Rick Nier...Woo!

The leadership had discussed, deliberated and decided. There had certainly been debate. People felt strongly on both sides.  ‘If we allow this to happen, everything we stand for will mean nothing.’ Honestly, both sides were saying it and both felt it was a matter of salvation. ‘Agree with me or I don’t know how you could possibly be a Christian.’ After all, all the facts support my view. If you choose to believe otherwise, it is only because of  your preconceived or ill-conceived view of matters. I cannot possibly be judged for considering you to be less intelligent, less caring, or less than Christ-like if you oppose my view.  That’s what everyone, on both sides of the argument, was saying. The issue at hand was, of course, circumcision. I’m sorry, did you assume I was talking about something else?   The Council in Jerusalem had just met. It’s recorded in Acts 15 if you’d like to review it. Everyone who was anyone was there and they made certain their voice was hear...

You know those posts that talk about Jesus and then attempt to shame us into sharing? They are the ones that talk about how we share jokes every day but when something talks about Jesus, we just scroll on by.  Never mind they might be a repeat of an email we were forwarding to all our friends twenty years ago, the shaming is ridiculous. As if Jesus would only be convinced of our love for Him when we hit share on a social media post. But... There’s something they get right.  via GIPHY What Will We Hate on this Week? I was thinking about this the other day when I had a Nickelback song stuck in my head. (That’s right, I said it.) Everyone loves to hate on Nickelback, saying all their songs sound the same. That might be true. But if you like that one Nickelback song, then you’ll enjoy all of them.  The thing is Nickelback is the band everyone loves to hate...right now. But twenty years ago it was someone else. And isn’t there always a recent boy band...

Do you know what a whipping boy is? I looked it up. It's  a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others.  The problem with a whipping boy is that he is whipped so often people begin to assume he deserves it. Or the boy just accepts his fate and acts into the very nature of who people believe he is.  But who is defending the whipping boy? Who is taking a second look and asking if the boy really deserves all of the ire he is receiving? Today, it’s me.    via GIPHY Social Media is the Whipping Boy  Social media is just entering its adolescent years, and like many adolescents, it is acting in some strange and unconventional ways that make people question what is going on.  Many words have been written about the dangers of social media, none the least of which would be the supposed separation from real life interactions. But it doesn’t take a highly educated look to put some things together and no...

Suppose I had a pitcher of water and lots of empty cups. Suppose I had access to lots of water to refill the pitcher. Suppose I had made it abundantly clear that I was willing to give water to anyone who had asked.  Now let's suppose you knew some thirsty people. (We're doing a lot of supposing.) Who are you going to talk to in order to connect the thirsty people with me? Are you going to talk to me? Why? I've already told you I am more than willing to give people a drink. Shouldn't you be talking to the thirsty people? Shouldn't you be telling them about this guy with lots of water to drink?  I wonder if we spend too much time praying about people coming to salvation. Perhaps we talk too much to God about these people, instead of talking to these people about God. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't be praying people into salvation. What I am saying is that God has made it abundantly clear that He is wanting everyone to expe...

Today's Woo comes from my friend Jon Acuff. I'm pretty sure he and I, and thousands of others, are tight enough to call each other friend. Anyway, he write this. I like it. Here it is. You can also see it on his site. by Jon Acuff Why do some Christians use shame as a way to tell people about Christ? Why is shame sometimes the first thing you experience from Christians? Why do we use shame sometimes when we witness? Because love takes too long. Love is too messy. It’s slow and out of our control. And worst of all, love makes us vulnerable. Shame doesn’t really require me to let my guard down. I get to lob rocks from behind the safety of my walls. Love? Love exposes us. It unmans us. It disarms us. And then, there is the considerable risk that we won’t be loved back. So we pick shame. And we take steps away from a Christ who never used that as a tool for evangelism. Was he honest? Direct? Did he even use the R word? Repent? Of course! But...

