Why I Don’t Chase Christians Who Leave Church

Posted by Jim Thornber on June 2, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him. . .” – Luke 15:20

running 2If you’ve been in church very long, you’ve probably seen more than one person leave your fellowship. And I don’t meant they left your church in order to go to another church, which happens a lot, but they simply stopped going to church completely.

What are you supposed to do when people leave and stop attending church? Not just your church, but any church? Do you call them up and ask them why? Do you quote Hebrews 10:25 at them as a proof text that we are not to “give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing”? Do you go to their house on Sunday morning and force them to go to church with a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other?

In Luke 15, often called the “Lost Chapter” because of all the things that get lost, we find some interesting reactions to those lost items. The shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that was lost, and the woman lit a lamp and cleaned house to find the lost coin. However, we don’t read about the father leaving home to go find the son. Instead, we simply find the father waiting at home, anticipating the day the son would return, for he noticed his son “while he was still a long way off.”

Why didn’t the father go after the son? The shepherd and the woman both search for their lost items, but the father stays and home and waits. Why? Because the sheep and the coin were ignorant of being lost, while the son, “when he came to his senses” (Luke 15:17), knew the way home. This is why I don’t chase Christians: they know the way home. Continue Reading

I’m Still Calling The Shots

Posted by Jim Thornber on May 26, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. 1 Cor. 6:19-20.

 

sold outA while back I used to meet at a local coffee shop with a group of men from First Baptist Church. We’d spend about an hour and a half studying, praying for needs, challenging each other in our relationship with Christ and generally drinking too much coffee. It is one of the highlights of my week.

One morning as we were studying Crazy Love by Francis Chan, someone asked if we knew anyone who was totally in love with God. You know, a completely sold-out, every fiber of their being doing little more than living, breathing, talking, thinking about and obeying Christ.

We all got silent for a few moments while we racked our brains trying to think of someone we knew who was totally and completely sold out and in love with God. As the silence lingered, I thought it rather humorous that none of us at the meeting thought anyone at the table fit that description. Even the two pastors who were there, yours truly being one of them, weren’t named by anyone else in the group as being totally in love with Christ. Well, that was humbling!

The first person who came to my mind was Mark Buntain, who visited my Bible college in the early 80’s. A missionary to India, Mark founded Calcutta Mercy Ministries, which reaches the poorest in India through schools, a homeless shelter, a church, massive feeding programs, an orphanage and a large church. I remember hearing him teach in the chapel, and I was struck with his sincerity, complete humility, and absolute dedication to the work Christ called him to. When he finished speaking, instead of coming down front and meeting the students like every other every other speaker did, listening to their compliments and signing autographs, Mark turned around and dropped to his knees at the choir pew and engaged in prayer. That image is still burned in my mind. Continue Reading

Giving Thanks

Posted by Jim Thornber on May 19, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 Comment

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.”  — Deuteronomy 8:10

Giving-Thanks-in-All-ThingsIf you’ve been involved in Christianity for more that two weeks, you’ve probably sat around the dinner table with other Christians and prayed before you ate. This is a good practice, for reminds us that God is the source of all the good things in our life. However, I think our practice of praying before a meal can become nothing more than a religious habit, especially when we are in the presence of other Christians. To be honest, the only time I ever pray over a meal is when I’m with someone else. Otherwise, I just jump right in and eat.

Although I believe that gratitude for the gifts of God needs to be a 24/7 attitude, I find I’m usually grateful on a ½ /1 basis. That is, about a half hour one day a week. Then I go and stumble upon Deuteronomy 8:10 and I feel like a worm.

Deuteronomy is the farewell address of Moses to the Israelites. Deuteronomy means “repetition of the law,” since God gave all the commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai in the first year of the Exodus. Since most parents get really serious when they repeat something to their children, I figure God was very intentional about helping us learn the lessons found in this book.

Deuteronomy 8 is God’s reminder that we are to remain in an attitude of gratitude, and He encourages us not to forget that He brought us out of our desperate situation and into a place of abundance. God commands us to give thanks after we have eaten, otherwise “your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God” (8:12). Moses goes on to warn, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (8:17).

It’s the “after” part that I keep stumbling over. Continue Reading

What’s In Your Future?

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 28, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 Comment

 “Paul felt compelled by the Spirit to go over to Macedonia and Achaia before going to Jerusalem. ‘And after that.” he said, ‘I must go on to Rome.’” – Acts 19:21

FutureWhen you talk about the dreams you have for the future, what do they involve? Do they include a comfortable retirement, a good 401k, perhaps some traveling? Those are a few of the things I think about. But then, as I’m preaching through the book of Acts at my church, I come across this verse where Paul says he must go on to Rome. It seems Paul’s idea of a future involved going to Rome and dying for His Lord, while Jesus’ earthly future involved Calvary. Both these men finished their lives with the needs of others on their mind and the promotion of the Good News on their hearts. Now I have to ask myself this question: Does my vision of the future involve the Good News of Jesus brought into people’s lives? How about you? What is your Gospel hope? Where do you plan to take the Gospel next?

