Rick Nier...Woo!

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl...

If I told you that you needed to trust in God, you might assume that you already do. After all, you've went to church, or at least you did before a global pandemic hit our planet. Now you watch church and you're doing your best to balance the realities of our new normal with the lessons on trust you remember from your past. After all, God never said you shouldn't go see a doctor, and I'm not advocating that you only practice home healthcare.  But considering all the many amenities available to us, even during a worldwide crisis, it's fair to ask ourselves if we're living lives of trust or simply living with enough less to differentiate ourselves from those gluttonous monsters who never acknowledge God.  Do We Really Want to Compare? If comparisons are your game, let's play this game we can't possibly hope to win. Would you spend 100 years of your life building a boat in preparation for a worldwide flood? Never mind that Noah had previously never heard of...

Do you know what would make a great name for an epic hero? Nimrod. That’s right. Nimrod. The name you might hear relatives and friends calling someone they find to be stupid. Oh, wait, that doesn’t sound epic, does it? It didn’t to me either. But at one time... “Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” ~Genesis 10:8-9 Nimrod was such a warrior that the next few verses detail the cities he built and the kingdom he established. Warrior, hunter, hero. Thy name is Nimrod. Making Your Own Great Name One would assume the name of the first mighty warrior to walk the earth would still be revered. But go ahead and tell someone they remind you of Nimrod and see how that goes over for you.  via GIPHY See, unlike other biblical names which are hard to spell and harder to pronounce, Nimrod now has a negative con...

There are many benefits of the job I have working for a Christian college. One of them is to pull out the trump card and say, I thought you loved Jesus , whenever they say something I don’t like. Ok, I’m kidding. I don’t actually say it out loud.  The real benefit is working among like-minded believers who know we are all in this mission together to serve the King. Oh, we surely forget from time to time, and we all have our levels of maturity in the faith. But when we stumble, we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who can pull us aside and say, I thought you loved Jesus . (Kidding. Again, no one says it out loud.) But here’s something that, seriously, does keep us all grounded. The faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the chapel services alongside the students. Yes, we all have much to keep us busy and it would often be easier to keep plugging away on a project or two.  Yet there is no greater equalizer when people of different levels of authority g...

Imagine a world, perhaps centuries farther into history than we are now, where there is no concept of satire or sarcasm. First of all, it’s a world I would be incapable of living in. But more importantly it is a world in which this book I’m about to describe could never be appreciated. I present to you  How To Be a Perfect Christian; Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living. This literary gem is written by the good humored people at The Babylon Bee. If you haven’t been introduced to their satirical, fake-news style coming across your social media news feeds, you’re missing out. Or you might be the people of which they are making fun. What they’ve brought us here is a fantastic look at the wonderful subculture we call American Christianity, poking fun at some of our more...er...endearing qualities. Giving us insights like how to pick a church that will focus on us to the finer points of how to look spiritual online, they really have thought of everything. Worshippi...

I have had some extra time to read books lately. While I allowed myself a short break into the world of fiction, I have also been reading Recovering Redemption  by Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer. Here's a quote: For unlike the rest of humanity, Christians are not confined to grief responses that can never do anything but make us die a little more each day: trying so hard to act like we're not sinners, or to act like our sin is not really a big deal - at least not as bad as it seems when we're the most bummed out about it. But, yes, it is. It's bad. Majorly bad.  (Emphasis mine) If we stop to consider this, it makes sense. For those of us who live on this side of the greatest sacrifice in all of history, Jesus is like the greatest spoiler to a story where we can know the end. Yes, we're sinners. But we know Jesus came to die for our sins. Because we know the solution from the start, we minimize the problem. But imagine life before Jesus walked the Eart...

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. ~Exodus 3:1 I have already acknowledged that it is I who must seek out God , no matter His purpose or His timing. Moses is a great example of this. He may not have intended to seek out God, but he found himself at the mountain of God. And that's when God started to move. God appears in the form of a bush that burned but didn't burn up. This intrigued Moses, and why not? But check out what happens next; When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” ~Exodus 3:4 Do you see what's happening here? First, one had to go 'far into the wilderness' to get to the mountain of God. Too often we miss this and assume God can be accessed right around the corner. And while God is everywhere, I believe He wants us to make more effort to be whe...

