that Jesus was known for the value He placed on hospitality. Greg talked about the story from Luke 24 about the two guys who were dejected after seeing Jesus executed. They were walking along and didn’t realize that they were talking to that same Jesus who had come out of the grave. It wasn’t until they sat down to eat that they recognized Jesus for who He was.

If hospitality was such a high value for Jesus, I think it might be worth the effort for us too.

Besides, Gorgeous and I like to eat!

Enjoy!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

In Part 6 I looked at where the peacemaker’s peace comes from. (Here are Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)

Today I’m going to take a look at the sons of God. Who was Jesus talking about and what does that mean to me?

The term sons of God (or son of God) is found through out the Bible. It is the title Satan used when he tempted Jesus, “If you are the Son of God…” It is the very phrase that got the religious leaders in Jesus’ day in such a tizzy. At Jesus’ trial they said, “By our laws he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”

My point is that when Jesus uses the phrase to talk about the peacemakers, it is not a throw away line. It is important to know what He means by it.

Someone with the title of son is in the family. It brings with it certain rights and responsibilities. Children have a unique relationship with their parents. And they can normally expect some sort of inheritance from their parents. There is really only two ways to become a member of the family. You are either born into the family or you can be adopted into the family.

By using the term sons of God (sometimes translated children of God) Jesus is saying that the peacemakers are part of Gods family. They have certain rights (and responsibilities) and can expect an inheritance from God.

So. Is peacemaking the way to become a son of God?

I think the answer is not so much. Let me explain.

When John is introducing Jesus in his account, he says the following:

“But to all who believed in him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God.” – John 1:12-13 (NLT)

Paul said it this way: “So you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”

The doorway to joining the family is through Jesus Christ. We have to believe in Jesus. We have to be careful not to gloss over what it means to have faith in Jesus. We saw earlier that Satan saw Jesus’ identity clearly but obviously the enemy didn’t accept Jesus for who he was. And he doesn’t want us to accept Jesus either. He’ll use whatever methods he can to keep us from accepting Jesus.

A small example: when I typed in that quote from John just now I mistakenly didn’t type in the phrase, “and accepted him”. I read the words in my Bible. I knew they were in the verse. Then I typed the passage in without the phrase. And I read it a couple times to check my typing. My mind saw the words correctly even though they weren’t there. Some might call that a coincidental blunder on my part.

They’d be wrong. The enemy will do everything he can to keep people from accepting Jesus for who he really is. He doesn’t want people to hear Jesus when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”

There is only one way to become a son of God. Both the privileges and the responsibilities of being a part of God’s family are outrageous. And the way into His family is both incredibly easy and a very hard thing at the same time.

The easy part is that the only thing we have to do is believe in and accept Jesus for who he is. There’s no heavy lifting required on our part. Anyone can do it. There is no elitism or favoritism on this end.

The hard part of the equation is this: Believing and accepting Jesus is the only way into the family. Jesus said it is an extremely exclusive path. There are no alternate routes. No side tracks, shortcuts, or long ways. We can’t make our selves be good enough to make it. We can’t earn our place in the family. Even though we trick ourselves into believing we’re really OK, in the end everything we do, all our heavy lifting and sacrifice, will fall short. We still won’t be “in the family” short of believing in and accepting who Jesus is.

Jesus wasn’t saying that being a peacemaker doesn’t make you a son of God. Peacemaking results from sonship. One of the characteristics of the people in God’s family is that they should make “peace” in the world around them. This includes both Social and Spiritual peace.

Heavy stuff, I know. But hey, it’s Sunday. And today is the day we’ll hear the peacemaker message from the Be Attitude series we’re in at church. How cool is that?

Peace!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

I’m exploring the verse above to work out what who Jesus was talking about that He described as “peacemakers” so that I can be more like them. So far I’ve looked a little at the term “peace” where I find it in the Bible to try to get a feel for what it really means.

(Here are Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)

I discovered that peace has a Social aspect and a Spiritual aspect. But where does real peace come from?

You want the short answer? It comes from God. (I know. That’s a “Duh!” statement.)

Fortunately for us Paul explains it pretty well. Go figure. Here’s what he has to say:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

We access real peace by being real with God. It amazes me that the creator of the universe actually cares about little old me enough that He’s willing to bribe me to hang out with Him. You’d think it would be enough for me just to experience the awe and wonder of getting in the presence of the creator of all things, just to be in the presence of the ultimate power of space, time, and eternity.

But it’s not. I’m really more interested in being in hanging out with all my hassles and problems. To me they are more in my face, they seem more real, than something (or more correctly someone) as far off and mystical as God. I’d rather worry and stress about all the junk in my life than hang out with God. How pathetic!

It’s a good thing for me that God knows all this so He has offered me a bribe. It basically boils down to this, “Hang out with Me, tell Me about all the icky painful and petty stuff going on in your life, and I will give you peace. I know staying peaceful during all that junk that’s going on won’t make much sense, but I promise it will be real.”