If the Gospel is truly moving in you; if the Word of God is so deep into your life that it is able to judge and separate the thoughts and attitudes of your heart (Heb. 4:12), then it will confront any vision of the future that does not include speaking about the goodness of God and the sacrifice of His one and only Son. I’ll take it a step further. I don’t know if it is possible to be a fully dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ and have a vision for the future that does not include making disciples, because the Great Commission of Jesus to the Church is to take the Gospel into all nations and make disciples. It wasn’t to make churches, construct nice buildings, develop an exciting Children’s church, put together a killer worship team and hire a dynamic preacher that makes you feel good about your relationship with God. Christ commissioned us to make disciples.

Can we truly be obedient to God and not be involved in making disciples of Jesus? If you will not put yourself out and involve yourself in the lives of others in a way that introduces the full story of Jesus and the power of Calvary, then you can say you love God until you run out of breathe, but the truth is you’re not obeying the Word of the Lord.

Continue Reading

I Refuse To Be A Dittohead

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 21, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Leadership, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . 7 Comments

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. – Jeremiah 3:15

ditto headI did not grow up wanting to be a pastor. I sort of stumbled into it by default. I’ve been told from my early teen years that I was a good teacher and I’ve developed that skill over the years. But I didn’t want to be a pastor, just a teacher.

However, this was the problem I encountered with not wanting to be a pastor: in order to be a teacher in a church, too often I was forced to fit into the mold of the senior pastor. He wanted to recreate me in his image, make me be like him. He wanted me to think like him, have his sense of humor and his manner of speech. Too often they wanted a “mini-me.” And since I wasn’t always willing to be like him, my teaching opportunities were infrequent.

The Lord says in Jeremiah 3:15 that He will give people shepherds (pastors) after His own heart. If this is so, then why did most pastors I served with (read that, “under”) want to make me in the image of their heart at the expense of God’s heart? Why did I have to do an imitation of them in order to do what God called me to do? I finally determined that to do what I felt called by God to do I had to be a pastor, a shepherd and leader, after God’s own heart. I couldn’t do an imitation of a pastor still living in the 1970’s. I had to be who God called me to be.

I’ve been reading Eugene Peterson’s new memoir The Pastor. In this book he quotes Baron Friedrich von Hügel who said “there are no dittos in souls.” When I read that I wanted to jump up and shout, “That’s it! I don’t have to be like anyone else. I just need to follow the heart of God!” Continue Reading

I Want to be SPECTACULAR!

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 14, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

“Elisha sent a messenger to say to him. ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.'” — 2 Kings 5:10

When I read this passage, two things stand out and cause me pause. First, why is an entire chapter in the Old Testament given over to this one character and his leprosy? And two, why am I so familiar with just how Naaman must have felt when he was told to wSpectacularash in the Jordan River?

As for the first question . . . I haven’t got a clue. Maybe God just thought it was important. If you know, send me an e-mail.

But what really bothers me is Naaman’s response to Elisha’s directives to go wash in the Jordan. Here is a highly regarded warrior whom the king of Aram knew to be a great man, “because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram” (vs. 1). Aram, by the way, is also known as Syria, whose capital is Damascus. But I digress.

Here’s the picture: Naaman is a great warrior, esteemed by all, adored by the masses and rich enough to own a slave girl imported from Israel. His only problem seemed to be a small case of leprosy, which is a bit more distressing than acute acne but not as bad terminal cancer.

Naaman, like most of us, first faces a crisis (leprosy, or cancer or something tragic in my life like another rejection letter from an editor) and the solution (go bathe in a muddy stream, or bow to God or apologize to your family for being selfish or something equally mundane). “Wait!” I want to shout, “I’m a SOMEBODY. Elisha, you can’t be serious.  Don’t just send out your maid and tell me to do something mundane. I’m special and I want special treatment!”

That’s it, right? I know I’m somebody special and I want the world to acknowledge it. Continue Reading

Who Owns Your Thoughts?

Posted by Jim Thornber on April 7, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

minds-under-constructionIn Luke 12:15, Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  I’ll admit that when I read this sentence, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about possessions is my “stuff.” And I’d be correct, for Jesus said this in reply to two brothers who were having a not-so-friendly family argument over an inheritance. He then went on to tell a parable about a rich man who built bigger barns to hold his crop, only to die and leave everything he had hoarded to someone else.

But I want to extend to you the possibility that not only is the property we own to be held lightly, but so are our thoughts.  I know every one of us can be as jealous over the control of our thoughts as we are of our things. I’m prone to believe that if I have a thought, it’s probably a good one and therefore worth keeping. This is especially true when an editor wants me to change a sentence in an article, or worse, eliminate something! I want to say, “This is my BABY! This is good stuff and inspired by the Holy Spirit, and now you want to edit God’s inspiration?!?” But they are usually right, which is why I hire them in the first place. The bigger problem starts, however, when the thoughts I hold come into disagreement with the thoughts of God. Continue Reading

Satan’s Accusations Are True!

