Ministry

I taught 2 Peter 2:1-10a tonight at the Transformation House. I was up most of last night working and then gone all of today to Bowling Green on business, so I expected to deliver a short meditation on a happy nuance of the character of God I detected in verse 9. I even joked on the phone with my co-teacher that I didn't expect a whizz-bang lesson given my circumstances unless the Lord intervened. Hanging up, I decided to combat unbelief and turned that simple comment into a prayer. Not surprisingly, we ended up having an hour long Bible study that elicited positive interaction from the men present and greatly encouraged me. Amen!

And that's not even the best part of the story!

The passage in 2 Peter begins a discussion of false teachers, their ill effects, and their poor prospects for the future. Instead of diving right into the passage itself, we first examined Jeremiah 6:9-15 where the Lord forewarns Israel of his coming wrath on account of the nation's abject rebellion and the disregard of the prophets and priests for the ministry of the Word. Not only were the false prophets superficially binding up a broken people, but they weren't even ashamed of their hypocrisy. They declared "Peace, peace," when there was no peace... like a string quartet trying to calm a drowning crowd in the icy North Atlantic.

Beginning in Jeremiah served to strengthen our understanding of the heinousness of false teachers. Not only do they bring destruction on themselves, but in leading a whole people astray they bring down the wrath of God on many. (Isn't it enough for someone to walk alone into destruction? How much more severe it must be to lead a line...) Israel was in a very bad spot, and the Lord did exactly as He promised.

Segue into 2 Peter. I reminded the guys of the previous weeks' teaching... Peter, on the strength of the inspiration of the true prophets, and having witnessed the glory of God in Christ, came to understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets. He didn't make up a fairy tale about the magical man who walked on water and did good to all. He accepted the authority of the Word and deduced from his life experience that the only rational conclusion was that Jesus is the Son of God, the savior of sinners. He spent his life reminding those who came to faith that this truth was worth living out and defending till death.

However, believing the gospel and living according to the Bible will not come easy. By and large, the world is set against such behavior. Some would be happy to see us compromise our convictions or abandon our faith, and it tends to be because they want something we have or because our holiness highlights their sensuality. This was easily demonstrable in the lesson by virtue of the fact that most of the men present shared the following experience of a friend of mine who lived with me.

Some years ago, my roommate, Rob Smythe, and I brought in a third man to live with us who had been evicted from his apartment. We were still fairly new at such ministry and didn't recognize the fact that his eviction was due to a drug addiction. We began the process of working with him to plan to save his paycheck and not squander it on new clothes and drugs, but week after week he spent his paycheck before we could put any of our plans into action. One day, I diagnosed his "flirtation" with drugs as an addiction, and he told me in all seriousness that no one had ever told him that before. Until that day, smoking crack was just something he did socially but not something that he depended on. His friends were happy to delude him and squander his wealth on their crack, and all the while he was at least nominally active in another church in the city. You know the saying... "With friends like these..."

Well, that story (of which I've been given permission to share) really resonated with the guys there. Not only was this a clear example of a man's friends eager to bring him down, it was the common experience of many men with addictions who are taken advantage of by their friends and who have done the same in turn. However, it's not just the world and our supposed friends, but even those within the church who would preach, "Peace, peace," or, "Social activity, not addiction," that keep us from believing, loving, and obeying the Bible. Peter writes that he wants to always stir the people up by way of reminder so that even after he's dead and gone, the faithful will stand firm despite the source of the attack on their biblical fidelity.

So... these false teachers. They lead others into sensuality. They take advantage of others' wealth. On account of them and their obvious hypocrisy (to the world, that is), the way of truth is actually blasphemed. In other words, these people are doing evil, leading others to do evil, and leading still others to speak evil of the Lord and His gospel. There's no doubt what they have coming for them, or as Peter writes, their destruction is not asleep.

He then goes through this list of events where the wicked are unreservedly punished. Fallen angels are bound in darkness. The ancient world is wiped out by a flood. Sodom and Gomorrah are burned to smithereens. A few words come to mind. Unequivocal. Absolute. Destruction. And don't you expect Peter to write that the Lord has the same in store for the false teachers his friends will encounter? I know I did. And this is the good part I mentioned way up above.

Peter actually takes a different approach. Yes, he does get to the point that the unrighteous will be kept under punishment until the day of judgment, but he comes in at an unexpected angle. What's funny is that I should be geared to expect it. Here's what I mean...

The horror of the Flood wasn't just about wrath. It was also about Noah, a preacher of righteousness, being saved in a boat thanks to the instruction of God. The flames of Sodom and Gomorrah weren't just about wrath. They were also about righteous Lot being saved from the city where not even ten righteous men could be found. In fact, Peter even points out that the wickedness of those around Lot greatly distressed him. No longer. The wicked men were burned, along with the cities whose names they have forever tarnished.