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Fortunately Paul goes on in the next couple of verses to explain how to access peace even more.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about thingsthat are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you have learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. (NLT)

In my Bible next to that passage I wrote, “What we put in determines what comes out!” In my study notes it says, “Paul tells us to program our minds with thoughts that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise.”

I’ve spent too much of my life believing that I have no control over my thoughts. Yet here is Paul telling me that I can and should control what I’m thinking about. I am to “Fix my thoughts” on positive helpful things. It is something I have control over. Why then don’t I believe I can control my thoughts?

The first section we looked at shows us that God basically offers us a bribe to get us to hang out with him. In this piece of scripture Paul tells us that if we get a grip on our thoughts, if we program our minds with better programs than God will naturally want to hang out with us. The structure is: Do these things and the result is God will be with you.

Holy Smokes! This whole thing explains a lot.

In our country we’ve got whole churches that are filled with people who spend the vast majority of their mental energy thinking about how messed up things are and what is wrong with everything around them. They complain and try to fix things rather than bringing their concerns to God. Paul effectively says that God doesn’t even want to hang out with these churches.

No wonder our world is such a mess!

Now hear me on this: I’m not saying that our churches are all going to Hell because they don’t think right. That’s not my point at all.

Look at it like this: Do you have any relatives that really annoy you and you don’t like to spend time with? They are not first on your list of people to hang with. Maybe they aren’t on the list at all! Just because you don’t want to hang out with those challenging relatives doesn’t mean they are not part of your family.

I get the feeling the same principle applies here. God recognizes that Christian who spend their mental energy thinking about trash are still part of His family. But he mostly only hangs out with them only at family reunions, if you know what I mean.

Well I sure want to hang out more with God. I’m making a change starting now. It’s time for a garage sale! I’m going to take all the junk in my life and move it out to the drive way. I’m selling it to God. No, better yet I’ll give it to Him, no charge.

Then I’m going to get a grip on all the junk I’m used to thinking about. I am going to re-program my mind to think about good positive helpful stuff so that God will want to hang out with me.

Wanna join me? Give away all your junk too!

Peace!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

Part 4 (here are Parts 1, 2, & 3) dealt with the Spiritual aspect of the Biblical term “peace”. It is an absence of conflict with God that comes over a soul in a comforting way that can defy description. It is very much a vertical thing, God to man.

But what does that look like in the real world? Is it just some fluffy far off feel good dream? Or can it be real in our messy world?

Have you ever met anyone who seemed to always maintain their equilibrium no matter what mess the world threw at them? No matter what kind of chaos or nasty crap happened around them or to them, nothing seemed to rock their harmony? Or maybe when life shakes their foundation and knocks them down, they seem to get back up amazingly quickly?

That ability to maintain your harmony is what spiritual peace will look like. It can only come from God.

But let’s take it out of the hypothetical and look at an actual example of it in the Bible to see what it looks like. In Luke chapter 8 Jesus had had an exhausting day healing and teaching people. We’ll pick up the story in verse 22:

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and started out. On the way across, Jesus lay down for a nap, and while he was sleeping the wind began to rise. A fierce storm developed that threatened to swamp them, and they were in real danger.
The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
So Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waves. The storm stopped and all was calm!
Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were filled with awe and amazement. They said to one another, “Who is this man, that even the winds and waves obey him?” (NLT)

Now a couple things stand out to me in this story. First, it was totally reasonable for the disciples to panic, after all “they were in real danger.” Yet Jesus was so full of peace and calm during the situation that he kept on sleeping.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a storm at sea, but I have a maritime background and have. There are a couple things you’ve got to keep in mind during a storm on the water. The wind is pretty stinking loud. A boat, especially a small fishing boat of the era, tends to violently pitch and roll to point where it is hard to stand up. Oh, yeah. And it often rains. And even if it isn’t raining, there is usually enough spray blowing up that it might as well be raining.

It’s not exactly the best environment for your Sunday afternoon snooze.

Yet Jesus isn’t even ruffled by the chaos around him. He’s full of peace and sleeps on.

I find it interesting that the Bible doesn’t record what Jesus said when he “rebuked the wind and the raging waves.” Every time I’ve heard some one talk about this story and they get to that point they will yell out a big booming, “SILENCE!” at that point because after all it is God speaking and He’d be speaking with authority to be heard over the wind.

I imagine it might have been a bit different. Jesus was obviously sleeping pretty soundly. I mean you’ve got to be in a pretty stinking deep REM cycle to sleep in those conditions. I imagine when the disciples woke Jesus up what He said sounded a little more like what I might say as I reach for the snooze alarm. I think it was more of a moaning, half awake and I-really-want-to-sleep-a-little-more, “Uhhhh, be quiet.”

Think about it. It is God speaking. He doesn’t have to yell to be heard. Hello? He’s full of peace.

It’s kind of like when you pass a Corvette on the highway. That car can easily go 200+ MPH. Everyone knows it. Yet the driver is calmly driving at or slightly below the speed limit. He doesn’t have to prove himself. It is obvious what his car can do. You could say that the driver has sort of a “speed peace” about him.

Maybe not the best analogy, but I think this gives us a better understanding of how spiritual peace plays out in our day to day lives.