Because science. That's why. It's the answers parents can give their kids when they don't know the real answer. It's the answer that movies who delve into science fiction can use when they don't know how to get their hero out of the trouble he's found his way into. Because science. But it's not the only way to shut down a debate. I remember coming across a quote from someone who was clearly angry with Christians. He listed all the many things Christians have done wrong throughout history. The crusades, holy killings, and the attempted extinction of people groups in the name of religion. He went on to decry the hypocrites that do whatever they want for six days of the week and then find themselves in church one day of the week. He ended his rant with, ‘but it’s all ok, because Jesus.’ He was very angry. But quite frankly, he summarized the Gospel perfectly. We shouldn’t seek to abuse God’s grace, but all of the wrong things we do can be forgiven and was...

God is so much higher than we are, we can't even comprehend the difference. This very thought should lead us to worship a God who is incomprehensibly greater than us. Rather, it too often leads us to scoff. We attempt to make God in our own image, instead of the other way around. This is why Jesus was without honor in Mark 6. Jesus left that part of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. 2 The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?” 3 Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. ~Mark 6:1-3 Verse 2 says they were amazed, and then in verse 2b the people attempt to bring Jesus back down to Earth. Do you see this? This isn't a little bit later in the stor...

Imagine we know this guy. But he's got some problems. Everyone is aware of this guy and his problems. And like most guys who have problems, this guy's problems become other people's problems.  Maybe we didn't care to do anything about this guy when his problems were just his problems, but now that his problems are everyone's problems, we agree something has to be done.  So we do something.  We problem solve. We attempt solutions. But let's assume none of our solutions work. As crazy as it sounds, we might stop attempting solutions.  Really?!? In the Gospel of Mark, we read about Jesus and His guys coming across just such a scenario. So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles...

I came across a song that used the phrase 'God of Jacob'. I wondered why. Why that phrase to refer to God? I mean, I know Jesus referred to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But if you were to rank them, wouldn't Jacob come in a distant third?  Let's think about this. I know Abraham wasn't perfect, but he did have that whole faith thing going on. Isaac, except for maybe missing his mom too much, was boring enough not to lose this 3-man race.  But Jacob? Not only does his name actually mean 'deceiver', he seems to work hard to live up to the name. Yet as he gets older, we start to see a change of heart, which brings him back home. And that's when we run across this story. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When ...

There's something that I have never fully come to grips with in youth ministry. It's how there don't seem to be enough opportunities to eat pizza. Just kidding . It's parents. Sort of.... Let me explain. When I was a teenager, I was in church whenever the doors were open. Actually, my parents were such sticklers for time management, that I was often there even when the doors were not yet opened, because we would beat the pastor there. Eventually, my parents received keys to the church. Now, instead of simply waiting for others, we could be useful  and set up chairs or tables for whatever event was about to happen. Thanks mom and dad! Now, don't get me wrong. I wasn't rebelling against anybody and not wanting to go to church. I had friends there and I liked my youth pastor and I wanted to be there, generally speaking. But I also knew that it didn't really matter what I wanted  to do. Unless I was sick, I would be in church. Fast forward a couple o...

It's not going to come to that. That's what I told myself. I would turn out to be incorrect. I have been wrong plenty of times in my life, but in this particular instance, I was travelling south on I-65 with my family. We left northern Indiana for the middle of Tennessee, telling ourselves we would stop when we were a) close to Murfreesboro and b) tired of driving for the day. Having run into several traffic jams and being reasonably close to fulfilling both a and b of our requirements, my wife started to search for hotels on her phone. Her search turned into despair quickly as we realized that apparently everyone in the Midwest decided to travel south in I-65 on the same day. A few phone calls revealed there were no vacancies within 50 miles of where we were. At this point, we had reached Murfreesboro. I went into the last few hotels around, only to be told, "Sorry, we have no more room in the inn." It was like being told, "Welcome to your new l...

I want to tell you a little bit about my first girlfriend. (This was before I met Jen.) I was head over heels for this girl. Because I was so ‘in love’, I was willing to do anything to be able to date her and tell people that I was dating her. So she had some standards that she wanted me to reach for if we were going to be a couple. I really wanted to date her, so I said, ‘Lay it on me, babe.’ ( Those are the kinds of things I say to woo damsels...works every time. ) She wanted us to talk every day, at least on the phone. She wanted us to go out on a date, at least once a week. She had some rules for how I should act, both when we were together and when we weren’t. After all, she said, ‘I’ was now an ‘us’ and we should consider how people view us, even when we weren’t together. I really wanted to date this girl. So I agreed to her standards. How did I do? The first rule was that we talk every day, at least on the phone. Well, this was before cell phones, so this was kind of difficult. ...

