Sorry Pat Robertson, but that’s not a Christlike response

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about. [Haitians] were under the heel of the French… and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the Devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.” — Pat Robertson

A spokesman for Pat Robertson’s ministry has since issued a statement attempting to backpedal this shocking statement, but the reality is that the statement implied the Haitians went through the recent earthquake because they deserved it. The comment, unfortunately, displays the same spirit that the late Jerry Falwell exhibited in 2001 when he blamed 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way.”

Is there any merit in their statements? First of all, let me say that I understand where they are coming from. I wholeheartedly disagree with them, but I understand where they’re coming from. They’re coming from a particular theological view, based largely upon a specific interpretation of the Old Testament, that sees God as a God who avenges sinful nations. They expect judgment from Him whenever they see people living in ways that they believe to be against the morals of the Bible.

There are a few problems with their logic, however.

1. “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death.” Those words are from the Bible (Romans 3:22-24 and 6:22-23) and what they tell us is that, from God’s perspective, we ALL deserve God’s judgment. Where we get off deciding for God that certain groups of people are more deserving of it than we are, I do not know, but such an attitude is definitely not biblical.



2. “It is not God’s will that any should perish.” This verse from the Bible shows God’s heart for people. In the Old Testament, we see His judgment exerted upon nations that have turned against Him. We can’t deny that. However, even in the Old Testament, we see that God was already working out a plan wherein people could be saved from the judgment they deserved. And that plan was made available to EVERYONE, regardless of what nation they were born in!
3. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Although, according to the Bible, we are ALL deserving of judgment, Jesus took the judgment for our sinfulness in our place. He paid the price for all the junk in our lives, and then He rose again. Now He’s alive, and He says to EVERYONE who will believe in Him that He will forgive them and give them the gift of eternal life. Those who focus more on blame and threats of judgment than upon grace seem to have forgotten that we now live in the age of the New Testament, on the other side of the cross!

Rather than trying to cast blame when bad things happen, we need to realize that we live in a broken world and that we need to demonstrate God’s LOVE in every situation. The best thing we can do as followers of Christ is to pray for Haiti and seek out ways we can demonstrate His love in practical ways by helping the people who are hurting. This is the best thing we can do for ANYONE who is suffering. That’s part of what following Christ is all about.

Invictus

A movie entitled Invictus was recently released. It is an interesting title based on a compelling true story. However, my subject isn’t the movie but the famous poem to which its title refers, written by William Ernest Henley in 1875:

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

It is said that Henley wrote those words in defiance of fate at the time his leg had to be amputated due to tubercular infection. He battled illness most of his life and later suffered the loss of a daughter, whose untimely death came at the age of 5. Henley died at the age of 53 and was buried in the same churchyard as his daughter.

I truly believe that this poem is a classic work of art. It’s beautiful, and I admire it for its beauty. Yet, it represents an idea that is proven time and again to be a false one. In the midst of trials in his own life, Henley tried to stand up against the forces that seemed to conspire against him and he refused to bow to anything that threatened him. He tried to see himself as invincible — which is what the title that was later given to the poem means — in the midst of life’s challenges. A brave sentiment without a doubt and, of course, he knew it wasn’t true. His poetry was more a beautiful wish than it was a statement of fact. Life was sometimes too cruel for him to avoid the ultimate truth:

However hard we try, none of us will ever be able to master our fate.

There are too many things that are completely out of our control. Henley, himself, learned it time and again and, in the end, he died as all of us do.

The Bible says, in Hebrews 9:27, that everyone is destined to die once and after that to face the judgment.

The unavoidable truth is that, no matter how hard we try to fight the inevitabilities of life and death, there are many things we simply cannot avoid. No matter how much anti-wrinkle cream we employ, age still overcomes us eventually. And, no matter how many funerals we avoid attending, our own funeral is one our bodies are not likely to avoid.

We are not the master of our fate and, if we try to be the captain of our soul, we will eventually find that we are only capable of captaining it into ultimate shipwreck. Our souls are not ultimately unconquerable because even the strongest soul cannot ultimately escape death.

I am thankful, though, that we don’t have to be lords of our own lives. There is ONE who has a plan for our lives and, if we allow HIM to be the true captain of our soul, we have the assurance of eternal life with HIM. That, of course, is the very God who made us. We are not the master of our ultimate fate, but HE is.

