Tiger's apology

Tiger Woods broke his public silence regarding his extramarital affairs by saying he was “sorry” for his irresponsible and selfish behavior. He admitted and apologized for disappointing his fans and causing them pain. “I have a lot to atone for,” he said.


This apology was expected and widely called for. Many have been debating whether or not he owed any explanation or apology to fans. ESPN’s syndicated Mike & Mike in the Morning, took a fascinating angle on why the public wanted Tiger to say he was sorry for his personal failings and indiscretions. Their conversation really got me thinking about celebrity failure and our desire for information.

Here is what Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic had to say:
Greenberg: [The American public] now expects that someone in Tiger Woods’ situation has to open up everything in himself and explain it to the satisfaction of every single person in the world. That’s the world we live in now because so many people chose to do that for their own personal gain. … I keep hearing people say that he needs to apologize. What exactly is he apologizing for? If Tiger Woods walked up to you in the street and said, “Hi Fred, I am sorry” what would you expect him to be saying he’s sorry for?
Golic: Do you think people really want an apology or do they want The National Enquirer stuff.

Greenberg: Here’s what they want: They want Tiger to hold up a picture of each individual woman we’ve seen on the covers of the tabloids and explain what really happened with each one.
Golic: Everybody is saying “apology this, apology that” but what they really want is the dirt. … They want to hear him explain his situation. Was everyone happy when the baseball players got up there in press conferences and said they were sorry [for using steroids]? No, they wanted to hear the details. ... If you get up there and say you’re sorry, the general public will be going, “That’s it? An apology? Give me more than that!”
It seems like our culture hungers and feeds on scandal. I wonder why we feel that we need an apology, or “details”. What drives that in us?

Did you hear about the man who got kicked off the plane?

You might have heard about Kevin Smith, the large man who was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight?. If you haven’t, you are missing a real life case-study of how communication works in our culture these days.

Kevin Smith is a screenwriter, film producer, and director, famous for movies like: "Clerks," "Dogma," "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." If you have seen any of these movies, you know where his sense of humor lies. Let’s just say it’s not family friendly. He has developed a loyal following and that following has moved to Twitter where he has nearly 1.7 million followers. When you get to numbers like that you can have genuine power and influence. The questions is, "How is it used?"

The short of it is that Kevin Smith is a large man...and due to a flight change from Oakland to Burbank, Smith was told he had to leave a flight because he did not have two seats to sit in since he apparently cannot meet the single seat standard for Southwest. The end result of this lead to Smith getting on Twitter asking his 1.7 followers to blast Southwest Airlines for its actions.

To me, it is just another example of the speed, comprehensiveness, and influence of the communication media today. Is it a stretch to believe that a biblical message can be spread in a lightning quick manner?

Church

This last Sunday, I had three phone calls from people asking me if I had seen the front page of the local paper, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Since I don't get the paper, I decided to check it out online (On Monday, I had two copies of the paper left on my desk, just in case...).

As I read the article,(http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100206/ARTICLES/100209609)

I found it interesting that this was the lead article, on the front page...clearly indicating to me that the issue of faith, particularly relevant faith, is of upmost interest to people in our community (and around the country). The article talks about the aging churches in Sonoma County (again, this is no different than anywhere else in the country)and how today's generation will not repond to the way we have always done church. The article is about one church that was on the brink of closing. It had 78 members and was dying fast, until the pastor changed the way they did church, changed the name, and started focusing on loving people above anything else. This church has grown to 1000 members in seven years.

I invite you to read the article and to share your thoughts on it...

Tim Tebow's Super Bowl Ad...What do you think?

Life is a gift

This morning, I was reflecting on the gift of life we have recieved. I think often we take for granted the moments of our lives, or fail to realize that all moments are key momentss: taking your children to school, kissing your wife good bye, eating lunch with a friend, trying to do a decent day's work, hearing the rain hit against the window...all these moments are key moments because they are an opportunity to remember that God is present...leaving you room to recognize him or not recognize him. Life is a gift. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is...in boredom or excitement, in pain or gladness, no matter what life is a gift.

Another thought...

A few years ago, Tom Brady, quarterback of three Super Bowl championships, was quoted in a 60 Minutes interview saying, , “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.

I anticipate that in a month or two, the Saints will experience this same dissatisfaction. Why? Is it possible we were created for someting more?