I think I have sometimes pictured pre-Jesus Israel as this nation full of choir boys. They all knew their part. They all knew God's Law. They all knew, and practiced, right over wrong. A simple glance around any church should have told me I was an idiot. Not that the church I am a part of is full of idol-totin', sailor-talkin', sin-saturated pagans. (Then again, I'm not saying we don't have our share...) But to assume that the ancient world, with their lack of agenda-pushing media, was a world similar to any opening-number of a Disney movie, is just silly. Sin entered the world through Adam. It didn't wait until 1984 to get started corrupting people. Why 1984? That's when Kevin Bacon corrupted an entire town by telling them there was a time to dance. Perish the thought! Listen, I've been educated about Bible matters, history and the like. But it's interesting the preconceived notions we carry, such as people now are more corrupt than in the old days...

We have all seen them. They stand out like a sore thumb. But they stand out for a reason.  I am talking about missionaries.  You may have known them before they left for the mission field. You may have even prayed over them in a special service just before they boarded a plane for some distant country and culture. They looked like you, dressed like you, ate at similar restaurants.  But upon their visit back stateside, you are wondering what happened. Guest speaking at your church, you see them wearing clothing native to the mission field. They are teaching yo strange sounding vocabulary and possibly introducing you to new foods.  This is not the same person. They're odd. (Disclaimer: I don't think missionaries are odd. I am saying some people, other than me, might think you're odd. If you're a missionary, don't shoot the messenger. In fact, I know the first missionary who will comment about this post to me.) When missionaries are odd and speak the l...

My next few posts will be portions of my sermons from the past couple of weeks. When the senior pastor is away, the youth pastor doesn't play. He gets to preach! Well, that was a nice story. Jesus loved me. He died for me. He rose from the dead and told the Easter Bunny to leave me some eggs with chocolates in them for me. That was nice. I guess we can relax now until Christmas for the other big story. Or, for the fanatical, we could look ahead to Pentecost Sunday and celebrate the Holy Spirit for a Sunday. We could do that. Not many of us would be so bold as to say that, at least not here inside these walls. I do wonder if we think it. But no, we profess to believe this. We profess God come to Earth, lived, crucified and rose among us, this ultimate of love stories. (And if I just said that last line without you thinking twice about it, then maybe you’re not a Christian, or perhaps you’ve been a Christian for too long. We profess God…come to Earth….lived, crucified and risen.)...

This past weekend, I taught teens about relationships, but isn't every lesson about relationships somehow? I called it Stop and Go. You can read part 1, the Stop, right here . Below is part 2, the Go. ______________________________________ GO We have some good examples of people Going after God. Ruth followed Naomi. She was following God. Elisha followed Elijah, even asking for more of God. Twice as many miracles are recorded on behalf of Elisha as were Elijah. Elisha was chasing God. There are plenty of stories of good and bad examples throughout scripture. But there is one who models what I’m talking about here perfectly. Allow me to paint the picture. If you ever start reading 1 and 2 Kings, or 1 and 2 Chronicles, you’ll find a list of kings and the major events during their reign. You’ll find a description of how closely they followed God or, more often, how they were evil in the eyes of the Lord. The history of Israel goes back and forth like this, but always wi...

This weekend I presented a lesson I called Stop and Go , about how we pursue relationships. I'll break it up into 2 parts for you, my loyal blog-fellows. I'll post the Stop portion today and the Go portion on Wednesday. ___________________________________ So the whole idea is that we want to be Happily Ever After. As I said at the beginning, many people are after the Fairy Tale story and ending. But the Disney picture is not realistic. So the first step is realizing that we’ve been handed a distorted picture by Hollywood. I say that and realize that many of you know, with your heads, that it’s a lie. But we don’t always think with our heads, now do we? We have been sold a belief that living with your heart is better. Put your heart into it. Follow your heart. It’s all about emotions with us. Even when it makes no sense, we say ‘the heart wants what it wants.’ We say things like this, as if it excuses us from considering truth. I imagine that many of us assume reality is for o...

God speaks. This in itself should be an amazing enough truth for us to grasp. In a college group I lead we discussed whether we thought a deistic approach to life was true to reality. But we never mentioned the possibility that it might be all we deserve. Consider this: an all-knowing, all-powerful, omni-present being decides to make a world. Even if we forget that this Being we believe in is all-good, He makes us. Should it really be a concern of ours if this Being decides not to talk to us? Do you speak to your paintings, your music, your dinner? We profess to believe in a god that is as far superior to us as we are to anything we create. Why should we ever expect Him to talk to us? We are presented with a broken world and we say that we didn’t ask for this suffering. Perhaps not, but what a wonderfully me-centered way of looking at things. No wonder the Apostle Paul wrote what he did in Romans 9. But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?  ~Romans 9:20 If we...