Scriptures That Bother Me — Colossians 3:16

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 13, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly—Col. 3:16

A few weeks ago, we had some family come and stay with us for a few days. They live about three and a half hours away, so when they come for a visit it is always a special event. We clean the house, over-stock up on food, make the bed in the guest room (which probably wasn’t cleaned since the last guest), clear a path from the laundry room to the kitchen (Admit it. You do the same thing.), take out pillows and blankets and pull the mattress off the futon so the kids can sleep on the floor, and generally put the house in order. And it stays that way for about, oh, the six minutes it takes the grandkids to drop their stuff, get out the toys, and make themselves at home.

Naturally, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Our family is always welcome to visit us and stay as long as they want, which usually isn’t long enough.

After they leave, we pick up the house, put the guest room back in order, fold the blankets, replace the mattress, start a new load of laundry and then sit in silence. We miss the crowded living room and the noise, but it’s nice to have the house back in order again. We made room for our guests, but now that they’re gone, we quickly put the house back the way we like it.

This scenario reminds me of the difference between a guest in a house and the one who owns and dwells in a house. A guest is not a permanent resident; a dweller is. A guest comes and goes according to what is convenient for him and the host. A dweller remains regardless of the circumstances. A guest does not have the right to paint the walls and move the couch near the window. Only the resident of the house has those privileges.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul tells us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. As I studied this passage, I began to see the differences between a guest and a resident. That done, I had to ask this question: Am I allowing the Word to dwell in me like a resident in a house, or do I simply invite it in like an infrequent guest, hoping it won’t stay too long and try to rearrange the furniture?

I like the way Eugene Peterson translates this verse in The Message. “Let the Word of Christ – the Message – have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives.”

The Message of Christ, the full teaching and knowledge of Jesus’ purpose and being, should have the run of my life. That’s another way of saying Jesus is King of my life and His every word is my command. I wish it were always true. But Peterson doesn’t stop there. For some mean and sadistic reason he adds, “Give it plenty of room in your lives.” Thanks, Gene. Not only am I having trouble letting Jesus have full run of the house, now you’re telling me I have to give Him plenty of room to do so.

And here I was hoping the guest room would suffice.

Now I have a question for all of us who make the claim that Jesus is the Lord of our life. Is the Message and presence of Christ living and dwelling in me as an owner occupies a house, or does is just come and visit on weekends at my convenience?

But Lord, I Want THAT Gift

Posted by Jim Thornber on December 12, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

“It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have” – 1 Corinthians 12:11 (NLT)

 For many people, the Christmas season is their favorite time of year. The time spent with family, the abundance of favorite foods, and of course the opening of gifts all make this holiday special.

When I was a kid, I was so keen on getting gifts I would often peel back the wrapping paper to get a peak at what was underneath (and I’ll bet you did, too). After all the gifts were unwrapped, I would head outside to gather with my friends and compare gifts which, in Southern California, inevitably included a few new bikes, a skateboard or two and usually one remote-controlled car. However, it seemed to me that no matter how cool my gifts were, there was always some other gift my friends had that I envied. I guess they felt the same, because we usually ended up playing with the other person’s gifts more than our own.

What bothers me is how often I have this same attitude towards the gifts the Holy Spirit has wisely given to me. Instead of enjoying and showing gratitude for the gifts God graciously gave me, I find myself desiring “other” gifts – gifts I see in people that I, with self-proclaimed omniscience abounding, deem more successful than I am. I figure if I had their gifts then I, too, could have what they have: house, car, job, successfully published book, prestige. You know, all those items that are destined to perish. Continue Reading

Why I Don’t Chase Christians

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 17, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. 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 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

Let The Singing Begin

Posted by Jim Thornber on November 5, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

The Lord, your God, is in your midst . . . he will exult over you with loud singing. – Zephaniah 3:17

Last week at our church Bible study, we were reading the passage from John 12 that talks about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem just prior to His crucifixion. We were going back and forth between our text in John and some Old Testament texts, and we ended by reading this passage from Zephaniah 3:17. 