Musings on the Super Bowl

Another Super Bowl Sunday is past. I spent it, like every other year, watching the game with my church friends. Here's what I have noticed about the Super Bowl...it is more than a game, it s become an event, a national holiday. An estimated 150 million people watch the game, which is almost half of the 308+ million people that live in the U.S. It is estimated than about 40% of the people who watch the game are not football fans, they just come because of the Fun, Food (2nd largest day of food consumption in the U.S.), and Fellowship. Hmmm...

Questions I recieved via text on 1.30.10

One: Why is the state of the dead so essential?

---Because this is an area that the devil will increasingly use to deceive people and lead them away from God.

Two: Do those who are alive at the second coming need to be sinless before they are changed in the twinkling of an eye?

---No! Romans 3:10, 1 John 1:8

---Only through Jesus death on the cross and his shed blood can we become sinless. In other words, if we accept his sacrifice we are sinless in his eyes.

Three: Were those who were “translated’ sinless beforehand? (Enoch, Moses, etc…)

---Only through Christ blood on the cross. Although, Christ had not died yet, his death covered their sins in advance. If Jesus had sinned and not been able to die for all, they would have had to come back. I bet I know who they were rooting for. =)

Four: Rahab seems to be mentioned in a positive light when she hid the spies. It seems that when she was mentioned in a negative way in scripture passages: Psalm 89:10, 87:4, Isaiah 30:7. Why is this?

---These two Rahab’s are different, not the same. The Rahab in Joshua 2 is rachab (for a woman), and the Rahab in Psalm 87:10 and other places, is spelled rahah.

---rahah, translated Rahab in English, is employed several times in the Old Testament to designate an evil power, as well as a particular country. It is also translated to storm or assault, or to be proud or arrogant.

---rachab, also translated Rahab in English, is the Rahab that helped the spies.

Questions I recieved via text on 1.16.10

Question One: Are things like TV and the Internet OK on the Sabbath?

Answer: I think God wants us to think and to think we need to look at the principles he has given us, not the mechanisms. First, are you keeping the principles of the Sabbath (rest, blessed, and set apart)…in this case, set apart. The Sabbath is not for you, but building your relationship with God and others. Can that happen through the TV or internet? Sure? But, I am going to guess that it depends on what you are watching or doing on the web. I think if you focus on the principles of Philippians 4:8, you will be on the right track.

Question Two: Why did the change the Sabbath?

Answer: The short answer is the change happened gradually as “new” Christians I nRome began to keep Sunday (resurrection day) as the Sabbath. Constantine, the emperor of Rome added to this practice to help Christians avoid persecution that occasionally broke against Christians in this pagan (Greek Gods) Rome. Later, Papal Rome (which became the Catholic church validated this change by saying it had the authority to change the day to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Question Three: Do Sunday worshippers keep the “Lord’s Day” from sundown to sundown?

Answer: The short answer is “No. Not typically.”

Question Four: How do we spread this “new” understanding of the Sabbath?

Answer: It is actually quite old. God gave clear instructions and purpose for the Sabbath at creation (Genesis 2:2, 3). The best way to spread it is to invite people to read what the Bible has to say about the Sabbath. Those that really want to know will read every text in the Bible on the subject.

Question Five: Why not just a day in seven? Some say any day in seven will do?

Answer: This is a common argument. As I read the Bible, THE 7th day is the only day God blessed and set apart, not a day every seven days.

Question Six: What about celebrating the Lord’s Day, i.e. the day of resurrection?

Answer: I am all for celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, but that is not the day God blessed or set aside, the seventh day is (Genesis 2:2, 3). It is not the day God commanded us to keep holy (Exodus 20:8-11).

Thoughts on Sabbath

This week’s sermon topic is the Sabbath, so I thought I would share some thoughts regarding the Sabbath and the seven day cycle. One thing I have noticed is that as Seventh-day Adventist we tend to put our focus on keeping the Sabbath legally, but we tend to abuse it emotionally and physically. Not good.