And so when we get to the end of this passage. The warning about false teachers and the promise that their destruction is not asleep is not just about God preserving His good name. Certainly, the Lord will vindicate His name. But notice in verse 9 what appears first... "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials." That's right, Christian. God cares about you. Just as much as God cares about preserving His good name, God cares about rescuing you from the deadly influence of false teachers. He will judge, but His judgment is not just about Him having His way. His judgment is for your good, to spare you from the trial or temptation of hearing and being enticed by false teaching.

God cares about you, and in your fight to remain faithful, the Lord knows how to rescue you from trials. That thought, that simple meditation arrived at "roundaboutly" was a great encouragement me to me this evening, and I hope it is to you, too. Thanks for sticking with me.

I live in the Shelby Park neighborhood of Louisville, KY. It's a part of town known for crack cocaine and prostitution, and this month it's unfortunately been in the news for violent crime as well. Why live in such an area? I attend Immanuel Baptist Church, an old church planted square in the neighborhood with a vision for seeing the neighborhood change through the preaching of the gospel and the conversion of the very people selling and using drugs, prostituting themselves, and committing violent crimes.

On Monday, March 23, Christina and I came home from Sunergos (my favorite coffee shop) and saw some police lights across the park. Lights aren't that unusual, so I figured someone was busted for something, and we went inside. The next day while talking to a friend from church on the phone, I found out that the lights were in fact a result of a homicide in the park. I quickly searched the web and found out that Troya Sheckles was ruthlessly gunned down in broad daylight with a couple hundred witnesses nearby. She was sitting in the park with a friend when the murderer walked up, caused an argument, shot her in the torso multiple times, and ran off. Her friend sitting right beside her was unharmed, at least physically.

In the case of Troya, news stories are indicating that her murder might be connected to the fact that she was due to testify in a double homicide trial. A few years ago, she witnessed a man break into her home and murder her then boyfriend. She was the principal eye witness in the case, but she was actually too scared to testify in trial for fear of her life. She was eventually pressured into testifying, apparently even under threat of arrest. Unfortunately, coming forward and "doing the right thing" might well have cost her her life. I visited a memorial for Troya that's setup in the park and can't believe that such a crime could happen in a place I walk past when heading to church and 50 feet from where I push children on swings and chase them down slides.

A week before that murder, some friends from Sojourn Community Church (a like minded church in our neighborhood) were holding a small group meeting in their backyard on the block next to ours on Camp St. Men broke into their yard and robbed them all at gunpoint while they met. From what I understand, some of these same people then witnessed the murder on Monday, which was a couple hundred feet from their back porch. And this all just down the street.

Why share this? Why talk about it? I can picture the children playing nearby as a woman was gunned down. I can feel the fear of a group of brothers and sisters in Christ having their peace and encouragement shattered by armed robbers. Is this not oppresssion? Is this not injustice?

I truly believe God cares about neighborhoods like Shelby Park. As was preached at our church on Wednesday night, God's kingdom is one of justice and righteousness, salvation for those oppressed by evil men and for those enslaved to their own lusts. Our prayer is for God to bring this kingdom to life in Shelby Park, and we're staying put to see it happen. We're staying put to be part of the happening.

And just how does it happen? Well, I know prostitutes who have been transformed by the gospel and left the streets behind. I know a crack addict, cried with him and cared for him, who has been transformed by the gospel and left his drug behind. I know a drug dealer and man of violence who has been transformed by the gospel and earned an honest living and shared with those in need. He's one of the most encouraging people I know! These people have all been transformed by the gospel, the message we preach that is a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, but the power of God for salvation to those who believe. These people all have believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins. They have believed that they have perfect redemption in him. They have believed, and God has made them new creations in Christ, and He is very obviously at work in them to cause them to desire and to live according to His Word. Amen.

Had a chat with a friend at the Transformation House today who has a stint in his chest and needs regular dialysis. I believe he had open heart surgery not too long ago that really set him off on a downward spiral of poor health. Before he was a strong man. A kind mind. Self-sufficient and determined to provide for himself and see what God had to say to him through the Bible.

Now all I can say is he is a broken man, and the best he can say for himself is he's alive. That's certainly saying something, but it's also hard to see a man I know to be strong suffering so much and looking for all the world like a dying man. It's incredibly difficult to listen through the wheezing, coughing, and hiccups to the words of a dying man.