As we were getting ready to leave, one of the men said to me, “I like the idea that God is singing. It never occurred to me that God sang.” And this is what bothered me about his observation: It never occurred to me, either.

And it should have! Why wouldn’t God sing? Every culture in the world sings, so why wouldn’t God? He invented singing and endowed us with the joy of opening our mouth and singing loud, joyful, heartfelt songs.

            Of course, the idea of God singing isn’t really news; it was just a new thought to me.

C. S. Lewis wrote of Aslan singing Narnia into existence in The Magician’s Nephew. Aslan would sing a note and stars would appear. He’d sing another note and trees would appear. And all creation, with different molecules vibrating at different frequencies, would sing back. So why didn’t it occur to me that God sings? I’m fifty years old, and NOW it occurs to me that God likes to sing? What took me so long to see it? Continue Reading

For Whose Benefit?

Posted by Jim Thornber on October 31, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father – John 14:13

I’ve been teaching the book of John at our weekly Bible study, so I thought I’d be a good teacher and read ahead. I was doing great until John 14:13 stopped me. It was one of those times when I’m thinking, I’ve read this passage a hundred times. I’ve even got it underlined in my Bible. So why does it jump off the page now?

Like most people, I’ve often read this passage and thought, Jesus is telling us to pray in His name and He’ll give us whatever we want. How cool is that? But the other morning something else reached out and squeezed my theology. Instead of focusing on what we can get from our prayers, Jesus is teaching us to pray so the answers allow the Son to give glory to the Father. In other words, how many prayers would never leave our lips if we filtered our every word through this idea: How can the Son bring glory to the Father by answering this prayer? Far fewer, I’m sure.

 I wonder how often I pray in the “name of Jesus” but to the glory of Jim? Let’s say I pray a good, religious prayer like this before I preach this Sunday: “Lord, bless Your Word this morning. Anoint me so that Your Word is glorified and people hear and are changed. Bless me to be a vessel of your goodness. Amen.”

That’s a nice prayer. However, I also know that in the back of my mind I’m praying like this because I don’t want to appear like I’m a failure in the eyes of the congregation. I want to appear successful, sincere and spiritual. To be honest, a prayer like that is equal parts a true desire to give all glory to God and a hope that I don’t look too foolish in the eyes of everyone watching. Did I say “equal parts?” How about 75% not looking foolish and 25% wanting God to show up and get some praise?

How many things would we stop asking for because we know our prayers are really seeking our convenience, not God’s glory? Perhaps we pray for more money, but we don’t tithe on the income we have now. We have a new car with new car payments, satellite TV with three hundred channels and Smartphone, but we can’t invest in God’s work. And now we have the audacity to ask Him for more money. If God isn’t getting the glory for the money you have now, why should He give you more?

We ask for peace in the home. But the husband treats his wife with disrespect and bullies her into doing things his way, while the wife goes behind his back to get the things she’s sure she needs, and by example she teaches her daughter to do the same. We don’t really want peace; we want everything our way.

We pray for a house because we’re tired of renting. But we haven’t taken care of the home we’re renting. The grass is two feet high, the dog ruined the carpet and the stove hasn’t been cleaned in three years. But we want God to bless us with a new home. Why? So we can mess it up, too?

God is a good of a manager; too good to throw nice blessings at bad investors. I think many of our prayers are never answered because God knows we’d use His resources to glorify ourselves while giving lip service to Him. So I ask once again, for whose benefit are we praying?

Perhaps so few of our prayers are answered is because God knows His glory is not in the answer. This idea is making me examine the motivations of my heart and rearranging the way I present my requests to God. I still know I can ask for anything in Jesus name and He will do it, but only if it brings glory to the Father.

Do You Use Your Books?

