I underline the word “Boston” because it seems like more and more it is becoming the “fill in the blank tragedy”.  Blood in the streets, children dying, innocent people . . .   What is happening to us?  What is wrong with us?  Is the enemy within or without?  We used to get a break between tragedies, but no more.  A big tragedy is big, well, till the next big one.  It is mental sickness.  It is gun control.  It is terrorism.  It is politics.  It is a broken family.  And this is all domestic.  We are not even talking about our foreign enemies.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is becoming the common cold.  What do we do?  How do we respond?

1. Turn to Scripture

As you listen to the news the demand is for answers, answers, answers.  That is exactly what the Bible gives.  Why are people like this?  What are we supposed to do?  How can we stop it?  What is the government to do?  What do you tell your children?  Yes, the Bible actually answers all these questions.  Go to your Bible first and last.  If you don’t know where to turn, ask a pastor, or a friend you know is good with their Bible.

2. Pray

Prayer is not the last resort, though that is often how it is presented.  Pray first and last.  Hey, I think I just said that about God’s Word.  Oh well, it is true on both occasions.  Pray for our leaders to have discernment and wisdom.  Pray they can rightly and timely bring about justice.  Pray for those families most directly affected by this.  Pray the church is faithful to extend God’s compassion, wisdom, and help.  We really need to be salt and light right now.  Pray believers and churches are good and right in responding to this and helping their neighbors, co-workers and friends through this.  Pray God would hold at bay evil.  Pray for protection.  The bottom line is God says prayer makes a difference.  So pray.

3. Share the Gospel

Every single one of these problems is connected to the sin of man, and there is only one solution for that: the work of Jesus on the cross.  It is what tells people who are angry, hurting, lonely, and wrong that God loves them and has provided for them a way to know friendship with God.  I am not suggesting that you are living among the next terrorist and if you can get the gospel to him it will all be better.  I am suggesting we stop looking at lost people as okay and that nothing really needs to happen.  Most lost people are not terrorists.  Most lost people are not going to cause a tragedy that makes the news.  So does that mean there is no problem?  Of course not!  They are lost.  They might be lost and rich, lost and happy, lost and in love; but lostness breeds lostness and lostness is where evil resides.  There will be roughly 50,000,000 people in church this Sunday.  What if every one of them asked someone to come with them?  That would be 100,000,000 that at least once this week might hear that they are loved, there is hope, there is an answer.  What kind of impact could that have on a nation in just one week?!  Did you know a recent survey said 8 out of 10 people would accept an invitation to join a friend in church?  I am not suggesting sitting in a building for an hour on Sunday morning will fix everything.  But I am suggesting it wouldn’t hurt either.

There is so much hurt, anger and pain in our world individually, nationally, and internationally.  They desperately need to hear something good.  Don’t forget that Jesus left believers on this planet to do one thing.  Let me say that again – ONE THING – it is to share good news.  Good News.  Good news is always, well, good.  It lifts the spirits, puts a spring in the step, and can change a life, stop evil, and fix a lot of problems.  Not all will accept this good news.  That’s okay.  Just keep sharing for those who will.  Are you, are we sharing that good news with anyone?  If not, then do not be surprised at mounting tragedies.  It is a dark world, and we have been left here to be light, so let’s be that light.

We certainly have Easter traditions: spring clothes, chocolate, colored eggs, and ham. There is a dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. It kind of comes and goes and doesn’t interrupt a lot. Our culture is very open to a baby in a manger, but not so much a Savior and God on a cross. Hey, is culture leading the church on how we celebrate and where we put our emphasis? Well, that is another blog.

Here is what this blog is about: What does Jesus want you to do this Easter? What does He want you to do with this holiday where the church remembers and celebrates the crucifixion and resurrection of Him? Does He want us to have ham and get a new dress? I am not sure He cares that much one way or the other. How about services?  A lot of churches do multiple or additional services for Easter. Does Jesus want you to pick the one that allows for the most family time and rest? Hmm.