Did you know, we were made in such a way that requires us to stop and rest every seven days? Studies have shown that a weekday of rest is just as important as eight hours a sleep at night. As human beings, we are dependent on rhythms. Life is rhythmic. The most known are the biological rhythms tied to the earth’s movement around the sun. Things like: Body temperature, which reaches its maximum on the afternoons; the heartbeat, which accelerates during the day and slows considerably after four hours of nightly rest; the kidneys and liver which reduce their activity at night, etc... Experts have discovered that we have this internal body clock. One notable rhythm of this internal mechanism is the circaseptan rhythm. It represents a seven day cycle. Why a seven day cycle? Nobody seems to know why? Hmmm. This makes even those who do not believe in God wonder.

The reality is we were created with the need to stop, rest, and rejuvenate every seven days. The physical arrival of darkness every 24 hours reminds us of our need for daily rest, but there is no natural phenomenon that reminds us of the arrival of our weekly rest. I think this is why our Creator said to “Remember. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” And, he did so from the beginning (Genesis 2:2, 3).

Oh, well does it matter which day we rest? According to God, “Yes”. According to God, everyday is not the same. There is an ideal day to rest, the seventh-day. He specifically blessed that day. He did not bless the third day, Tuesday. He did not bless the fifth day, Thursday. He did not bless the first day, Sunday. He blessed the seventh day. (Genesis 2:2, 3) And, he set it apart to not only be refreshed physically, but to have time to be refreshed emotionally and spiritually in worship and relationship building.

I am so glad we have a God who loves us and gave us a way to stay healthy physically and emotionally, and connected to him.

Questions I recieved via text on 1.9.10

One: How can you define God to a toddler? from 293-6990
---Tough to know. Best answer I can give you is that since God is love the best way to show them God is by loving them with you actions and words.

Two: I heard all of our names are written in the book of life, but there are names being erased because they don't want to be connected to God. At one point is our name put in the book of life?
from 293-6990
---The short answer is at the judgment. My best understanding is that our names are in the book of life until the judgment, at that point those who have rejected God will have thier names removed. But, this is not God's choice or desire, it is each individual's choice.

Questions I recieved via text on 1.2.10

Question One: What about the Gnostics? From 953-3151

Answer: Gnosticism was the most influential heresy faced by the early Church. The Gnostics did not agree how the New Testament described God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so they offered their own writings as inspired scriptures. Some of the most well know are: The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Peter, The Gospel of Philip, and The Gospel of Judas. In essence, Gnosticism is about acquiring knowledge, and is based on matter being evil and spirit being good. The Gnostics prior to Christianity taught that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. The body and the soul are man's earthly existence, and were considered evil. Enclosed in man’s soul, is the spirit, a divine substance of man. This “spirit” was asleep and ignorant and needed to be awakened. It could only be liberated by this special knowledge.

Question Two: I heard the Catholic Church decided what would end up in the Bible. Is this true? From 481-7312

Answer: No. This is not true. The books in the Bible were chosen over time. The Old Testament books were chosen by Jewish leaders about 200 years before Jesus was born. Jesus validated these choices by calling the Old Testament scripture and inspired. It took about three hundred years for the final New Testament books to be “canonized”, but the ones in the New Testament that were accepted, were widely accepted as inspired right after they were written in the First Century AD. Hundreds of years later, the Catholic Church changed the Ten Commandments and added books, called the Apocrypha, to the Protestant Bible.

Question Three: You said some of the authors were pagan. Who were they and how were they inspired by God? From 508-9876

Answer: My point was that not all the material in the bible came from Christian writers or God followers. One example is Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4. Others examples are writers from which biblical writers took material from: Paul quoted from Greek poets, the Edict of Cyrus in Ezra, the poetry of the Psalms, etc...

Question Four: After changing the bible into different translations don’t you think the meaning of God’s Word would have changed and led to the meaning of sentences or even paragraphs changing too? From: 569-6727

Answer: That’s what made the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls so important. Here, they found documents dating back thousands of years, and when they compared them with the current bible translations, they discovered the bible was still 99.9% accurate.

Question Five: Scripture states God won’t give you more than you can handle. Then, why does he put you in situations you can’t get out of? All it does is break your heart in two.

From 480-3042

Answer: First, this saying is actually not in the Bible. It is a misrepresentation of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says, “God will not let you be TEMPTED beyond your ability…” Second, God never tempts anyone (James 1:13), he is allowing the results of living in a sinful world to run its course. And, third, we will never be TEMPTED beyond our ability to say “No”, but only if we have him by our side.

