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Jun 10 2012

Duck Dynasty – What you probably know and what you probably don’t know


What has become a hit show on the A&E Network features a group of unusual characters that could not have been cast by a Hollywood professional and dialogue that could not have been scripted by the best writers.

The show features Phil Robertson, the Duckcommander, his extended family, and a few friends and employees of the family business. After winning all the best awards at the Outdoor Channel with the Duckcommander show, they have taken cable by storm and are quickly rising to one of the top shows on cable. It is an unlikely bunch to enjoy such fame and to amass such a loyal fan following. They are not entertainers, at least not trained entertainers, they are just…well….they are just the Robertson bunch.

Most of the above is what you probably already knew. Now for some things you probably didn’t know.

Just how popular are they? Recently, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, arguably the best show on CNN, was able to only attract just over 500,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the last episode of the season for Duck Dynasty had 2.6 million viewers. Not too shabby, and they are trending upward. Soon they will start shooting for their second season, this year will have a healthy 25 episodes.

What drives them? You might be shocked to know that the motivating force is not fame and the money that comes with TV stardom. What drives them is a simple mission that began with the elder Robertson soon after his conversion to Christianity. They are focused on telling as many people as possible about the story of Jesus Christ and what he has done for sinful people, (that’s all of us..).

An open door. After reading the paragraph above you might question, “Yes, I see them say a prayer before they eat and Phil will say something about the Bible occasionally but they don’t share about Jesus on the show do they?” Of course it’s a fair question and I think many people who know the Robertson’s might have similar questions when they hear someone make the claim that they are all about evangelism.

What Duck Dynasty and other family media has done is to open doors that could never have been opened any other way. Phil, Jase, Alan, and John have all the speaking opportunities they can handle and more. Even before Duck Dynasty Phil was booked up for about 3 years in advance. They speak at sports shows of all sorts, sports banquets at churches and other venues, and almost anywhere they can get an audience. What you might not know is that every speaking opportunity features a rugged looking outdoors type dude with duck calls in one hand and a Bible in the other. They almost never speak anywhere that they don”t preach the gospel. This family has preached the good news about Jesus to far more people in the last several years than many major ministries ever could. They walk the walk and talk the talk, for this I most respect what they do and who they are.

The lost sheep returns. Duck Dynasty is truly a family business but one of the Robertson sons has been missing most of the time. The oldest son, Alan, has only had cameo appearances a few times, is clean-shaven, and has not worked very much in the business. For several years Alan has been one of the pulpit ministers at the church where the family worships. He is a gifted preacher and one of the very best I have ever heard. The lost sheep is coming home! Alan announced to the congregation of his church today that he will be stepping down from his preaching job at White’s Ferry Road to return to the family business where he worked building duck calls when the business was just getting off the ground. He will still worship with us, still be an elder, and will still preach often, but his principal job will be helping his family reach even more people for Christ. It’s a sweet bonus that they get to have so much fun doing it.

So, tune in when the new season begins and keep in mind that what you see on the screen is just a fraction of what the Robertson clan and their friends are all about. To them, Jesus really is Lord!

Jun 2 2012

Does God want you to be happy?


God wants you to be happy! This seems to be the prevailing teaching coming from today’s Christian preachers and teachers. Those who will follow Jesus are promised “a better life” by sincere people.

One of the most often quoted passages of scripture is this one.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

This verse and others are often taken out of context and applied broadly so that people are led to believe that all God wants for them is a life of sunshine and butterflies.

The truth is that your life might get worse, not better, if you devote your life to Jesus. Consider this passage from Hebrews 11. Many people who consider this chapter to be the “hall of the faithful” have evidently never read the whole chapter.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword.They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:35-38)

This is a description of people who were sold out to God, they were people of great faith, and great faithfulness. They were not “happy”.

When the great Apostle Paul received his commission to take the gospel to the masses this is what the Lord himself said about him.

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. (Acts 9:15-16)

That Paul would suffer was as certain as that he would take the gospel to the masses. He was not told to expect happiness.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, we American Christians face little suffering because of our faith. In most of the rest of the world suffering is seemingly “normal” for believers. Frequently I read of Christians murdered in some far away country. What is their crime? They follow Jesus, that’s it.

