Rick Nier...Woo!

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...

Dear Indiana,  I know I've lived here for most of my adult life, so this may seem a bit late in coming. I understand that living in Indiana means loving, or at least tolerating, basketball. Don't get me wrong. I've watched Hoosiers. It's good.  I do love basketball. I enjoy playing it, watching it and even talking about it. I don't root for your teams, but I get the love for this sport.  But there's a few things we need to clear up. You see, my middle school son started playing for one of your teams this year. Needless to say, the experience has only confirmed what I already suspected.  The place in your heart that this sport holds, at least borders on idolatry. I should also mention that I am a youth pastor. So I have watched time and time again as basketball crowds out the space for anything else. I know what lessons can be learned when our sons and our daughters learn to sacrifice and work as part of a team. But I also know the lessons that a...

In Matthew 2, the Magi come to visit King Herod. They ask about the King of the Jews. We’re told King Herod is disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. He asks the chief priests and the teachers of the law for details on where the Christ was to be born. Why are the chief priests disturbed? Why all of Jerusalem? King Herod being disturbed, I get. He was a king, and the mention of another king coming would naturally be seen as a threat. King Herod responds and acts throughout this story just as we should expect him to act. But the teachers of the law? Were they not focused on the prophecies at all? Jesus came quoting the Law and the Prophets. I assumed God’s people would be about looking for the Messiah. They knew enough to tell Herod the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. And why didn’t they go to Bethlehem? They hear that a star has been seen, and that foreign kings are coming to see this baby born, but we have no record of them checking it out for themselves. Understand, this is before ...

I used Psalm 42:1-2 as a call to worship yesterday, but as I said then, it wasn't the whole story. The first 2 verses might seem like a nice scripture to put on a pillow, or a painting with a deer in a forest, to simply indicate we love being with God. But if you read the rest of Psalm 42, this is written by a guy who has felt abandoned by God and longs desperately to be in His presence. Better than picturing a deer, peacefully roaming the forest, we might rather picture a critically wounded person reaching out for one last grasp towards life. He recalls a time when he was happy, singing praises to God. He was with all of his people, singing, dancing and generally having a great time. Now, in verse 5, he asks his soul 'why are you so downcast?' One can almost hear the painful mock, as he knows why he is disturbed. Unlike many who abandon any hope to be found in God, this guy reminds himself that hope is eternally to be placed in God. Though the times are tough, a...

When I became  youth pastor at my current church, I had a job description that probably looks very similar to many other youth ministry job descriptions. Maybe all job descriptions. There was a line towards the end of the list of my roles that said; other duties as assigned . It's a bad thing to have that line in a youth ministry job description for two reasons. First, you shouldn't use the duty  around youth pastors. After all, we hang around middle schoolers and this just begs us to chuckle at the use of words that can have double meanings.  Secondly, and more importantly, those other duties ( snicker) can begin to swallow your time whole. I digress.  I was leading in worship and shared some thoughts, but I thought I would use this space to expound. Have you ever had one of those Sundays when you simply wanted to get into the worship time? Maybe most Sundays are a battle between how your reality looked the rest of the week and your desire to engage ...

I was reading Exodus recently and realized just how different things are for us nowadays than they were for Moses and the Israelites. Let me start with the Israelites... We see God commanding the people to consecrate their firstborn children. Here were their requirements: Make bread without yeast. Get rid of all yeast. All of it.  It was like when your mom would say she didn't want to see any mess in your room. God wanted all things yeasty to be gone. But we're not done yet. All firstborn males had to be redeemed. This was done by sacrificing the firstborn sheep and goats. If you had a donkey, you could switch it for a sheep. But if you didn't, God wanted you snapping the neck of your donkey. I have to wonder if that would cause the other donkeys to lose trust in you. Perhaps they would be a little nervous when they saw you come around again. Nevertheless, this is how the Israelites prepared for worship. A typical Sunday morning for my family looks nothing li...

Here is a portion of what I shared with my church this Sunday. I was talking about how God knows us, using Psalm 139 as my proof. Rather than question why his life is any of God’s business, David writes thankful words at God’s knowledge. He seems enamored that God would take this effort to know him and he earnestly desires to return that gift. In verse 6, he acknowledges that this kind of knowledge is too lofty, too wonderful for him to grasp. As we continue through this Psalm, we come to a part that has probably left many pastors wondering what exactly was wrong with David. This warrior-king, one breath away from telling God how precious His thoughts were, continues like this; O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name. O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. ~Psal...

Sometimes the real thank you comes years later. This is because it sometimes takes years before we truly understand the cost of the gift. It's not that we aren't appreciative at the time, but our gratitude multiplies as our understanding grows. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours putting together a rather large toy. To be specific, it was the U.S.S. Flag, a G.I. Joe aircraft carrier that I had received as a boy. G.I. Joe was an obsession for me as a kid, so when it came time for me to put childish things away, I chose to pack up my extensive collection, in the hopes that I might someday have a boy of my own who would appreciate such a collection. Some 5-30 years later, that day has arrived. My boy's collection is now complete, with this: Having now built it myself, I can give a truly heartfelt thank you to my mom. As I put this 7-foot ship together, I recalled that my mom would stay up late on Christmas Eve, putting together all of the G.I. Joe toys, like mo...