Let HIM pilot your soul. Let HIM take HIS rightful place in your life. If you do then, no matter how rough the seas may be along the journey, you CAN rise up in defiance of evil, pain, and even death itself because you can know that these things will NOT have the ultimate victory.

This is what the Apostle Paul said in the Bible:

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

These words are also poetry but, in my opinion, they are even more beautiful than the words of Henley. Why? Because, unlike the false hope of Invictus, these words are also truth. Even the sting of death itself is gone when once we trust our lives into the hands of God.

The reality is that the words of Henley don’t need to be changed much to be true for the follower of Christ. Whereas his words marked defiance of the inevitable, when once we know the true Captain of our souls we can cry out very similar words in the certain hope of the eternal.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
Christ is the master of my fate:
He is the captain of my soul.

I apologize on behalf of my Christian brothers and sisters

There is a certain brand of “Christianity” I have seen which makes me very, very sad. It’s a mindset held by some within certain church circles that is about as contrary to the mindset of Christ as one can come. It’s a mentality that basically says, without going so far as to use these words, “Jesus loves everyone, but he loves me most.” Another way of referring to it is to call it what it is: sheer racism.

I saw a comment recently from one American church-person saying that we need to get the blueprints for the Berlin Wall and build our own along the Mexican-American border. For him, this idea wasn’t simply born of a desire for better security at the borders but of the thought that all Mexican people should be banned from “his” country. Another church-person, in the same conversation, blamed all of America’s problems on “foreigners” and indicated that the “Christian” cause would best be served by kicking “them” out so that America can return to its “Christian roots.”

I can’t be too blunt in saying that — if we define Christian to mean “like Christ” — these people are not Christian in any way, shape or form when they maintain such attitudes. Now, “Christian” is usually defined as someone who has asked Christ into their hearts to be their Lord and Savior, thus it is true that those who utter racist comments in the name of “Christ” might be “saved,” but there is no way that viewpoint reflects Christ or gives Him glory.

A similar breed of racist religion existed in Jesus’ day. Jews tended to look down on Gentiles as somewhat inferior and, of course, Gentiles were anyone who were not Jews. But Paul made it clear several times in the New Testament that, in Christ, there is no distinction between Jews or Gentiles. He even said this:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” — Galatians 3:28

In the world of the Jews during Jesus’ time, there was one group in particular that many of the Jewish religious people looked down on. They were called the Samaritans. Many of the Jews hated what they considered to be their false views on religion and they saw them as people who were of no real use to society. They looked down on them and refused to associate with them. As long as they stayed on “their side” of the border, there was no problem, but they did not want them in their midst.

That’s why Jesus told his story about a “good Samaritan,” because his audience found it hard to believe there could be any such thing. In his story about the man who was robbed and left at the side of the road, it was the good “religious” people who ignored him, and it was the member of his people’s hated race who rescued him. The story was specifically and unashamedly a statement against racist religiosity.

Alas, many who hold to a harsher form of Christianity appeal more to the Old Testament and feel they can justify their mindset from there. They are wrong, however, as even the Old Testament Law was very clear about God’s attitude towards people of other races. Here’s what God said to the Israelites:

“The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” — Leviticus 19:34

That’s why I apologize right now on behalf of so many of my Christian brothers and sisters who have placed their patriotism above their faith and treated so many as second-class citizens. They may be true to God in many things, but they do NOT represent Him in their attitudes toward those of various races or backgrounds.

Following Christ is about loving God, and it’s also all about loving the people He loves. And He loves EVERYONE equally. NOBODY is better or closer to God just because they speak English or have a certain color of skin. In God’s sight, we are all equal and unless we can learn to love one another — loving “the alien in our midst” as much as the “native-born” — we cannot begin to claim we are following the ways of Christ.

If you have been hurt by church people who have treated you as somehow inferior because you are of a different race, I know that I cannot make up for the wrong they’ve done you. Yet, I do apologize on behalf of the segments of the Church who are guilty of this sin as best I can and want you to know that I KNOW that race is IRRELEVANT in God’s eyes and must be equally irrelevant in the lives of any true Christ-follower.

On the other hand, if you are a Christian who has held this racist mindset, perhaps because of the influence of your background or teachings you received in your youth, I understand how you got there. You were influenced by others and, in a way, I don’t blame you. We are all products of our environments in many ways. However, I do call your attention to the Word of God and strongly urge you to repent.