Does God want us to be happy? Or, maybe we should ask “Does God want me to be happy?” The answer is clearly NO!
He does want us to have joy, and overflowing.
He does want us to have peace, it’s a gift from his grace.
He does want us to be content, whatever our circumstance.
He does want us to know and believe that everything we experience as believers are parts of a whole work by him that result in our best interests. (Romans 8:28) Suffering of all kinds is routine and should be expected. (Romans 8:17-18)

You may be asking, “Why would you write a post like this?”. It is a good question and I’ll give an answer. Several months ago my wife and I and others were part of a class at church for new Christians. One of the participants was a young man with a very bad past. He had been a Christian for only a few months. He tearfully told our group that his wife had deserted him, he had lost his job, he was being evicted, and he had no transportation. Now for my reason for writing this post. He was convinced that somehow he had failed since things were not going as he thought they should. He was very unhappy! I explained to him that his relationship to God is not conditioned upon how well he performs. We cannot measure our standing with God based on day-to-day circumstances.

This young man is typical of tens of thousands who have been taught that God wants his people to be happy and when you are unhappy it’s a sure indication you have failed or that God is not pleased with you at the moment. Each of us follows Jesus imperfectly. God’s love is “unconditional”. He is not fickle as we humans are. He does not turn his love on and off based on how we respond. We very often bring trouble on ourselves by making poor choices and acting in ways that are against God’s instructions but we can’t blame the results on God. Even our mistakes, yes, even our sins will be used by God for our good. We most likely can’t even begin to see the good at the moment but we must trust what God has promised. The life we live is a life of faith. Faith says “What God has promised is true no matter what I am presently seeing with my eyes and hearing with my ears. He will do what he promised”.

Dear friend, cling to God with all your might in the middle of your darkest night. When hard times come, (and they will come), instead of questioning your own performance and questioning God’s love for you, rejoice! Trouble in the life of a faith-follower of Jesus is a reminder of his love! You can confidently take God at his word.

May 24 2012

You can’t tell a book by it’s cover


Many thousands of years ago God gave Samuel a lesson about how to choose a leader. Just as Samuel was about to anoint the wrong person God gave him this admonition.

 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1st Samuel 16:7)

Samuel was using the only criteria at his disposal as a man to pick a leader. He could only judge with his natural senses. Each of us are like Samuel are limited to what we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. None of those or a combination of them were good enough to judge with worthiness of a man for God’s use. Neither are they good enough for me to judge you and your relationship to God.

Obviously, what we see and hear give us some great insight as we observe others. But as God told Samuel, we are limited to the external part of each other.

It’s very interesting that God gave his law, a written code, on tables of stone. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” was one of the ten commandments. He was pretty clear about what he wanted and rejected. Some of the Jews insisted God hadn’t said enough, so they added amendments. They wanted to “see” if someone was observing the day or not so they fixed it. They added about 40 things that were forbidden and under many of those were further additions so that finally there were literally scores of laws, any of which if broken by a Jew make him guilty, presumably before God. They went to such lengths that in their minds Jesus was guilty of breaking the law because he forgave sins on that day!  To add to the confusion, different groups of zealots had different laws about the Sabbath Day. Does this sound familiar?

God says to Christians “Don’t neglect to meet together as is customary to some, to encourage each other…” (Hebrews 10:25) Simple enough isn’t it? Not a lot of rules to be broken. Ah, but along comes a legal beaver with a Wal-Mart suit and he (and others like him) makes it more clear and easier to observe. You must be at “the building” on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and all of the days of the annual “gospel meeting” (and many, many more). Violate any of these and you are in danger of hell, that is according to the zealots.

Once you get to the “building”, God says “Eat the bread and drink the wine together to remember the Lord until he comes. Sing to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs…make melody in your hearts.” It sounds nice doesn’t it? Enter elder Joe Bob Dogooder. He and his ilk insist that you sing only a certain kind of song, a certain number of songs, decide who can stand where while singing, there can be no musical instrument, no clapping of hands, no raising of hands, and no solo singing. Not very inviting huh? Well, I could go on.

Presently there is a huge push back against those of us who teach that sinners are saved by faith. That is that God justifies those who turn away(repent) from their life of self and simply put their trust (faith) in Jesus who died to pay for their sins. God calls it grace. People who claim to be exclusive representatives of God claim it’s bogus and cheap. Their claim is that God needs to see what you are doing and they appeal to James and Matthew as primary sources for their proof texts. Oh, there is Acts chapter 2 as well.