Posted by Jim Thornber on October 19, 2011
Posted in: Publishing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

Do you use your books? I didn’t ask if you have used books. I asked, “Do you use your books?

Most of the books I own have places I’ve underlined, pages I’ve dog-eared, passages I’ve highlighted (sometimes I even underline the highlighted places) and comments in the margins. Some books have notes referring me to certain pages in other books.

And I don’t just do this with reference and study books. I’ve also been known to underline encyclopedias, concordances, magazines and even novels. John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has a few passages underlined, as does James Michener’s The Source, just to name a few. Autobiographies are not too sacred to be marked up, and my Bibles are replete with underlines, notes and references to other passages.

I see books as tools, and every tool I own has marks and scuffs on them from when it was used. Some people might say, “Well, I have a book I dropped and the cover is bent, and I spilled coffee on another book. Does that count?” No, it does not count. If you dropped mustard on a hammer, would you say you used the hammer for its intended purpose?

I believe the primary purpose of books is to learn something, to grow as an individual and to be entertained. This is why not all my books are marked up. Some of my reading is for pure entertainment. But even then if I find a great passage I want to remember, I’ll dog-ear the page and underline the sentence.

I hope people underline and dog-ear my book.

I have some friends who are using my book in their small group, and they asked me to write a study guide for them. And to tell the truth, I’m honored they would choose to use my book.

However, I do hope that everyone in the group is finding passages that are interesting enough to underline, highlight and dog-ear. My book is not a shrine to be cherished but a tool to be used. I hope one day to see my book on someone’s shelf, take it down, and find it is well-used and full of colorful underlines and highlighted passages.

I think I would be a bit hurt if someone read my book and didn’t feel that one sentence was worthy of being underlined. I want to know the things I’ve written have been useful tools in the hands of many readers, and it has helped them build a life worthy of living.

So, do you use your books? I know certainly hope so.

The Aroma of Tears

Posted by Jim Thornber on October 12, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Scripture, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

 “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went…When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume…she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.” – Luke 7:36-38

Every Friday morning I get together with a couple of other pastors in my town for coffee and conversation. One is a Word of Faith pastor, the other is a Quaker pastor, and sometimes a youth pastor from a Baptist church shows up. I’m still badgering the Nazarene pastor to join us, but it’s his day off and a seven am meeting is tough for most pastors to rise for, especially on their day off.

At our last meeting, we were talking about the difficulty of leading people in praise and worship. Some Sunday’s are just amazing. People are lifting their voices and their hearts, they seem to want to linger in the presence of God, and you can sense a special presence of God in the sanctuary.

Other Sunday’s make you wonder why you even got out of bed. Everything seems to fall flat, few people seem interested, and we’re counting the minutes until the singing is over and we can move onto something else.

As we mulled over this strange phenomenon, I recalled the story about the woman who anointed Jesus with an alabaster jar of perfume and her tears. She heard that Jesus was going to be at Simon the Pharisee’s house, and she went there with one purpose in mind: anoint the Savior of her soul.

What intrigues me about this scene is that Simon is oblivious to the important presence of Jesus. Although he invited Jesus into his house, he proceeded to ignore Him, forgoing the usual courtesies granted a guest (Luke 7:44-46).

Now we have Jesus present in a house with two opposing reactions. One person came into the house prepared to worship, while the other was prepared to ignore their guest. Continue Reading

Heavenly Songs VS. Earthly Noise

Posted by Jim Thornber on October 4, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Church. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 7 Comments

 “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures. . . . Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” – Revelation 4:6, 8

Try as I might, I just don’t get heaven.

For example, in chapter 4 of Revelation, the Apostle John has a vision of the throne in heaven. He sees Someone sitting on the throne with the “appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne” (vs.3). I’m not exactly sure what jasper and carnelian look like (they are colorful types of quartz), and I’m not sure how to envision a rainbow that looks like an emerald, but I think that is the point. Our minds cannot comprehend the beauty and magnificence of the throne while we remain on the earth side of heaven. But then, who is to say we’ll be able to wrap our minds around it when we finally see it?