There is a very common theme when we turn to the passages that we celebrate for Easter: Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20. Two words that keep appearing: Go tell! So let’s cut to the chase: that is what Jesus us wants us to do with Easter. If we go to church, sing songs, listen to the message, gather with family and say a sweet prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus; but we don’t go and tell; I think Jesus is in heaven going, “You’re kidding me. That’s it. You’re going to bed now. Wait a minute. I thought we were celebrating Easter?” Jesus didn’t tell us to do about 90% of what we will probably do to celebrate Easter. He did tell us to go and tell someone.

Who will you go and tell this Easter? Who will you tell what Jesus means to you? Who will you tell what He has done for your life? Who will you tell why you have chosen to believe in a resurrected Savior? Who will you invite to join you for Easter services? I know it seems like people around you aren’t interested in this whole church thing much anymore, but statistics actually say a lot of folks are open to a personal invitation, and even more so at Easter. Could I challenge you to think about this Easter a new way? Instead of picking the service that fits your family the best, pick the one that fits the person or family you’re inviting the best. Go to the one they will say yes to. With all we might do for Jesus this Easter, He really only asked for one thing: go and tell. Will you? Will you help your church go and tell?

Every good thing comes from God.  Hmm.  Do I have joy in the Giver of everything I enjoy in life?

Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. – Psalm 43:4

David said His greatest joy is God.  God is what he enjoys more than any other person, event, place or thing in this world.  I think a lot of us want to say God is our greatest joy, but really, is He?

I listed some people, places, and things above that I enjoy.  Did you notice what I did not list?  I didn’t list any sins.  Most of us are not going to actually say, “I enjoy sin,” but we do.  That is why it can tempt us, because we do enjoy sin.  I am never tempted by beets.  I hate beets.  I don’t enjoy them at all, so they have no power to tempt me.  We sin because we enjoy it.  We enjoy getting even.  We enjoy forbidden pleasures.  We enjoy being better than others, having more than others, so therefore we enjoy whatever helps us accomplish that: lying stealing, slandering, getting even, and on and on.  Sin is a very ugly reminder that in that moment I do not enjoy God, but actually enjoy that which grieves Him.  When I enjoy sin, I am enjoying the opposite of God.

When we sit down at our restaurants of choice they bring us a menu, and we choose what we will enjoy at that meal.  Life offers us a daily menu and we will choose that which we enjoy.  David also challenges to taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps.34:8).  “O Lord, let me enjoy you.  Build in me a taste for You and Your ways.  How much better it is for me to enjoy you and what gives life, than to be lured to enjoy that which will ultimately bring death and loss.  Confront me with each choice I make for the world that I am choosing to enjoy that which grieves you.  I don’t want to do that, Jesus.  I want to enjoy You, not grieve you.  I pray I will enjoy You above all else, for You are worthy of all my joy!”

It is scary, isn’t it, what’s happening to us?  We want to understand why Adam Lanza, an individual would do this, but it seemed to me there was a bigger question underneath.  Why are we doing this?  Why is our nation doing this?  Why are we becoming this kind of people?  We all know that in the ensuing weeks the debates and politics and preaching will flow as to why we are and how to stop it: we kicked God out of the schools, we need gun control, we need mental health care, we need better security, we need, we need, we need.  We will hear little about and do even less about a culture of dehumanization, a culture in which there is almost no sanctity for human life from teaching evolution to abortion to pornography to gaming to reality TV; and I would debate anyone on the planet as to the tie of anyone of those things and how a Friday happens.  Now, a word of caution for all of us, myself included, who are ready to jump on and rail against the White House, Capital House and School House for not posting the Ten Commandments and praying.  Let’s ask ourselves, “Are they posted in my house?  Does our house begin the day in prayer?”  Watch out for the hypocrisy that wants the White House and School House to do what we are not doing in our own house.