Last week I spoke at a camp. It was, overall, a good experience. That is, if you take away the lack of sleep, the icy lake we swam in, the large beasts that eat your flesh and the lack of sleep. Did I mention lack of sleep twice? Sorry, I'm still recovering. My favorite part, since I'm a teacher, was the chapel sessions we had. I had planned a God is series. You can read parts of those talks here , here , here and here . It was a lot of fun, because many of these kids didn't have a great knowledge of the Bible or the incredible stories within its pages. Since I love to retell these amazing stories, this became to the perfect place to do just that. As I shared with them just how big, powerful, awesome and personal God is, it refreshed me as well. God is not just those things for people who have never heard of Him. He is those things for me and you as well. In so many stories, the writers reflect God's heart. God just assumes His nature, His existence, His missi...

8  Lead me in the right path, O   Lord ,      or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow. 9  My enemies cannot speak a truthful word.      Their deepest desire is to destroy others. Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.      Their tongues are filled with flattery. [ a ] 10  O God, declare them guilty.      Let them be caught in their own traps. Drive them away because of their many sins,      for they have rebelled against you. Pictured here is a trophy. Yes, it’s one of mine. Yes, it’s for a spelling bee. Yes, my mom is very proud.   Trophies are something we pursue, be they trophies from contests, higher salaries, trophy wives. Our trophies take different forms, but I would suggest we need to watch what it is we pursue. The idea we often keep in a box is that when the evil ones profit, they have won. But who s...

Pardon me for having some Christmas jet lag, but this verse hasn't left my thoughts since the holidays. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:13-14 Why did a whole company of angels show up to the shepherds? It doesn't say they sang. It says they praised God. Why did this ad hoc praise service get shown to the shepherds? The angels are always praising God. Why did this one instance get revealed? Would the shepherds not have listened to one angel? So many questions. I have only one answer. I think God realizes that when you are God, you do things like only God can. This is a God-sized event, His son coming to Earth. Yeah, in case you've forgotten, that was kind of a big deal.  And I also imagine that, if there are sign-up sheets in Heaven, this event needed a few of them. When one comes to realize just how big God...

It's not that I expected my children to be clones of their mother and I. But my two little girls are as beautiful as my wife. But it's a little too soon to know if my son will be a triple-threat guy like me. But I was a bit surprised to hear our older two, both in elementary school, complaining about music class. Our house is always full of music. My wife and I love to sing. And around the house the children can usually be heard singing a tune, when they're not beating each other with a sharp stick. But days that have music class are not looked forward to. I guess it makes sense. How often can you sing about wheels on a bus? We teach them about farmers, bed-jumping monkeys, sheep and how to touch their heads and shoulders, their knees and toes. It can get a little old. But my son has it figured out. He told me he just moves his mouth to make it look like he's singing. Then he showed me. I'm sure his music teacher doesn't have a clue. That is, as long as she'...

Philistines were seriously delayed in their thinking. I don't know any better way to say it. There is this story in 1 Samuel 5 about the Philistines capturing the Ark of God. The Ark was a special thing for the Israelites as it was a physical way for them to see that God was with them. Of course, God never said that the Ark had special powers. The power still rested with God and His blessing came with their continued obedience. Since the Israelites weren't so great at keeping up their part of the bargain, God allowed the Ark to be captured. So now the Philistines have this Ark of God. The only problem is that whenever they put it near the idol of their own god, their god keeps falling over. That can be very embarrassing for a god. Add to that the fact that God, the true God, was afflicting the Philistines with tumors and you can see why the townsfolk wanted to get rid of the Ark. They start moving the Ark from town to town, causing great panic whenever people see it. That is un...

I wish I knew some drinking songs. I don't drink, which is to say I don't drink alcohol. It's kind of silly that people say they don't drink. Everyone drinks something....water, coffee, Kool-Aid. Does anyone still drink Kool-Aid? But drinking songs have always looked like fun to me. A bunch of friends swinging around their frothy mugs while loudly singing off-key. Perhaps the fact that they are inebriated while they do this makes it look like more fun, but still. Of course, if I did know drinking songs, I'd be forced to rethink singing them when I came across this. "Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 5:18-20) I don't think this means I can't sing jubilantly while getting my milk and cookies. I could go without the song, but something about those cookies makes me want to sing. But I suppo...

Though I like Steven Curtis Chapman's music, I always questioned when he called God the 'Lord of the Dance'. Perhaps it's the instant imagery of men in tights high stepping all over. Maybe it's my Free Methodist roots and fear of dancing coming out. Either way, it's always makes me stop and wonder. Is God a line-dancer? Can He break dance? Would He dip a lady in a tango? But then I come across words of the Apostle Paul like this (found in 1 Thessalonians 4:1) We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. It makes sense that God doesn't want dogged religious plodders. If I started a religion, I wouldn't want plodders. Soldiers, yes. Someone to cook, sure. But not plodders. The reason is simple. You can't plod without looking sad. Go ahead and try. But dancers. I suppose this does make sense. It's hard to dance and be down. And dancers ar...