Jesus said something unusual to Nicodemus when they had their late evening chat. Jesus talked about the wind. The wind? Yes. He told this well educated Jewish leader that those who are “born of the Spirit” are like the wind!

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

Being born of the Spirit is not something you can see, like the wind. You can hear it blowing the leaves of the olive trees but the wind is not observable. It makes some folks jittery to talk of spiritual things but Jesus did. A true Christian has been “born from above”, “born of the Spirit”. When God justifies a sinner and makes him his child it is a spiritual transaction. In God’s kindness he has given us some tangibles that point to this spiritual event. Confession is one of those. We can hear words. Apart from the Lord’s Supper, water baptism is the most beautiful illustration of this spiritual birth. As one goes into the water his object lesson says “I am dying with Christ, dying to my old life”, and when he is raised up from the water he is saying by that “I will now live the Christ life, I am a new man”.

God made it very simple. Along comes brother Dogooder again. He redefines the new birth to no less than 5 acts, (or according to some, 6 things). It’s as if God is only a spectator sitting on the edge of his seat waiting to see if some sinner will do all those things so he can say “Approved!”. God doesn’t wonder what a person will do, he knows. Added to his omniscience is the fact that Jesus can “see faith”. He knows what is in the heart of a man before he takes a step or says a word. But we tend to want to only affirm things we can physically measure or monitor. Not so with God!

Here are two contrasting examples of this. The first is from Luke

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.  And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 15:14,15)

Have you ever met anyone like this? I have. Jesus set the record straight. You see, they probably had some of those who observed them believing that, with all their trappings of religion, they were really fine men of God. They didn’t fool Jesus. “God knows your hearts”! It’s good to keep this in mind. What men think is very cool and might impress God, He finds to be awful! Now the opposite example.

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.  And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.” (Acts 157-9)

Peter was defending having baptized Gentiles. And, he baptized Gentiles who got the order all messed up. They received the Spirit before they were baptized and were praising God! Peter, like Jesus earlier, set the record straight. God decided that “Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and…believe”. And moreover, “God, who knows the heart bore witness to them…” God knew they had put their faith in Him before a song was sung, before the invitation was given, and before the waters were disturbed. God Knows!

It seems to me a good plan is to stay out of God’s way. Love people, love them enough to tell them the good news, and God will take care of the saving. We have the joy of baptizing them in water and teaching them to become good disciples. Gospel song writer Mark Lowery wrote a song part of which says ‘I catch’em God cleans’em”.

In my view we should stop trying to reduce God’s plan of redemption to a neat little check off sheet as if he has appointed us to grade the papers. God was doing quite well before you and I came along and he can do well without our amendments to his plans. There are millions of people who don’t look like me, sound like me, worship like me, or live like me who might not meet my approval but are some of God’s own dear children. I think it would be good for all of us people of the dust to stop trying to be God. We don’t do a good job of it.

Apr 22 2012

Why Jesus saves


Image “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Yes, God saves ungodly folks like you and me because He loves us and doesn’t want us to perish. He rather wants us to live with Him forever. Of course this is a very brief and elementary statement but none-the-less true. Tens of thousands of volumes have been written attempting to mine the depths of the doctrine of salvation (Soteriology). I will not attempt to cover that ground but I will tell you what I’ve been thinking about today.

God doesn’t save people to make them religious. Nope. It was religious people who demanded that Jesus be crucified. In fact many of those whose voices were loudest were in fact the most religious!

God doesn’t save people so they can go to church. If you think so you are wrong. There are lots of people who go to church as regular as the movements of a Swiss watch and God is offended by them.

God doesn’t save people so they will be prosperous. Do you doubt it? Try reading the New Testament. What about Jesus and his disciples, how much stuff did they own? Oh, then there is the last half of Hebrews 11… If you follow Jesus your life might not be a happy one is a gentle way to say it.

God doesn’t save people so they can be happy. Hmm, how about the great Apostle Paul, or Peter? They were beaten, thrown into prison, etc., etc. Happy? Are you serious?

In my next post I’ll talk about some reasons God saves ungodly, undeserving sinners.

Thinking out loud,

Royce