Counting the Cost

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 29, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

“Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” –Luke 18:18

            I’ve been teaching my way through the book of Luke at my church, and the scene with the rich young leader has been challenging me. Like most pastors, when we get ready to write a sermon, we are mostly thinking about how to apply the sermon to the congregation, but God seems to have other things in mind with this passage. I’m finding myself very much like the young man in the story, trying to get God to give me a good answer when in fact, God wants to give me the best.  

            The young ruler asked Jesus, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?” But let’s be real; isn’t that just another way of asking, “What is the minimal I can do and still get to heaven?” Haven’t we all struggled with the idea of giving everything we have to God and never looking back? If you keep reading, even Peter wonders about this when he says, “We’ve left our homes to follow you,” (Luke 18: 28), which can be rephrased as “What’s in it for us?” One of the reasons we become followers of Christ is the promise of heaven, which is good. But it also means our life on earth can be challenging, especially when everything around us seems to cry out, “Worship me. Desire me. Work hard to have me!” while the Holy Spirit reminds us, “You must not have any other god but me” (Ex. 20:3).

The problem most Christians have is the experience of first committing to be a follower of Jesus and then learning to lay everything down over time as God confronts us with our relationship to our riches, but that is not how Jesus taught us. Earlier in Luke, Jesus cautioned us about becoming His disciple by saying, “Don’t begin until you count the cost” (Luke 14:28). He reminded us if we want to be His disciple, we “must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26). In other words, we don’t follow Jesus and THEN lay everything at His feet. Instead, we abandon our self and our stuff and THEN follow HIM. It’s no wonder so many of us struggle with dying to our self. We’ve never done it! We’ve come to God backwards by allowing Him to be our Savior but not completely Lord of our life and, as a result of not truly counting the cost of discipleship, we find ourselves negotiating with God just how much of our riches we can keep and still inherit eternal life. Here’s the truth: we must count the cost before we embrace the Cross. But few churches teach this. They invite people to the altar for salvation out of a fear of hell and a hope of heaven, and later tell them the cost of discipleship is everything.

When the rich young ruler found out the true cost of discipleship, he wasn’t willing to pay it. I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t chase him down and give him a second chance. Jesus simply let him walk away. Why? Because this young man should have been a miserable, half-follower of God, someone who would never be fully committed to Kingdom principles and therefore unable to make true disciples.

Now the challenge is on my shoulders. Since, like most Christians I know, I was led in a salvation prayer before I counted the cost of discipleship, I find myself wanting to do good for God’s eternal Kingdom but struggling with my possessions. I no longer want to negotiate with God just how much of my stuff I can keep and still inherit eternal life, for the real cost was already paid at Calvary. I won’t let anything on earth distract me from that.

 

Caught In The Good ‘Ol Days

Posted by Jim Thornber on October 5, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

“Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. . . .because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” Hebrews 10:32-34

 

When I was in high school I played soccer, which was a strange sport for a guy who didn’t like to run long distances. Being vertically challenged (I’m 5’3″ in two pair of thick socks), I was constantly falling behind the taller guys in the long runs. Because my legs were (well, still are) short, I was quick and usually the first one to the ten-yard line but most always last in the mile. My coach would yell at me for not running fast enough, and I would yell back, “I’m running twice as far as anybody else ‘cause I’m taking twice as many steps!” For some reason, he never bought that excuse.

We had to be in excellent shape because in the average soccer game, a player could run up to six miles, and soccer continues to be among the world’s most physically enduring sports. I’m sad to report that I have not maintained that level of conditioning since I left high school. But it was great while it lasted.

Christians also need to be in shape to stay in the “contest” (vs. 32). The Greek word for contest in this verse is athlesis. It refers to an athletic competition and is the source of our English word “athlete.” As Christians, we must not just remember when we were at our best, but we must keep at it and stay that way. We are not to be like the athlete I turned out to be – one who keeps in shape and maintains a peak performance for only a few years, only to grow old and spend time reminiscing about the good ‘ol days when we were on top of our game and the best in the league. Rather, we are commissioned not only to stay in the race, but to run it better and win it grander as our years mature and our love for God and His people expands. We should be the only athletic team in the universe who grows stronger in mind and spirit as the years mature us, so that the enemy knows without a doubt that the toughest players in the game are the “seniors.”

Perseverance is of great necessity here. I had soccer practice five days a week, three hours a day when I was in school. What bothers me is I spent more time conditioning my body for a game than I did conditioning my spirit for life and eternity. Unfortunately, that remains true for most Christians, who tend to spend more time in the shower and in front of the T.V. than they do in the Word and on their knees. It is by our actions that we prove where our priorities are.