Question Six: What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? From: 615-977-5974

Answer: They refer to a group of manuscripts discovered in 1947 near the Dead Sea in Israel. About 900 scrolls were found that help establish that the Old Testament we have today is essentially the same as the one 2000 years ago.

Question Seven: How does Ellen White compare to scripture. Some say she is outdated. What do you think? From 694-5885

Answer: There is much to be gained from reading Ellen White. Unfortunately, she is often misused, often placed above scripture by some. She herself said she was “a lesser light pointing to a greater light,” meaning she was not to be placed above the authority of scripture. She stated that ONLY scripture should be used to prove any theological point.

Question Eight: What do you believe happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Has God ever spoken to you? From 326-6565

Answer: Many believe the Ark of the Covenant to be buried in or near Jerusalem. Many believe it will be found before Jesus comes again. My guess is that it was lost long ago. As for second question, the answer is “yes”. But, God speaks to us in many ways. If you are asking if he has spoken to me out loud, the answer is “No”, although sometimes the voice I hear is almost audible.=)

It's a New Year

I am back. It is the start of a new year, so let me tell you the new focus for this blog (at least for a while).

I will posting answers to the questions I receive via text about the sermon. Obviosuly, I can only answer a couple questions there on the spot, so I will be posting answers to all text questions on this blog during the week.

I am not sure what I am getting into....=)

Smile, God loves you!

eDevotional 2

What makes a great leader? We live in an age where unprecedented attention is being paid to leadership. You walk in a bookstore and you find shelves and shelves bulging with books on leadership. There’s servant leadership, visionary leadership, strategic leadership, team leadership, co-leadership, Leadership by the book, Leadership with a Stick, The Marshmallow Leader… (OK, I made those last couple up)

You can get books on what makes a great corporate leader, a great political leader, a great non profit leader…there is even a genre of leadership books about leaders in history:

---Abraham Lincoln on Leadership

---Jesus as CEO

---Attila the Hun’s Leadership Secrets

---Elvis on Leadership (Just kidding!)

But, here’s a book that is hard to find…What makes a great follower? See, very little, if anything is said about the art of following/follow-ship. I think it is because there’s this idea in our culture that follow-ship is what you get stuck with if you don’t get to lead. Have you seen the t-shirt “If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes”? I think that says a lot about what our culture thinks about leaders and followers.

However, the truth is that followership is a fundamental part of all of our lives. We are born as followers: Little kids follow their parents around and learn from them, players are taught to follow the coach, students to follow their teachers, etc…

More than that, Jesus said that if anyone wants to be associated with him, following is essential. He did not say, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and lead me.” See, it is not about doing what I want, but what he wants for us. His one call is “Follow me. Be with me. Watch me. Trust me. Obey me. Devote yourself to me.”

Christians are followers. That is what a disciple does. And, when we follow Christ, we seek to give him our full devotion. That is why our mission statement is “Loving people toward full devotion to Jesus Christ.”

So, what makes a great follower? Great followers are proactive. They are people of initiative. This is countercultural…which says great followers hang around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. This is not a great follower. This type of person is characterized by passivity, by the ability to drift… See, people think of great followers as sheep…who follow the lead sheep over a cliff. The Bible does not call people to this kind of followership.

God wants us to follow him actively, and to invite others to follow as well.

What Makes You Mad?

What makes you mad? I am not talking about your personal preferences. I am not talking about getting mad at the guy that cuts you off in traffic, or at the lady who takes your parking spot. I am not talking about things that annoy you that trigger your anger because of sinful issues in your life. I am talking about righteous anger, things that make you mad on God’s behalf?

Jesus got angry. He once entered the temple in Jerusalem and found merchants who had turned the place into a zoo. They were not interested in honoring God. All they wanted was to make money. So, Jesus made a whip and drove them out! Worship is something that God takes seriously.

Another time, Jesus confronted a bunch of religious leaders about their hypocrisy. He was so upset he chewed them out. I bet his voice was hoarse after that encounter. Integrity is something that God takes seriously.

You know what else I think makes God mad? Those who say they love him, but don't extend that love to others.

Matthew 22:34-40 puts it simply: If you love God, you will love people. Simple, yet profound. I don't think it is a coincidence that Jesus reserved his sternest comments to those who mistreated or took advantage of others.