"Hiccup and throw-up. Hiccup and throw-up. My insides hurt, my outsides hurt. I can't drink, gotta lean on my arm to smoke. I've been hiccuping for a week and a half, and it hurts all the way down. All I can get is rest. But I'm sick of the bed. Sick of the bed. Here we go, I can't finish this smoke. Don't I gotta go lie down. Sick of the bed."

So, say a prayer for Guy. For his healing and rest. For his perseverance. For his hope in the Lord.

One of the greatest things my pastor did for me when I was struggling through an intense spiritual depression was open his door to me at 10:00 PM at night and let me weep on his shoulder for half an hour. And I mean really weep, with tears, snot, and all. And then he did it again the next day for a couple hours as he guided me through exposing the feelings of anger and bitter resentment that had resulted in this depression.

He let me cry with him.

Much like Job's friends did at first, I was able to fully express my grief with no fear of rejection, no pat answers, and no shock and amazement that I could possibly feel the way I felt.

There are a lot of things in life that make people sad and distressed. Even someone with a relatively good life has plenty to cry over. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone sit down and cry with you? What if we could learn to actually weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. I don't have to condone your thoughts or agree with your conclusions to cry with you. I just have to share in your pain, which is all of our pain as a result of the Fall. If I can't cry with you, have I really understood the tragedy of sin and its far-reaching consequences?

I teach Bible studies regularly to men who are 40 and 50 years old with nothing to their name, histories of drug and alcohol abuse, and numerous broken and failed relationships in their past. I pray that men who confess their brokenness to me, men who look at me on the verge of tears and tell me they wish they had the things I am enjoying, men with piles of regrets... I pray that when they hurt in front of me, I am able to hurt with them. To cry with them.

My lesson tonight at the Transformation House was based on chapter 33 in John Piper's book The Passion of Jesus Christ. Its primary text was Galatians 6:14, and the premise is that Christ died on the cross so that all the boasting we do as believers might be a boasting in the cross. It's quite clear in Scripture that boasting in ourselves, what we have or do, is contrary to God's plan for the world. Boasting in ourselves over such things is misplaced praise, as if we are responsible for our very lives and the things we have been able to do. The Bible teaches instead that God is the giver of life and the one who enables us to do all things, and His desire is that as we come to understand this, we would render praise to God as is fitting for all the good things we enjoy in this life and all the bad things God uses for good in our lives.

This sort of life is only possible through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. He received in his flesh willingly, according to the plan of God, the penalty for our self-centered sin. All who trust in this substitution no longer stand condemned and are freed from an essentially self-centered life, so it makes sense that the cross would become the Christian's greatest treasure. According to the Bible, it frees a man or woman to live life as God intended which is by nature the most satisfying thing for him or her to do and the most honoring to God.

I worked a couple extra hours today, because I knew Christina would be home late. After 10 hours at the desk, I needed some fresh air, so I grabbed some Bible study material and went out to walk around the park and read. I saw some kids I know playing basketball (they're both in 8th grade), one of them being the son of a friend of mine from church. I approached to shoot around a little while and found out they had an unexpected guest sharing their court.

Apparently, a man high on drugs and drinking some Olde English (which smells horrid if you don't what it is) had decided to instruct them in some moves. I didn't know what to expect, but I put down my things to join them. He was "teaching" them a good hook shot and showed me how to guard him, and honestly he played a lot better than I expected. In any event, one of the kids, Christian, said he needed to tell me something, and this man (who didn't really respond when I tried to introduce myself) caught on and wouldn't leave him alone. "Just say it right now." "I don't like whispering." "Why are you trying to lie?" These in response to Christian just trying to whisper to me that the man was high. Now he's faced with having to fend off a grown man who could easily turn abusive... you just never know. If I tried to intervene, would that help matters or make them worse? When he drives in for a lay-up, should I try to block him or just try to be polite like the kids and half-heartedly stay out of his way?

I can't believe our children have to grow up tip-toeing around men strung out on crack while they try to shoot some hoops after school. The least I could do was stay until he left (mercifully, after the first game of 21). But this isn't just a chance occurrence. They didn't know to be polite because they've never been bothered by addicts in the park. It's intimidating for me as a grown man. I can't imagine being still a child and having to experience this day after day.

I'll continue to pray for the children's safety and the addicts' salvation, and I certainly invite more men to move into the cities and show boys what it means to be men.

The weeks since the Drupalcon have been a blur, but now I'm fairly well without an excuse for not posting to the blog. I've kept quite busy with work, church, and home related activities, and I think I've started at least a couple blog posts that never saw the light of day. Perhaps for now I'll simply say a blurb about two books I'm reading, post a short poem I wrote for my pastor while he studied for tomorrow's sermon in the same coffee shop as Christina and me, and write a summary thought related to Easter.