All weekend we have heard, we have wondered, “Why?  Why?  Why?”  The government, the media, the schools will not be able to answer that.  They will suggest answers that are in reality only symptoms of a problem they cannot confess.  Since they will not be dealing with the real issue their response will not fix it.  That is frustrating.  Friday happened because we live in a fallen world.  Friday happened because people do evil, and every one of us has pitched into that problem.  It started with another Adam and his wife, Eve.  They rebelled against and rejected God.  They said, “We can live by our own rules.  We will do what we want.”  God warned of the evil that would ensue.  They didn’t listen.  And neither have any of their children.  We rebel and we reject and we do so over and over and over; and have brought into our world 10,000 ways we can hurt and be hurt.

Very few ever do what an Adam Lanza did.  That makes it easier for us to see him as a hideous monster that we are nothing like.  The reality is Adam is little more than an extreme example of what we all are.  There are a multitude of people sitting in churches across America today carrying the exact same hate and anger in their heart as he did.  We just have it acceptably controlled and hidden.  Most of us have learned the fine art of controlling and containing just how messed up we are.  And we think that makes us good.  Of course every now and then one of us flies off out of control and gives us the events of this past Friday, and we in shock and horror wonder how.  But all of us contain the ingredients for a moment of insanity.  Right moment, right circumstances and we steal, we commit adultery, immorality, violence, lying, hatred.  Sure most of our moments of insanity or evil do not devastate on a level that it makes the news, but it is the creep of evil doing its devastation.

As if this story needed any dramatizing, the media has to remind us it is Christmas.  What a horrible time for this to happen?  What does that mean?  Would it have been better in January?  I know what it means.  It is Christmas.  It is a time for children.  I mean Christmas brings out the kid in all of us.  Christmas is about joy and innocence, fun and gifts, lights and candy canes.  Candy canes.  Perhaps we should stop and remember that God did not give us Christmas because the earth was filled with joy and innocence, fun and gifts, lights and candy canes.  He gave us Christmas as a solution to evil.  He gave us Christmas because we are messed up.

I don’t want to miscommunicate this morning.  My point is not about how we celebrate Christmas.  I am not making a point about gifts, or parties, or Santa, or trees.  The Bible is clear that God enjoys watching us laugh and celebrate and have fun.  But clearly an event like this puts some things in perspective and let’s be honest, it takes some of the fun out of this Christmas.  But that forced me to think.  Was Christmas about fun?  Was that the goal?  We sure treat it like it is, but it is not.  My Bible never says that Christmas is about food, or vacations, or rest or gifts.  It doesn’t even say it is about family.  Christmas was an intensely serious moment to deal with an intensely serious problem. Christmas is a clash between God and evil.  Christmas is God entering enemy territory to rescue the very ones who made it enemy territory.  Look in Matthew 2:16-18 and you will see the first clash between what we call Christmas and evil.  It may be the most unread portion of the Christmas story, and it is shockingly relevant.

This historical account follows the story of the wise men traveling to see the baby Jesus who was probably about 2 when they got there.  Herod told the wise men to tell him when they found the baby Jesus so he could worship Him also, though that was not at all his intention.  God told them not to return to Herod, and after they worshiped and gave the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh they skipped town.  The great king Herod was afraid of a baby.  Why?  That’s crazy.  By time this baby grows up Herod would be dead and gone anyway.  Evil knew there was something about this baby.  So since he could not narrow down which baby boy was Jesus, he just killed them all.  We now know what that day would have looked like.  It was a violent and horrifying day.  Bethlehem was a small village.  One commentator said the population of Bethlehem and outlying areas probably meant there was between 10 and 30 boys of that age.  What we call Christmas was met with the massacre of 20 kids because of a crazy guy.  Even more amazing, the event was prophesied.  God knew it was going to happen and told us it was going to happen.  He knew when He stepped into the world, evil would meet Him there.  Resist the temptation put evil in a red costume with a pitch fork.  Resist the temptation to make evil some kind of vague force.  Evil is our rebellion against God being God and communicating His ways.  The evil is our sin. How dare we ask where was God.  How dare we ask why He didn’t do something when we rebel at everything He has done.  People will respond, “Yeah, but the kids are innocent.”  Hey!  Warning: we can’t place boundaries on the evil we bring.