We are ALL sinful people in need of forgiveness and grace. God has given us that forgiveness and grace and, just as He has done so for us, He has called us to do for one another. That love for one another is not intended to be only for those who are “like us.” It’s equally intended for those who are different from us. After all, in reality we are all the same. We are sinners in need of grace and, until we accept those who are different from us as equals in our midst, we can never honestly claim to be channels of that grace.

Our journey through 2009

When a new year begins, many of us review the year that lies behind us and also look forward to the year to come. We think about the things we have to be thankful for, as well as the things we wish we’d done differently. Then we resolve not to repeat the mistakes of the past year in the one to come. We make resolutions to start new things as we dream of fresh starts and opportunities.

As Karen and I look back at the year behind us, we certainly have plenty to look at. It’s been a very busy year, filled with major life-changes.

A year ago, we were both planning a wedding and living in Scotland. I was pastoring a church in Moodiesburn, Scotland and had a great circle of friends in the area.

Today, we’re looking forward to our first wedding anniversary and I’m getting ready to start pastoring a church in Rosarito, México. I miss my circle of friends in Scotland but am also excited about the endless possibilities that await us on this side of the world.

How did we get from there to here?

JANUARY

We had a lovely wedding in Dinuba, California and a fantastic honeymoon in Cancún, México. Even as we rested on the beach, though, something within us was restless. We already knew in our hearts that God was moving us to México eventually, but now God was stirring our hearts and telling us that we had to begin to make our move immediately.

We decided we would announce my resignation from the church in Moodiesburn upon our return to Scotland and leave at the end of April. It was not an easy decision, but to not do so would have been wrong because we were confident that this was what God was telling us to do.

FEBRUARY

We returned to Scotland and began to tell the church and our friends what was happening. To our surprise, many responded well to the news. One godly man told me that he knew God was getting ready to move us and that he could even see it was the right timing. He said, “You’ve done what you came here to do. You’re a church-planter, and you planted this church.” We knew that the people would miss us and that we would also miss them, but their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit helped them to see that it was God’s will.

MARCH

With less than two months remaining before our departure from Scotland, we took advantage of the opportunity to spend quality time with good friends whom we knew we were going to miss terribly. We also had opportunities to continue to share the Gospel. On the last Sunday of the month, we both forgot that clocks had changed and were an hour late for church! That was embarrassing!

APRIL

Our last month at the church in Scotland was difficult. We came under a lot of spiritual attack and it was hard to say goodbye to so many people we loved. Yet, God was faithful and kept us strong. We also had the opportunity to visit one of Karen’s best friends on the Isle of Jersey, which was a real joy for us both.

MAY

Our move to America was an amazing experience. Whereas we hadn’t even known how we were going to be able to afford plane tickets to the USA, somebody in the States gifted us our passage across on the Queen Mary II. This trip, which we could never have afforded ourselves, was something we took as a sign that we must have been listening rightly to God when He told us it was time for us to move.

One day we had actually wondered if we had heard God rightly because the finances just weren’t there. I said to somebody from the church, half-jokingly, “Pray that God gives us $2000 tomorrow so we can book tickets to America.” The next day, I heard from somebody in America who said they were taking care of our travel expenses. They covered our trip on the ship, which was a real blessing and which — interestingly enough — actually cost less than the plane tickets would have.

When we got to New York, we took a driving trip across the states, stopping at churches all along the way to tell people about our call to México. It was a fantastic experience and God used it to get our fund-raising started for the mission.

We got to California just in time to attend my cousin’s wedding. When we arrived at my parents’ house, family members from all over America were gathered together, so we really enjoyed the chance to meet up with so many family members we don’t often see.

JUNE — JULY

June and July were spent with my family. My dad’s health has gone downhill quite a lot, so we committed to spending most of those two months helping my mom with his care. Staying in my hometown gave us the opportunity to catch up with a lot of my old friends as well as a chance for me to speak at several churches in the area and share about the opportunities God is opening up for us. I also spent quite a bit of time preparing materials for our work in México, including the curriculum for a course I’ll be teaching to train up evangelists for the Church of the Nazarene.

