Good buddy Scott approached me recently at the activity I laughingly call “work”. “Can I ask you a question?” He asked. I always default to apprehensive when I get that query. I want to start defending myself before I even know the question. “No, in spite of this physique I am NOT using steroids!” Okay…maybe that is a defense that will never happen but I do tend to be wary. “Sure,” I responded. “Does Christianity get easier or harder as you get older?”  I laughed because I knew my answer right away. “Yes.” He laughed in return and said this. “Everything else in life that you do over and over tends to get easier as you get more experience.” In that comment is the key. We get in trouble when we view maturing in Christ as a human endeavor like maturing in your job skills. My faith journey gets harder if I attempt to follow Christ like I attempt to improve in my job or hobbies. If I work harder and learn
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Few movies have generated more mainstream quotes than the silly movie Airplane and that movie is, of course, one of my favorites. Having claimed the intellectual high ground I offer this dialogue with very anxious flyer Ted Striker and a fellow passenger. Passenger: Nervous? Ted Striker: Yes. Passenger: First time? Ted Striker: No, I’ve been nervous lots of times. I sometimes think of that line when I write these humble ramblings. I have certainly been nervous a number of times because I attempt to communicate truth with grace and represent Jesus humbly even as I tackle tough topics. Nothing makes me more nervous than writing about faith and politics. I wrote a piece with the tongue-in-cheek title “Will Democrats Go To Heaven?”. Here is an excerpt from that article. “Christians are not to seek “power over” others – by controlling governments, passing legislation or fighting wars. Christians should seek to have “power under” others – winning others hearts by sacrificing for those in
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Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 7… Pastor Jeff: In my opinion, this gets to the Question Behind the Question. Because if an unbeliever says they believe the church is full of hypocrites, and they don’t want to hang out with people like that, I believe they’re really saying “The only Christians I know are hypocrites who don’t care about me and live only for themselves.”  I want to respond with, “Tell me about the Christians you know personally.”  If you only know the public failures. People who condemned others, only to find out they were participating in the exact sins they were condemning others for – yeah, I’d want to get away from people like that too. What I want you to know is that real, transformed, Christians – saved
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  Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 6.   Pastor Jeff:   What do you think of when you think of a genuinely righteous person – behaviors or character qualities?   Dave:   I am convinced it is character qualities that then manifest themselves in right behaviors.   For me that process encompasses a few things. I think a genuinely righteous person clearly understands that their righteousness is because of Christ. Period.  As I alluded earlier, we have made righteousness about right behavior and that definition dooms us to fail. We can’t always act righteously so we wear a mask to cover our sin and shortcomings. And then Satan does something insidious…he convinces us that people love the mask and not the person behind it. So we have to wear
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Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 5.   Pastor Jeff:  Don’t you think hypocrisy creeps up on us as we’re trying to “be” the best we can be? It can even have good motives at the beginning, yet turn into legalistic hypocrisy. How do we combat this?   Dave:    This is my passion. I am a recovering legalist and as you pointed out I am a professed hypocrite. And I am happier and closer to Christ today than I have ever been. It is because of grace and finally understanding and trusting what God says is true about me.   I had been frustrated by my behavior and the behavior of other pew dwellers for many years. But what I have finally figured out is that the Bible churches
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Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 4..     Pastor Jeff: Jesus had severe words for hypocrites. He took these betrayals seriously. Yet, in some sense there is always a hypocrite (or two) with us. Can’t we get rid of them?  Why does the church seem to attract hypocritical people?   Dave:  We are not like a private club that has a screening process. We let everyone in. So the church really can’t be anything but dysfunctional to some degree because we allow people in all states of belief, maturity and stability. I often joke that my family reunion would look a lot better if it were by invitation only. But it is not. My family has good folks, some bad, some smart, some not so smart, some impressive and some downright
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Recently I had the pleasure of addressing this fun filled topic with Pastor Jeff Denton of Waterbrook Bible Fellowship in Wylie, Texas. I am posting a question per day from that discussion. Here is question number 3..   PASTOR JEFF:    Don’t hypocrites think they’re fooling everyone, yet their behavior gives away who they really are? DAVE: Absolutely. It is not just a spiritual phenomenon. Al Gore has made an amazing personal comeback with his global warming documentary. I will not debate the claims of his film here. Instead I want to focus on a very inconvenient truth that all of us battle. We are natural born hypocrites. All of us. Gore outlined a list of sacrifices that we should all make to help the environment. Use a clothesline instead of the dryer. Drive a hybrid. Cut back on the thermostat and home energy consumption. But Al Gore’s personal lifestyle hypocrisy severely damaged his message.  The Chattanoogan newspaper reports that
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