Do you know why there is a Christmas?  Because we are messed up.  Jesus accomplished a multitude of things when He came to this earth.  We have a multitude of benefits because He came to this earth.  My series this Christmas has been looking at them; but let us not stray from this one inescapable truth: There is a Christmas because we are messed up, and the Bible actually says we are too stupid, too weak, and too evil to fix it; and we are going to go to hell.  Unless, unless God just steps in and rescues us.  What we ought to be asking is why would God care?  Why would He come rescue us when all of our problems are because we rejected Him and His ways?  I only know one answer.  ”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And that is the only answer for Friday.  The bottom line is we need to be rescued from ourselves.  Friday was nothing more than an extreme reminder of that.  I pray that when Christmas morning happens this year our nation we remember that God cares and has provided.  I pray the church will remember that God cares and has provided.  It is amazing that we need to be reminded, but we get stuck thinking this world is what it is all about when it is the very thing we need to escape.  My fear today is that we will get over Friday and likewise, we get over Christmas.  What will it really take to get us to make our lives all about the gospel of Jesus and joining Him in running a rescue operation?  That idea, that truth, should change our marriage, our finances, our priorities, our parenting, our dating, our education, our prayers – it should change our approach to everything.  And there in lies our problem.  It is just easier to wait and get over it.  Only the Gospel will fix anything.  Will our lives and our words be a witness to that truth?  My answer to Friday? How horrifying!  We desperately need God and by His love He has made it possible for us to have Him.

I believe that to be a very gripping cinematic moment because it is something we all have to come to grips with because some actually did die for us. Not a captain, but someone of much higher rank. The Supreme Commander left headquarters to come and rescue us on the battlefield of sin where we were taking heavy losses and casualties. Jesus gave His life so we could live (Rom.5:6-8).

While the New Testament does challenge us likewise to walk worthy of that kind of love and sacrifice, it never once says, “Earn it.  Earn this.” We can’t. Who am I to say my life is worth another person’s life, or even more, the life of the Son of God? I can’t pay Jesus back. There is not a certain amount of good works that I can reach and say, “Done. I have paid Him back.” There is not a certain moral quality of life that I can lead that squares the account. Which then ultimately means I cannot feel anything but a sense of failure, and therefore, guilt. Church, good works, giving, resisting temptation that is all done out of guilt and will not lead us anywhere, but where we saw Private Ryan: empty and guilt-filled.

God and the Bible do not motivate us with guilt, but with grace. Gratitude is what gets our engine humming. So thankful that God would love and from that love rescue us from sin, death, and hell. The Bible does call us to be grateful and to give thanks. As a matter of fact, over and over and over it call us to give thanks every day, in everything, at all times. Gratitude is to clearly be one of the dominant characteristics of our lives. That would seem to be easy. We have so much to be thankful for: forgiveness, acceptance, eternal life, adoption into God’s family, heaven, the Bible, the Holy Spirit living in us, knowledge not just of the artwork, but the Artist. The list goes on and on. But Satan will make sure to keep in front of us the pain, loss and disappointment of this world. He will get us focused on the temporary. He will help us forget all the good. This is why the Bible commands, “forget none of His benefits,” (Ps.103:2). We need Thanksgiving, but we need it much more often than the third Thursday of November. We need it weekly, scratch that, daily. We need to be in the habit of thinking on that which we are grateful for so that our lives are filled with gratitude and not guilt before God.

I would encourage us today to not only think of all that you are thankful from God, but also others. Have you ever noticed it takes no effort to think on how a person has disappointed us or failed us. Our mind just naturally goes there, and camps out on it; but we have to stop and choose to think on someone’s goodness and be grateful for it. Don’t end the year, life, filled with guilt and questions about whether it was enough, and only seeing the short-comings. End this year filled with gratitude all that has been graciously given to you. Begin building a gratitude attitude to everything.