However, that is not what REALLY bothers me. What bothers me is the day and night singing of the cherubim.

Cherubim, like us, are created beings. They are not all powerful and all knowing, but they do pre-exist mankind. Although most of us think of cherubim as supernatural angelic beings covered with eyes and having four faces, who protect the throne of God and may even have tremendous power, there is one thing we have that they do not: an experience of the saving mercy and grace of Jesus.

And yet, without this unique relationship and reason to praise the name of the Lord God Almighty, they still sing His praise and worship at His throne twenty-four hours a day.

I have trouble remembering to worship Him for five minutes in the morning before I go to work. That’s why this passage bothers me. Continue Reading

No Longer A Slave

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 25, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other – Romans 13:8

I know we outlawed slavery in America over 150 years ago, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still countless slaves walking out in the open in every neighborhood in the country. You may live next door to a slave and not know it. They may seem like the freest person in the world with everything going for them, but they are in bondage, held in slavery by those who have tremendous power over their lives.

Furthermore, you may also live next door to a slave owner. Sure, he looks decent enough. He drives a nice car, keeps his lawn looking great and coaches a Little League team. She visits kids in the hospital and volunteers for Relay For Life. But in reality, he or she owns perhaps one, perhaps a hundred human slaves. It is not something we care to think about, but this slavery takes place all across our nation.

Now consider this: are you a slave? “Of course not,” you say. “No one owns me.” You’re right, perhaps no one does. It is rare, but you may be one of the free ones. But you may also be a slave owner. Have you ever considered that? Now you’re getting mad at me.

Romans 13:8 says that we are not be in debt to anyone, except for that continuing debt of loving one another. Why would Paul make such an issue over debt? What did he know that his readers may have been unaware of? What did Paul know that you and I are mostly unaware of? He knew that those who were in debt to others were slaves.

Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the servant of the lender.” That word “servant” also means laborer, a man in bonds, a slave or a worshiper! When we have borrowed money from a bank, credit union, friend or even a family member, we have just become a servant and slave to the person who holds our note. We bow our knee and our will to the one we must pay back with an interest rate they set so they could make more money.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a slave any longer.

My wife and I have recently started taking Dave Ramsey’s 13-week course called “Financial Peace University.” It’s a wonderfully insightful and funny look at our money and our money mistakes. Fortunately, we’re not too much in debt. We only have a school loan that we’re working on paying off quickly. I no longer want to be a slave to the holder of that loan. I want to be free.

This means I need to start telling my money what it is going to do and how we’re going to live instead of allowing slave masters (creditors) to tell me how I can live. I’m looking forward to being debt free, and then I can finally live the wise words of Paul and say I don’t owe anyone anything – except the continuing debt to love one another.

 

The God of Jim

Posted by Jim Thornber on September 13, 2011
Posted in: Christian Spirituality, Religion, Scripture. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” – Hebrews 11:16

This verse makes me wonder if God thinks the same way about me. Is God ever ashamed to be called my God? Would He ever refer to Himself as “The God of Jim?” Would he ever point to me, as he did to Job, and ask Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Jim?” (Part of me really hopes that conversation never takes place. I’m quite allergic to boils). Would God ever address other Christians and say, “I am not ashamed to be known as the God of Jim. He is a faithful man, and to his credit I declare him righteous”?

It gives me joy to know that I do not need to be perfect, faultless and without error or sin in order for God to find no shame in being my God. I need only believe in God and obey His word to one day hear Him pronounce, “I was not ashamed to say ‘I am the God of Jim.’”

Naturally, when I think this way it means I’m confident God knows my name. It means I am not forgotten, not abandoned, not just an adopted child hoping God will love me as much as He loves His natural children.

Still, I’ve also thought the opposite. You know, the old There must be better children out there who are more deserving of God’s love than I am kind of thinking. Continue Reading