I wonder why the author of Hebrews found it necessary to warn his readers against throwing away their faith and confidence in God, and in so doing lose their reward. Were they tired of the constant battle? Were they growing weary in the fight? This would certainly be true of some. Others had probably become complacent in their faith. Rich, fat, lazy, and lacking challenges in their life, perhaps they no longer perceived Christianity as a need in their lives. Like many of us today, they turned to God only when life was beyond their control. But what about now? Have we stopped exercising our faith muscles because we don’t like the direction the contest had taken? Is our faith a fine thing when everyone can see it, but a cumbersome bother if it means being loyal to God on a daily basis when nobody was watching?

So what is my point? I don’t want to be an old Christian athlete who is caught up in the good ‘ol days with nothing more to offer than fond memories of the way I used to be. I want everyone to know that the best of my spiritual life is still yet to come.

 

Got Character?

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 15, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church, Leadership, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3)

 

A few years ago, a church I attended in Arkansas hosted a Thanksgiving service to raise money for the ministerial alliance. The alliance asked our church to lead in the praise and worship, and I played the piano on the worship team. Looking over the congregation, I noted a pastor from another church who, no matter what we sang, refused to either clap his hands or raise them in worship. He simply sat in his pew with his arms folded.  That struck me as strange, because outside of church he was a happy, vivacious, demonstrative man.

I have never been known for my extreme subtly or bashfulness, so as we gathered for refreshments after the service, I questioned him his about posture. “Why, when Scripture instructs you to lift up holy hands to the Lord, and you have a chance to do so in a public service, did you sit with your arms folded across your chest?”

“Well, you see,” he began to stammer and laugh, “I’m a . . . .” and he named his denomination. I cut him off and said, “Are you a denomination first or a Christian first?”

At this point, he began to look around for help from the people who had gathered, including my pastor. He asked, “Is he always like this?” to which my pastor replied, “Hey, he’s going easy on you.” And everybody who had gathered around laughed.

I find it sad that many church members (or goers) around the world are more concerned with offending their denomination and the people in the next pew than they are in obeying the Word of God. The congregation led by the pastor in my story will have trouble obeying Scripture because he was not setting an obedient example. In a simple sense of the word, this pastor lacked character.

Regarding His eternal relationship to God, Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the “exact representation of his being” (1:3). James Moffat says He was “stamped with God’s own character.” The phrase “exact representation” translates the Greek word charaktēr, which gives us our English word “character.”

Originally, this word meant to cut, to scratch, to mark. It indicated the tool or agent that did the marking, and eventually came to mean the mark or the impression that was made. It also indicated an impression made in a wax seal. Or, think of a coin: its image, numbers and letters bear the exact image of the raised numbers and letters of the original die from which the coin was cast. To see a dime or a quarter is to know exactly what the original die or stamp looked like.

Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the father” (John 14:9). This is true, because He was the “exact representation” of God, “stamped with God’s own character.” To see Jesus is to see God, for He is the exact image of God, the perfectly engraved representation of the very nature of God.

This brings up a very difficult question, especially for me: “If to see Jesus is to see the Father, then, when people see me, do they see Jesus?” As I was looking for the Christ-like qualities in that pastor, I began to wonder:

  • When I am at my church, what do people first see in me —   ­­­­­­­­­the Kingdom of God or a denominational version of God?
  • Am I stamped with the very character of God?
  • Do people see Jim or Jesus?
  • As a disciple of Jesus, am I exhibiting the character of Christ the way that Jesus the Son bore the character of God the Father?
  • When people see the church out working in the world, whose character do they perceive? Are they seeing the compassion, mercy, patience, and love of God, or do they see the values of MTV, ABC, Wall Street, Hollywood, Cosmopolitan, and Men’s Health?

We must all ask those tough questions if we are going to live the character of Christ and represent God in all we say and do. Jesus said,  Now I want to be able to say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen Jesus.” Maybe one day, at my funeral, some kind soul will say, “Jim was the most Christ-like person I’ve ever met.”  Then I’ll know I got character.

 

The Most Common Sin of Church Pastors

Posted by Jim Thornber on August 22, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, ‘There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.’” – Luke 13:14

Do you mind if I share with you a dirty little secret about most pastors in the world? If pastors had one sin in common, I believe it would be this sin.

Are you ready?

Competitiveness.

Didn’t see that coming, did you? (Unless, of course, you’re a pastor, at which point you’re probably looking for another article to “bless your spirit….”)