So here is what I had not noticed before.  The request came right after Jesus said, “Amen.”  He had actually been praying.  They were listening.  They were watching, and that is when they said, “Hey, I want to know how to do that.”  But it wasn’t just that moment right there.  Check out Luke 4:42, 5:15, 6:12, 9:15 and 18.  As the disciples followed Jesus they saw Him praying all the time.  He made efforts to get away and pray alone.  He prayed alone, but in their presence.  He prayed with them.  He prayed for ministry and before ministry.  When He prayed, things happened.  This is when it dawned on me that when the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, it wasn’t just a theological discussion or a spiritual discipline that was next on the agenda.  They had watched Jesus, listened to Jesus, pray over and over, and finally one day when He said, “Amen,” one of them finally said, “Would you teach me to do that?”

Now our disciples were Jews.  They grew up in the Jewish faith.  They had been around prayers their whole lives.  They no doubt themselves prayed, but clearly, not like that.  I am guessing our story would be much like theirs.  We know we are to pray.  We have heard a lot of prayers and maybe said a lot of prayers.  A lot of us do not feel very confident that we are very good at it.  The disciples experience with prayer was probably just like ours, but when they heard Jesus pray, “That’s it.  Right there.  That has to be what prayer is.”  I think part of what they saw was intimacy.  Jesus was talking and relating with His Father.  It sounded close.  It sounded good.  It sounded like Jesus actually believed He was being heard and that it would make a difference.  I think that is probably the other part of what they saw: results.  When Jesus prayed, things happened.

As I listened to Chuck that morning and thought these above thoughts I began to feel bad about what I had shown people, primarily my children about prayer.  None of my kids has ever come to me and said, “Hey Dad, would you show me how you pray like that.”  Why would any believer not want their prayer life to be such that others, especially if they have children, would not come to them and ask?  I think I have a very strong, consistent, personal prayer life.  I think it is about the most important thing in my life, but I am not sure that has always translated to what others see when I am praying with them.  As I thought about them asking Jesus, I wondered what my kids have seen.  Well, they see me pray for food.  They see some prayers that probably come off sounding like a formality: we are praying here because that is what we do at the end of the day or before we go on a trip.  But do they see passion and priority in prayer.

You might be wondering where I am going with this.  I am guessing most of us would just like to learn to pray better or more consistently.  Having a prayer life that others want isn’t even on our radar.  But wait a minute.  Aren’t we followers of Jesus?  Do we not strive to live and be as He lived and was?  If His prayer life drew others to ask, should we not strive for the same?  Maybe we have set our target too low.  I am not talking about trumping out some kind of prayer to impress people.  I am talking about living and relating with God in such a way that it is evident in our prayer lives and people say, “Hey, I want that.”

Pray about it.

In 20 plus years of ministry I have heard all these statements, been challenged to bring our church in line with these statements and others like them.  I have seen churches built around these kinds of statements.  I don’t agree with them, but I say that somewhat hesitantly because give me 5 minutes and I could build a biblical case for each of them.  These statements don’t come from nowhere, each of them was birthed in Scripture.  How can I say something is birthed in Scripture and yet, I don’t agree?  Here is why: there is a difference between a biblical reason and a biblical command.  And we sure need to know the difference or else we hurt the gospel and each other.  Would you get to Romans 14:1-12 and read that in order to understand the rest of this blog.

In this passage, Paul talks about two topics that were hot issues of the day: eating meat sacrificed to idols and whether or not it is right to celebrate certain days.  Paul breaks church people into two groups for this discussion: the weak (14:1) and the strong (15:1).  Don’t understand weak and strong as right and wrong.  The strong are those filled with grace.  Weak here means to be wobbly.  Somebody can be mature in faith, been a believer for a long time, but perhaps be wobbly in an area.  Potentially all of us can be someone who is weak in one area, and strong in another.  The weak might be wobbly because they are new to the faith, or it might be because they sat under some wrong teaching long enough that it got engrained and they can’t shake it.  They might be wobbly because of a sin they struggled with and are now successfully resisting, but they’ve become very dogmatic in how they resist that sin and how everyone else should also.