AUGUST

August was a phenomenal month! We went to Africa with an amazing team of people. Some of us didn’t even know each other before arriving, but we all gelled together like family and had a great experience serving God together in Tanzania. 290 adults made decisions to follow Jesus Christ, and many children and youth responded too. We also got to see the fruits of many years’ work continuing both through practical compassionate ministries in the communities and the continuation of vibrant churches that had been started during previous visits.

Karen and I both got really sick while in Tanzania and were out of commission for the last two days of the campaign, but we had such an incredible team that the work continued and people continued to come to Christ. Ernie Bayton, with whom I had previously served in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, took over the preaching for those last two days and did a fantastic job. The rest of the team also stepped up and demonstrated marvelous resolve and unwavering faith in the midst of difficulties.

After the team went home, Karen and I had another test coming our way. We spent a few days in Nairobi, Kenya. One day, we took our laptops into a local coffee house, The Java House, which has long been one of my favorite haunts in that part of Africa. While we were there, somebody managed to take Karen’s rucksack without anybody — even the guard who was on duty — seeing what happened.

Among the items that were stolen were our passports, the adapter for Karen’s computer, our camera, and various other things. What followed was an interesting visit to the police station, which included having to fill out our own police reports and paying to have them signed by a policeman, and then we spent two days journeying back and forth to both the American and British embassies to get our passports replaced.

We did manage to get our passports replaced in time, however, and thankfully our spirits also remained strong throughout the ordeal. We knew God was taking care of us, so we just made the best of the situation and went with the flow. We were especially grateful that we got everything in order in time for our flight as we had yet more important work awaiting us at the next stop.

SEPTEMBER

We spent most of the month of September in Spain. I spoke at a retreat on the coast one week and at “each one win one” conferences for the next two weekends. We really enjoyed spending that time in the region of Catalunya, Spain. The scenery was breath-taking, the people were great, and God did some incredible things in people’s lives. For one of the most interesting stories from that time, see my post from the 6th of October.

OCTOBER

In October, we got some more time with my family in California and I spoke at churches throughout Central California. Then, at the end of the month, I preached at revival meetings in Vancouver, Washington. That was a great week as I got to catch up with several great friends and I got to introduce several of them to Karen for the first time.

NOVEMBER

We started November out by going to Loon Lake, Washington. It’s up in the hills of Eastern Washington and is right by a beautiful lake, surrounded by green trees and lots of deer. We had a wonderful time there. Once again, I caught up with old friends, introducing them to Karen, and God did good things in people’s lives at the revival meetings.

The rest of the month, we spent more time with family and friends, and I also spoke at a couple more churches in California. We had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving with my family before leaving for our new post in México. It was Karen’s first Thanksgiving ever, as it’s an American holiday, so I enjoyed introducing her to the tradition.

DECEMBER

Our new life in México finally began after almost a year of preparation. We arrived safely in Chapala, near Guadalajara, on the 5th of December and I preached the next day. The people are so welcoming and enjoyable to be around that our first day of ministry was a great experience. Two people came to faith in Christ, a father and daughter, and the day ended in the best possible way… with a bunch of us sitting by an outdoor taco stand eating carne asada tacos and enjoying each other’s company.

From the 9th to 16th, we went to Panama for an evangelistic campaign in the capital there. The heat was intense, especially with no air-conditioning, but the people were wonderful and the atmosphere beautiful and charming. 17 people responded to the call to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior during the meetings, and we had an incredible time with everyone there. We also got a chance to see the Panama Canal, which was a fascinating experience in itself.

We’re settled into México for the long-haul, though we’re still not at our main destination. Although we had originally planned to be based out of Chapala, we’ve been asked to relocate to Rosarito, just south of the California border. There’s a church there that needs our help so, in addition to my other duties, I will be pastoring that church as of the 17th of January.

Until then, we are enjoying this part of México. After a lovely Christmas in Chapala, we ended our year helping a mission team from America in Monteón, near Puerta Vallarta. Karen helped in the kitchen, serving meals to the team, and I translated for the English speakers and helped them teach the children.

Now, as I walk down the cobbled streets near the house where we are staying, I hear the sounds of México. Mexican music plays on people’s stereos, a horse is parked in the road, the smell of chiles is in the air. We sat down today at another taco stand and, as I ate my taco and drank my Coke, I couldn’t help but think of the journey God’s brought Karen and me on so far in our first year of marriage. We’ve come a long way and I can’t wait to see where God takes us in the years to come!