How do I know pastors are competitive? If you put two pastors who don’t know each other in the same room for more than two seconds, Pastor Smith will ask Pastor Jones, “So, how’s your church doing?” This has happened to me so often I have started to avoid meeting new pastors, either from my town or especially from my denomination. Of course, it sounds like a good question. Pastor Smith is interested in the success of Pastor Jones’ church.

However, since most people are not pastors, you may not understand what Pastor Smith was really asking. He wasn’t inquiring upon the spiritual health of the church. He didn’t really care if the board and elders all got along well and supported one another in prayer and fellowship. He wasn’t interested in whether or not the youth pastor was disciplining young people to be leaders in the God’s Church. What he was really asking was this: “How many people do you have coming to your church?” Yep, too many pastors have reduced the successful spiritual state of the local church to the number of people who attend. Sigh. Continue Reading

A Poor Widow’s Rich Offering

Posted by Jim Thornber on July 21, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

“A poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus said, ‘this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. . . she, as poor as she is, has given everything she has.’” Luke 21:2-4 (NLT)

 

This passage is an instant challenge and bothers me for one reason: I don’t know if I could drop everything I have in God’s collection box and walk away.

Yet, that is exactly what this widow did. She took her entire net worth, two of the smallest of Jewish coins, walked into the presence of God, and without considering anyone was watching, especially God as Messiah, dropped them in the collection box and walked away. She didn’t get a receipt, couldn’t write it off on her taxes as a charitable donation and didn’t tell the pastor she no longer had food money or bus fare to return home. She simply gave her all to God and walked away because that was what her heart wanted to do.

Not me. My ego always struggles with acknowledgment. I want the leaders of the church and denominational officials (and truth be told, God, to a lesser extent) to know exactly what I’m sacrificing. I not only want my left hand to know what my right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3), I want them to get together and start an avalanche of applause because I’ve done it. Who really wants to give in secret when a bunch of our friends can get together and give us a big party for all our generosity?

Actually, many people give just like this unnamed widow woman: generously, anonymously, and almost fearful somebody will find out. They live to give and look for ways to invest in the Kingdom. I know they’re out there because I’ve met them.  Even went to church with a few of them. One millionaire I met said all he wants to do is make God famous with his money. Looking back on it, I wonder if he meant he wanted to make God famous with his own personal money or with the money he knows is already God’s. Either way, the result was the same – a complete investment in the Kingdom of God.

I can’t help but wonder what that would look like – completely investing everything I have in God’s Kingdom. How would it feel to walk into the Temple of God, take everything I own, drop it at His feet and walk away? I know I was supposed to have done that when I accepted Jesus as my Savior and claimed Him as my Lord. But in reality, I’m grateful Jesus is my Savior but I’ve retained lordship, possession and control of most everything else. It’s my name on Friday’s paycheck, my name on the registration of the truck, my name on the gas bill and my name on the church sign, right after the name of the church – the church name that doesn’t mention God. I claim Him as Savior but live as my own Lord. And now, a poor widow woman is challenging my professed, but not yet possessed, spirituality.

Maybe if I had nothing but a couple of coins in my pocket it would be easier to give it up. But then, maybe not. If I don’t have a generous spirit with everything I have now, what’s to say I’d be more generous if I had less? Or more?

I wish I had a good answer to these questions. I do know I need to spend more time talking with God about my attitude toward His stuff, remembering that everything from the paycheck to the cell phone and all things in between are actually His. Maybe when that truly becomes a reality, the story or a poor woman’s rich offering will stop being a challenge because I’ll finally be as generous as she was. But until then, I hope this story never stops bothering me.

Why I Don’t Chase Christians Who Leave The Church

Posted by Jim Thornber on July 12, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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

 

If 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 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.

As you read the Scriptures, you might find it interesting the people Jesus didn’t chase. He didn’t chase after the rich young man who couldn’t take Jesus at His word (Matt. 19:22). He never ran him down and said, “Well, let’s talk this over and see if you’ll come back.” Jesus never tried to talk Judas out of betraying Him or Peter out of denying Him.  Then there is the multitude that walked out on Jesus in John 6:66, and all Jesus did was look at the Twelve and say, “You do not want to leave me too, do you?” (6:67).

Why is it, then, that we tend to worry and wring our hands over people who have left our fellowship? No one leaves by accident. Everyone leaves by choice, and I choose to honor that choice.

This doesn’t mean I no longer talk with those who have left our fellowship. I’ve had some great conversations with those who left, and I still do. I have lunch with people who no longer fellowship anywhere, and still mow the lawn of a widow who left our fellowship and joined another. I just don’t chase them and invite them back, especially if they’ve found another fellowship. But even if they’re sitting at home on Sunday and watching football, I still won’t invite them to church. They are children of the Father, and they know the way home.