Many believers in Rome were converted from paganism and idol worship – meat was sacrificed to idols and left over meat was sold in public markets.  You’d have the temple on one corner and Ruth’s Chris on the other.  Your best steak houses, your best meat markets were right next to the places of idol worship.  So a new Christian in the church there at Rome got saved out of that and becomes staunchly against eating meat at the steak house because it takes him back to his idol worshiping days.  In his mind not only should he not eat that meat, no one should.  Paul deals with this same issue 1 Corinthians 8 and explains that it is not a sin to eat the meat.  Paul had no problem going into one of these steak houses ordering a rib-eye on the bone, bowing his head and saying, “Thank you, Lord, for the steak I am about to partake.”  Paul’s argument was that false gods are not real, therefore there is no real impact on the meat.  Say the blessing and dig in.  In Corinthians he addresses the issue as right or wrong, but here he is addressing how we handle the person who still believes it is a sin for them to eat the meat.  Don’t judge them.  And he tells the one who is not eating meat, don’t judge those who do.

Then there was the celebration of days and wow this was a head on collision.  Part of the church is made up of Jews for whom God instituted special days, the big one being the Sabbath.  There was the Passover and the Day of Atonement, and many others.  Then you have these believers that have come out of a pagan worship and the celebration of days reminds them of the worship of false gods which often included sexual immorality and drunkenness so they wanted no celebration of days.  It was a perfect storm.  For one it was a holy day and for the other it was a memory of all that was unholy.  Paul tells both, “Let each live for God in their own way.  Don’t judge.”  By the way have you ever had someone tell you that we should not celebrate Easter and Christmas because they have roots in paganism?  There is some truth to it.  Early Christians pretty much kidnapped some perfectly good pagan holidays and made them their own.  Now the Bible does not command us to celebrate these days, nor does it forbid us from doing so.  One cannot make a right or wrong argument about this.  So what to do?

In verse 5 encourages that each one be convinced in his own mind.  Be convinced of what you study in Scripture.  Be convinced of how you apply it to your life.  Be convinced of knowing your areas of weakness and how you should respond.  Be convinced in yourself, for yourself.  One believer should be absolutely convinced that they home school their children and guard from the influences of the world.  Another believer should be convinced that all through Scripture believers have had to engage the world and witness to the world on their turf, and even as young people.  We can’t be salt and light if we are running from the world.  One believer can say thank you and bring God’s blessing on the celebration of a day and be convinced that all days belong to God.  Another believer rightly acknowledges that we don’t worship like pagans and some things just have too much pagan DNA.  We each need to study God’s word, seek the Holy Spirit on its application and then commit ourselves to applying it.  It is God’s convictions for us, not our convictions for others.  Have biblical reasons for what you do and do not do, but keep them as your reasons.  We can share our convictions with others, but we cannot judge others with our convictions.  Verse 4 tells us why: you are not God and they don’t belong to you.  We don’t even have the right to judge them in our mind, in the privacy of our own heart.  Resist that.  Stop judging people with your convictions.  Verse 12 says we do well to be focused on how we are going to give an account of our lives to God, not how someone else is.

Now let me state what I hope is obvious.  There is not a command in the New Testament about eating or not eating meat, and same for days.  This discussion is not about what Scripture directs.  It is about how we try to apply it to our own lives.  A single adult might read Scripture and say they don’t believe they should date the way dating is done in America.  That is a good conviction that they should not be judged for and they should not judge those who do not have that conviction.  Now if two single adults are involved in sexual immorality, they absolutely should be judged.  Purity is not a biblical reason, it is a biblical command.  Where Scripture directly speaks, we can speak and even tell other believers they are wrong, and should tell them they are wrong.  That is not judging.  That is loving.  And the bible tells us to do that humbly and with an awareness of our own sin.  It also means we should be receptive when someone confronts us.  Scripture is the rule for us and others.  Our convictions are not rules for others.

As a child of God, we are a recipient of His grace.  So think about the whole thing this way: you did not receive God’s judgment, so don’t give it.  You did receive God’s grace, so give that.  While Romans 14:5 absolutely commands us to have a set of convictions that guides how we live the Christian life, we are not near as much to be known for our convictions as we are to be known for the Gospel and love.  That is what we have been sent into the world to share.