I shared this following story with my youth group on Sunday to demonstrate the idea that fair is not an issue in the Gospel story. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— We can read verses like Romans 5:12 and be pretty bummed. We didn't choose Adam to represent all of us. What's Adam's deal, anyway? Isn't he kind of stupid for screwing it up for all of us? But then we scroll down to Romans 5:18-19 and we read about Jesus taking all the bad stuff away. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. That happened a long time before we were born as well. We also didn't choose Jesus or know what ...

Granted, there are many stories in the Bible that cause me to shake my head and wonder what was going on. In fact, the Old Testament is downright entertaining for anyone who has ever channel flipped and landed on The Jerry Springer Show  and not been able to look away. Not that I have ever done that. But if there was ever a Top Ten Crazy Moments in the Bible, then I would like to submit Acts 2 for your consideration. Acts 2 is when the Holy Spirit is introduced to the Church and the result is a big party. It's the kind of party where a DJ just happens to show up with all of his equipment and pushes one button and instantly has a dance floor hopping.  The Holy Spirit unleashes in such a big way that outsiders start asking if the believers are drunk. And that's when the Church's first spokesman takes a mic. Peter stands up and says that 9am is way to early to be drunk. He didn't say that there might not be times that they would be drunk. Just not at 9am. ...

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish. ~Matthew 18:12-14 How important are the lost sheep? (vs 12-14) The pasture land in Judea is narrow and located on hills. This means there were at least two sides which sheep could wander off, to their own peril. In Jesus’ day, it was common for the sheep to be owned communally, which explains how one shepherd would go off to look for the lost sheep while the remaining shepherds would watch the other 99. The lost sheep, once found, would have been celebrated by that community. But perhaps the problem is that we don't connect with sheep. Even though we have been compared with...

I preached recently from Matthew 18. I was actually glad, when my senior pastor assigned the verses, that he stopped before verses 15-18. Then I read the first 14 verses of Matthew 18. Now I can't get these images out of my head. I believe you can hear the passion come from Jesus distinctly in 2 places in this section. Verse 6, where the alternative of hanging a large rock around your neck and jumping in the ocean is seen as desirable compared to facing Jesus after having caused a little one to sin. I imagine that this conversation to be a time when the disciples could see the face of God in Him.    You know how children take on the characteristics of their parents? I imagine this to be one of those times people could clearly see the face of God in Jesus. This would not have been said lightly. Imagine any parent protecting their children and we begin to get an idea of how serious Jesus is here. The second place we hear passion ring through is verse 14. He says, “The Fath...

I could be a millionaire if only I took my nonsense thinking to the next level. Isn't that what's making people money these days? Take a stupid idea and see if you can get other people to emulate you and give you money to do so. Take these silly rubber band bracelets that have exploded in popularity. I have been wearing plain old rubber bands for years. People have always asked me why. By 'people' I mean my wife and by 'asked me why' I mean 'ridiculed me for wearing rubber bands. I was wearing old rubber bands long before the rubber bracelets to support Haiti, Lance Armstrong and my youth group ever came along. If only I had applied myself and discovered this market of small people. I really don't understand how this is supposed to work. My daughters both collect them. The youngest puts her entire collection on one arm. She remind me of a toddler version of Gem and the Holograms. Or maybe one of those dance videos with Cyndi Lauper. Either way, they spen...

'It should be different than this,' I shouted to my kids as we once again ran out of the house in order to get them to school on time. I don't know what your house is like on a school morning, but my house is rarely calm, even when we seem to have plenty of time. Perhaps we should be living as if we don't have all the time in the world. 'It should be different than this,' I shouted to the teens who were probably only half listening by this point in youth group. The topic was evangelism and the list of usual suspects were being thrown at me. I've heard them all. 'That's the pastor's job.' 'I'm not very good at sharing with my friends.' 'All my friends are Christians.' 'None of my friends want to hear about it.' 'I have a sore toe.' None of the excuses are good ones, mind you. What it comes down to for us is deciding that we need to do what God has called us to do. 'Go and make disciples' seems pretty...