Posted by Jim Thornber on March 31, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved” — Acts 16:17

truth among the liesI supposed someone has to say it, but I’m convinced that not everything the devil says is a lie. Sometimes what the demons in our lives accuse us of is absolutely true, and we need to get used to it. In fact, I think we should learn not only to embrace his accusations, but to rejoice in them as well. Can you imagine living your life in such a manner that when the devil talks about you he tells the truth and glorifies God? I can.

Now, before you write me off as just another heretic, let me explain. In Acts 16, Paul and his companions are in Philippi, staying in the home of Lydia, a recent believer. One day as they head to the place of prayer, they are confronted by a demon-possessed slave girl who told fortunes and made money for her masters.

This girl was literally possessed by a python spirit, which is the term used in the original Greek. The term python was used in Greek mythology for the snake that guarded the Oracle of Delphi, who was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. After Apollo killed the snake it became a designation for a person with the power of divination. The same Greek term is used for the woman with a familiar spirit at Endor who spoke to King Saul in 1 Sam. 28:7. The slave girl was possessed by an evil spirit that enabled her to tell fortunes.

For some reason, this girl went from making money for her masters by telling fortunes to following Paul and his companions around and shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved” (vs.17). It should remind you of some of the demons who shouted at Jesus in the Gospels, calling Him the “Son of God” (Luke 4:41) and “the Holy One sent from God” (Mark 1:25), and “Jesus, Son of the Most High God” (Mark 5:7).

Finally, Paul gets tired of this true but very annoying publicity and casts the demon out of her. Now, we’ve just read about demons who shouted about Jesus and Paul, showing an accurate acknowledgment of the true character of those they were confronting. Like I said in the beginning, sometimes what the demons in our lives accuse us of is absolutely true. Knowing this has me asking this very bothersome question: If a person with a demon were to follow me around, what would they accuse me of? Just to be fair, what would they accuse you of? Continue Reading

The Gift

Posted by Jim Thornber on March 29, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Poetry. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

A little poem to commemorate this beautiful, tragic, unspeakable yet praise-worthy day. Enjoy.

THE GIFT

Never was given

A gift so pure

To endure

Such sorrow great,

To separate

From eternity.

But He

Reminds us

To look

Behind us

And see

The tree

That held our gift so pure,

Where love endures

Our sorrows,

Eternally.

          JDT – April, 1990

God Behind The Scenes

Posted by Jim Thornber on March 24, 2013
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . 2 Comments

“When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from . . . he called the bridegroom over” – John 2:9

water-wine-300x199It happened again. As the preacher was reading the passage he was getting ready to teach, my mind seized on one scene from the story and took off in a completely different direction. A couple of directions, in fact. I wish it wouldn’t do that, but in this case I like the places it took me.

In John 2, Jesus and the disciples are at a wedding in a little village called Cana in Galilee. A wedding was always a grand and festive occasion, and in a small village like Cana it would be a celebration that involved the whole community. Like today’s wedding celebrations, refreshments were served and at this wedding the wine was very important. Failing to provide adequate wine would be a social disgrace to the family. And in this small village, the newly-married couple would never live it down.

Jesus, with a little nudge from his mother, tells the servants to fill six stone jars with water. Now we have around 120 gallons of water that is about to be turned into wine. Jesus tells the servants to take a sample to the master of ceremonies, a person called in to oversee the distribution of the food and drink. Astonished at the high quality of the wine, the master of ceremonies calls the bridegroom to the side and compliments him on saving the best for last. The bridegroom, naturally, has no idea what he’s talking about, and John doesn’t tell us if he ever confesses the truth.

This is where my mind takes a left turn. Jesus performs this tremendous miracle behind the scenes and as far as we know, never steps forward to take credit. Sure, the servants knew and the disciples get to witness His first miracle, but Jesus stays quiet. Now as the preacher is heading off in an entirely different direction, I’m wondering, “How often does Jesus work behind the scenes to make us look good?” I’m sure, if this story is any indication, God is quite fond of saving people’s reputations and making them look good in ways that go beyond description. I don’t think we’ll ever know all the miracles God has done for us without us having a clue He was even in the room.

Next, I’m astounded by the fact that Jesus’ first miracle saves the reputation of one unknown couple in an insignificant village in the middle of nowhere. If I knew I was soon to be the Savior of the world, I’d probably get all the press together and make a splashy show so everyone would get the message there’s a new Messiah in town and things are REALLY going to be different. But Jesus quietly changes the innocent lives of one newlywed couple and lets the disciples draw their own conclusions. Some would think Jesus’ first miracle was wasted in an unremarkable town on an unremarkable couple. But who are we to tell God who to bless with His miracles? I wouldn’t turn it down if the miracle was pointed at me. Would you?

Here’s the final challenge of this passage. Our behind-the-scenes God seems to take delight in blessing the unknown in quiet and unassuming ways. Can we? Can we bless someone in need and do so without fanfare, without recognition, without our name in the bulletin or in the paper? Can we let the blessing be a blessing even if someone else gets the credit? It’s the way of Jesus in this story. I hope it can be the way of all of us.