Kevin has done everything right.  He not only dated my daughter in a godly manner for an appropriate amount of time, but as he grew in his knowledge of her, he also took the time to get to know her family.  He actually seemed to be interested in and enjoy being around us.  So we have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him and we love him.  He got into the family on a 5-1 vote.  (It was really 6-0, but I tell him 5-1 to keep him humble.)  Kevin then, without having yet purchased a ring, assuming nothing, came to talk with me and ask for my daughter’s hand in marriage.  He was respectful, humble, and complimentary of her parents.  Yeah, the kid is scoring points with each sentence.  He then endured over 1 ½ hours of my questions and speeches.  Feel for a man who desires to marry a girl whose father has done premarital counseling for over 130 couples.  I then gladly gave my blessing.  We are excited and praising the Lord.

Now the proposal.  Kevin proposed to my daughter in front of all of our family, all of his family, and 400 youth and parents at our annual youth beach retreat.  He scored a perfect ten in surprising her on something she anticipated.  He scored a perfect ten on creativity.  He scored a perfect ten for just sheer courage.  So he gets up in front of all these people and he has beautiful words prepared expressing his love and desire to spend the rest of his life with her.  Well, the words were coming out, but they were coming out kind of slow and at one point he came to a place where he paused, at which point my daughter jumped in and said, “JUST ASK ME!”

As you can imagine, that brought the house down.  It was funny and cute and all that, but more than anything it was love.  The words were good and necessary, and yet, unnecessary.  She was ready to give her life to him.  It wasn’t the words that led to that, or the moment, it was love.  I bet she can’t even tell you what he said.  She was ready to say yes.  Just ask.

What is really amazing is that is how the Lord is with us.  He loves us so much.  He is not waiting for us to come up with the right words or actions.  He is not waiting for you to prove yourself worthy.  He is waiting for you to just ask.  Do you want to be saved from your sins and spend eternal life in heaven?  Just ask (Romans 10:13).  Do you need help, guidance, protection, or provision?  Just ask (1 John 5:14-15, James 1:5-6; Matthew 7:7).  I am guessing when I say that we all think of something we did ask for and did not get it.  God answered and He answered out of love.  God’s love also includes God’s best.  He is working with perfect knowledge of our lives, the circumstances, everyone and everything around us.  He knows the perfect answer for what we are asking.  And His love gives that answer.  Sometimes it is the answer we are asking for and other times, out of love, He says, “No, that is not what is best, but since you have asked, I will give you what is best.”

Now, let’s turn this around.  Do you love the Lord?  You know, my daughter in saying yes, surrendered her life to that man.  She will come up under him, take his name.  And love led her to immediately say, “Just ask.”  Is that our attitude toward the Lord?  When we came to Christ, we took His identify and name in baptism.  We are Christians, little Christs.  Does our love lead us to say to Jesus, “Just ask.”  When we read the Bible and we hear what He is asking, are we jumping to say yes.  “Finish the sentence, Lord, so I can say yes.”  It seems that love wants to be asked because it is so ready to say yes.  What is God asking you right now?  Can you say to Him, “Just ask.”  Love does say that, and I got to see it first hand.

Remembering Andy Griffith just kind of makes one smile, especially if you are over 40. His show was funny. I mean really funny. There were shows that were touching. Most of all the show was just built on realness: real people living real life. They actually looked like us and lived in places like we lived. It was never crude or off color. It was never inappropriate. There are good shows today, shows I enjoy, but one can barely get through an episode without thinking at least once, “That really wasn’t appropriate,” or I wish my kids did not see that.” I am guessing this generation would struggle a little to enjoy The Andy Griffith Show. The shows they have been raised on have so much more edginess, high drama, speed and technology. The Andy Griffith Show was actually kind of slow. Have you watched an episode lately? No huge mystery or conflict to resolve. They sit on the porch, a lot. One show was about a broken washing machine. “Just call the man!” But it was good. Andy Griffith reminds us of good things and good times.