Enjoy!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

In Part 3 (here are Parts 1 & 2) I talked about the Social aspects of the Biblical term peace. Now I’m diving into the Spiritual side of the term.

From a spiritual understanding of peace, we are talking about peace between people and God. It is an absence of conflict with God that comes over a soul in a comforting way that can defy description. It is very much a vertical thing, God to man.

Here are some verses in the Bible that address this facet of peace:

Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me. (Isaiah 27:5)

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)

It seems obvious then that when the Bible talks about peace the meaning for us should transcend far more than a reduction of interpersonal conflict. The Apostle Paul said the peace of God is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. I figure that if a great theologian like Paul couldn’t find the right words to describe Biblical peace, than I should get cut a little slack if I fall short in my explanation!

Regardless of my inability to nail it down, it obviously is about something well beyond an absence of interpersonal conflict!

Next time I’ll take a look at what Biblical peace might look like in the real world.

Peace!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

I’ve taken on a study of the above verse to determine what Jesus really meant. I decided to start by focusing on the Biblical term “peace” to get a firm understanding of how Jesus would have understood that word.

Reading through the hundreds of verses that refer to peace in the Bible, it seems to me that they can be roughly divided into two general categories, Social and Spiritual.

On the Social side of the ledger we are talking about peace between people. It involves a reduction of, or better yet, a complete absence of interpersonal conflict. It is a horizontal thing, man to man.

Some examples of verses that deal with the Social side of peace include:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:7)

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

People who have focused intensely on addressing the Social side fight to correct injustice, and often do so in particularly non-violent ways. Two examples of great men who were champions of non-violent confrontation of this sort would be Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Their willingness to stand up to governments without violence ultimately helped bring about peace in a social sense to millions of people. People who take a stand here and understand this facet of peace should be honored and can obviously accomplish great good by touching many lives in a positive way. But that’s not all there is.

Unfortunately I’m out of time for this morning. I’ll address the Spiritual side another time.

Enjoy!

I came across this question this afternoon, “In your own words, what is a Christian?”

Below is how I answered the question. What do you think?

I see a Christian as a follower of Jesus Christ. He is a person who has given up trying to “get right” with God, realizing that no matter what he does it will never be enough to reach the perfect standard that a holy and perfect God requires. Instead the Christian has brokenly accepted Jesus’ payment for all his wrongs and has submitted his will to the authority of Christ.

As a result the Christian experiences new life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is transforming him into the image of Christ. The natural result of this transformation is that the Christian grows in spiritual maturity, has an ever increasing desire to serve people, and to influence the world around him for the cause of Christ.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

If I’m going to figure out what Jesus meant by the term peacemaker (assuming he intended “one who makes peace”), then I guess the place to start here is by trying to figure out what Jesus meant by the term which we translate “peace” in English.

My Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary defines peace this way, “1. freedom from or cessation of war; 2. friendly international relations; 3. any state of calm or tranquility; 4. public order”

Now we’ve got four slightly nuanced understandings for the same word. Did Jesus mean one of these? If so, which one? If not, what did he mean?

I mean did Jesus mean to say, “Blessed are those who make friendly international relations, for they will be called sons of God.”?

That seems a little silly and wide of the mark to me.

Because of the potential to misunderstand the actual intent behind the words, I’m not willing to just assume Jesus meant, “Blessed are those who make freedom from or cessation of war, for they will be called the sons of God” either.

If I’m going to get anywhere, I’ve got to go to the source. What is the Biblical understanding of the word peace? Throughout the Bible does the term peace simply refer to an absence of war, or does it mean something different?

And here’s where it may get interesting. A word search in my Bible software shows that the NIV translation of the Bible uses the word peace 250 times. The King James Version uses the word 429 times.

This is obviously going to take me some time. And then once I finally get an accurate understanding of the Biblical concept of peace, I’ve got another question to answer. Who actually are the sons of God? Because it is in that half of the statement that we see the blessing part of Jesus’ statement (i.e. the good stuff).

But right now I’ve got to go to work.

Enjoy!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

The whole discussion about the Christian Peacemakers Teams has got me thinking about this verse from the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t really agree with how the CPT chooses to do what they do. And I’m not sure I even agree with most of their basic premises, although I can’t bring myself to point my finger at them and say, “You are wrong.”

Perhaps I’m wrong.

I decided I need to spend some time looking at my whole understanding of that verse above and what Jesus really meant when he said it.

Now I’m no theologian. I’m not even especially smart. But I do know how to read. And I think I can ask some decent questions.

Who was Jesus referring to when he spoke this particular beatitude?
What do peacemakers look like? What do they do?
What does it mean to be called a son of God?

The good news is we have a whole ton of resources available. Our church is in the middle of a series on the Be-Attitudes. So I am obviously looking forward to the week we are taught about the peacemakers.

John Piper is one of my favorite current heavy theological thinkers. He has an article on the subject, appropriately titled Blessed Are the Peacemakers, which I think I will read a few more times before I get started.

That should give me enough to get started on in amongst all the other life obligations I have…