Because I don’t chase them, they feel free to be themselves in my presence. They know I’m not looking to pad the numbers at church. They know I respect their decisions without agreeing with it. I’m responsible to them, I’m not responsible for them. They know they are always welcome to fellowship with us any time they want. They know they are free to pursue God at their own pace, and I’m free from racking my brain trying to figure out how to keep everyone safe and happy in church. Even Jesus lost one out of twelve, so why shouldn’t I?

I don’t chase Christians who have left the church, but that doesn’t stop me from looking for them from a long way off. And when they do return, there is always time to have one more party.

 

 

Warning! Church Membership Ahead! Use Extreme Caution!

Posted by Jim Thornber on July 9, 2018
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church, Religion. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I have posted this before, but it seems appropriate to do so again. — Jim

 

I had a conversation with a young mother the other day who was dismayed at the way she’d been treated in church by other Christians. She told me the deepest hurts she’d ever encountered in life have come through religious people she thought should know better.

The more I considered this, the more I think the leaders in God’s Church have done their people a great disservice. As an Evangelical Protestant/Pentecostal, for years I’ve heard that the only thing a person needs to do to be saved is to “confess Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.”  I’ve seen people practically coerced into repeating those words, or some semblance of them, only to hear the announcement they’re now saved, cleansed, set free from their sins and ready to live their life for the Lord. Then follows the invitation that almost ruins this new, if questionable convert: “Come and go to church with me.”

Unfortunately, many times in our efforts to get someone to say the magic Salvation Formula, we don’t bother to explain what a Lord is and we forget that none of us knows everything God’s saved us from. We convince people that simply repeating a sentence after us will grant them eternal life and everything on earth is now going to be a big, warm fuzzy feeling of joy and happiness since Jesus paid for your sins and made you a part of the family of God.

However, once we’ve got them in the church door, we’ve conveniently forgotten to tell these new converts about self-righteous Sister Sally and judgmental Brother Bob, the self-appointed spiritual police who make war with anyone who disagrees with them, dresses differently, has divergent opinions on the proper music to use in church or reads an unauthorized Bible. We don’t warn them that some of the tongues they’ll hear will be lashings that won’t need an interpretation. We forget to tell them that not everyone in church believes that God so loved the world that He died for their sins. Instead, they believe we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God and it’s their duty to convey God’s anger.

In your face.

In the front foyer.

Before the first service.

We forget to warn the new “converts” that the local church is really nothing more than a hospital for sick spirits, and you’re going to see some ugly diseases that are still in the process of healing. Meanwhile, there’s going to be bloody words, attitudes vomited upon innocent bystanders, and a series of serene hymns sung by sweet senior saints followed by the excrement of anger over the fresh worship chorus introduced by the disorderly orderly known as the worship minister.

Then we wonder why new Christians find themselves so easily disillusioned.

I’m about ready to forbid anyone from joining the church I pastor until they’ve read, at a minimum, the gospels of Mark and John and the epistles of First Peter, James and Hebrews. I want them to know that suffering, persecution, hard times and disappointments will part of their new life in Christ. I want to assure them that life is hard, misery is an option, and no matter what tragedy you encounter in life – and Christians are not immune to tragedies – God is not mad at you.

I’m ready to have a talk with my friends from the Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Catholic churches and see how they conduct their confirmation classes. If someone wants to join my church, I want them to know the reason for God’s unconditional love, the necessity of Calvary, the reality of people’s sinful condition and the hope we have in Christ Jesus. I want them to be educated in the supremacy of God’s mercy and the ways of people’s pain.

I want them to embrace the Christian life with their eyes open and a determination to face the truth – not with a brain full of platitudes and assurances that life will be fine with Jesus and everyone in the church is just so proud you’re a member.

As a pastor, it is my job to lead, feed, protect and release the people God brings into the church. I’m responsible to give them the full Gospel of Jesus Christ, not just the sanitized American version. Jesus warned us the world would hate us, but it was the religious leaders who called for His crucifixion. Paul’s letters dealt with numerous church problems, John addressed false teachers, James had to bring the rich and poor together under the headship of Christ and Peter might actually have been crucified upside down. How can I be a pastor and hide the truth from the people I’m teaching? I can’t. And I won’t.

Of course, this doesn’t help the young mother who is still stinging from the church people who’ve misrepresented Jesus and made her life difficult. The only thing I can offer her is my own apology for the way people have treated her and encourage her to use her pain to find fresh ways to represent the truth of Christ’s love to the next generation of Christians. Maybe then we won’t see as many walking wounded in our churches. Maybe.