We don’t usually travel more than several months without a significant American personality dying: Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcet, Ronald Reagan, Steve Irwin, Tim Russert, Dale Earnhardt, Christopher Reeve, Walter Cronkite; and no doubt we are
not done this year. When these people die they remind us of something. We think of their contribution, what they did, maybe an event. I am not going anywhere original with this. What do you want people to remember, to think of when they hear that you have passed. What emotion would you want them to experience?

We don’t think a lot about the end? We prefer not to think about the end. And yet, overwhelming scientific research says we all have one. We are all moving toward an end. Everybody dies! For most of us it will not be announced on cable news. There will not be any documentaries in the days and weeks that follow. But there will be people who hear that we passed and instantly a thought, a memory, an emotion wells up. What would you hope it would be? What do you want them to say? Start living that right now. Live right now what you hope your mate would say. Live it right now what you would want your kids to say. Live it right now what you want people who matter to you to say.

Okay, now here comes the big one. What will God say? What will God think?

And just as it is appointed for people to die once – and after this, judgment . . .
– Hebrews 9:27

How do we live any amount of time ignoring this great reality? The evidence pours in every day. Athletes, scientists, entertainers, political leaders, the rich and famous, and people just like you and me – they die. Every single day they die. Let’s live with the end in mind.

I sat in a discussion yesterday at our annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.  It was in New Orleans.  I ate lunch Tuesday at Emeril’s.  The tomato crab soup was just incredible.  I mean wow, but I digress.  The SBC was considering a name change to Great Commission Baptists.  Why?  Well, we really are not just a southern entity anymore.  We are in all 50 states and worldwide.  It has been proven that “regional names” can be a hindrance.  It is a barrier to overcome if you are inviting someone to a Southern Baptist church if you are in Oregon or Maine.  Not in all cases, but it can be.  The name southern and Southern Baptist also has some baggage racially, a baggage we are overcoming, but the name is still there.  Those who carry the cause of Christ through the means of the SBC have said it would be easier if when people asked what denomination is this church there was not a geographical barrier or racial barrier.  Good argument.  On the other side of the argument was the significance of branding.  The SBC, as it is now named, is a name known throughout the world and has a very storied history. We want to be careful not to throw that away.  Companies spend millions trying to get a name to stick.  Our name as stuck.  That is a good argument.  There is also a sense of pride.  This is a name many of us love.  It was Southern Baptist churches and schools that shared the gospel with us and taught us about Jesus.  It was Southern Baptist work that carried missions throughout our country and around the world.  It has been a good name for a longtime.  We best not on a whim just toss it – another good argument.

I preach Christ.  I don’t preach SBC.  I don’t call people to become Southern Baptists, but rather to be followers of Jesus.  Having said that, I am SBC.  I am a proud member of this convention.  I chose it before and I would choose it again.  No denomination or convention is perfect, but I will take ours over and over.  While the great majority of my ministry is the church, I do enjoy working with and serving through the Convention.  But I am in this for one name, the name above all names, and that is JESUS!

1 Corinthians 8 and 10, Romans 14 challenge me to not let anything get above presenting the gospel: not my preferences or personal freedoms.  As individuals and as churches we need to be constantly sensitive to that.  What potentially builds bridges for the gospel?  What is potentially a barrier?  God did not call me to live and die for names, but for the gospel.  I think practically speaking it would be hard to change the name of a 150 year old convention, but it if tells the world, we are taking down barriers, then so be it.  If it tells the world that we are about one name, Jesus, so be it.  I am proud to be Southern Baptist.  Who we are, what we believe, and how we have chosen to serve Christ together is what I am proud of, not a name.

Now, I write this entire blog, of which many may have already abandoned (because really, how many care), not to give a report on the SBC meeting.  I write it as an illustration of what is to be one of the driving principles for all we do – at work or school, in decision-making, entertaining, how we relate, what kind of neighbor we are, what are values are – what opens doors for the gospel?  How can I increase opportunity for the gospel?  When those questions are answered, all other arguments for or against should cease.  Is the one name – Jesus – and how you share that name with others that is a guiding principle for you in decision-making.  I think you will find it makes a lot of decisions really very clear.