There are some jobs no one wants. Take for example, no one wanted to be the guy who had to tell George Steinbrenner that the Yankees lost. If you were that guy, it’s quite possible that you’d lose your job just for brining the news. An entire television show has been dedicated to just these kind of jobs — Dirty Jobs — jobs that no one wants but someone has to do.

The Bible has a few such jobs as well. Who wants to go tell Ahab and Jezebel that God doesn’t quite approve of what they’re doing? Who wants to be the bearer of bad news before Herod and Herodias? What kind of guys tells Nebuchadnezzar that his days are numbered? It’s one thing to be alive during the major course changes of world history but its another thing to be on the frontlines. If you remember correctly, Elijah had to run for his life, John the Baptist lost his head, and Daniel spent some time amongst the lions. These guys pulled some tough duty.

Most of us aren’t called of God to walk before the pagan firing squad. We aren’t going to operate in the circles that these biblical heroes experienced. Yet, there are other biblical heroes whose call to duty is much like ours. They were called not to successfulness but faithfulness. They were called to call others to God. They were called to people with hardened hearts. They were called to ministries with no earthly hope of success.

Consider for a moment Isaiah. Isaiah’s call to ministry comes in chapter 6. There he has a vision of God’s throne room. There he has an incredible religious experience. There, moved by the worship of the one true God, Isaiah responds to God’s question, “Who shall go for us,” with a hearty, “Here I am, send me.” Amen!

Those who’ve been tasked with recruiting missionaries love to preach of Isaiah’s willingness to go. And, he was willing. But, we dishonor the depth of Isaiah’s commitment if we ignore the fact that he was commissioned to go forth to a people who didn’t want to hear his message (just like many of us today). Worse yet, God told Isaiah that no one would respond. Isaiah was called to a dead end ministry with no hope of worldly success. He wasn’t going to see a revival. He wasn’t going to facilitate a major church growth spurt. He was called to preach to a rebellious people whom God already knew would not respond. You see, Isaiah wasn’t called to sucess. He was called to obedience. That’s tough duty.

Jeremiah experienced the same fate. He was set aside from the womb for the great task of preaching repentance to his countrymen. Yet, he too knew that there was no hope. His message would go unanswered just as God had warned. The people would not listen. The people would not respond. Jeremiah would preach. The people would sin. Jeremiah would preach some more. The people would sin some more. It was a lose-lose proposition for Jeremiah, yet he continued on in the face of stern opposition. Now, that’s tough duty.

Today, many of us need to learn the powerful lessons contained in the stories of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Too many of us become quickly disheartened when the world doesn’t jump for joy at our proclamation of the gospel. Too many give up hope and then give up trying.

That’s just the laypeople. Those called to the ministry vocationally don’t do much better and that’s much worse. They feel called of God to serve him. They feel led to go to churches where they can make a difference. Then, frustrated with the lack of progress, dismayed by the obstinance of a church full of sinners, they cry “uncle” and beg God to send them somewhere else, to someone else who will soak up their words of wisdom and sing their praises to their neighbors.

Good luck, gentlemen. God doesn’t call pastors to success. God call ministers to faithfulness.

Imagine the Bible without Isaiah 53. It’s not inconceivable if Isaiah had given up as easily as many of us do. Imagine the New Covenant without Jeremiah 31. It’s not hard to think that Jeremiah could have walked away in despair 13 chapters earlier when he complained of the people’s rebellion. Now, imagine many of our churches if someone didn’t step up, answer the call to tough duty, and love the unlovable in many of our pews.

The Christian walk, Christian ministry … those things are tough duty. Don’t measure the value of your efforts by the so-called marks of success. Measure your success by your faithfulness to those things that God has called you to do. It may be tough duty but it’s rewarding duty.

As my church votes this week to recommit themselves to a meaningful church membership, I resubmit this “oldie but goodie” on membership.

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What is the church? Is it a Christian country club? A place where a bunch of people with warm feelings for Jesus hang out? It seems that many Christians aren’t really sure anymore.

Think about the statistics for just a moment. The Southern Baptist Convention boasts a membership of over 16 million people. However, on any given Sunday, you may only find about half of them in church. That’s 8 million so-called Christians missing in action.

So, what’s the problem?

We’ve forgotten what church membership is supposed to be –- a commitment.

In this day and age of rampant no-fault divorce and easy bankruptcy, it’s not popular to talk about commitment. In fact, it almost seems like commitment has not only gone out of style but that it has been removed from the American vocabulary. Unfortunately, that lackadaisical attitude has crept into the church and is robbing us of our resources, our people and our ability to make a difference.

Given the moral and spiritual condition of our country and our families, we need to recommit ourselves to the church or it soon will be committed to the junk-heap of long-forgotten fads like the hula hoop and New Coke.

Church membership has always been about commitment. For whatever reason, though, Christians have lost sight of that fact. Church membership involves three basic commitments.

First, it entails a commitment to Christ. You can’t just walk in off the street and sign up to be a member of a church. You can’t just pay your dues and get in. The financial cost of membership is too high. None of us could afford it.

Here’s the good news, though. Christ has paid it all. His death on the cross has paid the way. He’s purchased our souls. He’s redeemed us for His glory.

For that reason, we expect –- we demand –- that our members be professing believers in Jesus Christ. We’re not talking about warm feelings or fond memories of singing “Jesus Loves Me” when we were five years old. We’re talking about a whole-hearted, sold-out, life-or-death loving relationship with the Savior of mankind. Without that kind of commitment, there is no salvation. Without that kind of commitment, there is no church membership.

Second, church membership requires a commitment to Christian living. When you join the church as a believer, you profess that you have been redeemed, that you have repented of your sins and that Christ is in the process of sanctifying your soul.

Most churches have a covenant, a written promise from one member to another to live and act in a Christ-like manner. This covenant is entered voluntarily as one joins the church. Perhaps you’ve never seen it. Perhaps you didn’t even know that it existed. But, more than likely, it does. When you join a church you agreed to live by its biblical principles. You agreed to accept its consequences, the discipline of the church, should you violate its trust.

Valid, vibrant church membership depends upon the members living in a manner that pleases Christ, a manner that does not besmirch His name, a manner that advertises to the world that this church –- Christ’s church -– is a very special place with very special people. That kind of living demands a commitment.

Third, church membership involves a commitment to other Christians. When you join the church, you join a living organism, the earthly representation of God’s reign and Christ’s work.

The church, this body of believers, lives and breathes as its members do. As in the human body, when all of the parts are functioning correctly, when all of its limbs are healthy, the church is healthy. When one organ fails, it invariably stresses the others. Yet when enough organs fail, the body goes into shock.

Church shock comes in many forms but the results are often the same. Members begin to withdraw. Cliques are formed. Some people are shunned while others are ignored. Before you know it, the disease of selfishness has run roughshod through the church and the prognosis is often fatal.

The remedy? A selfless commitment to others, a living fulfillment of the Christ’s command to love others as yourself.

So, this Sunday take a good look around. Look at the Bible. See what it says about salvation and sanctification. Look at yourself. See if you’re living the way that Christ demands. Look at those sitting around you. See if you see them as God does. Then recommit yourself to meaningful church membership.

Another day has gotten away from me. Thus, for your continued reading pleasure another golden oldie, a blast from the recent past — one of my favorite posts.

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I love Asian food. From Chinese to Vietnamese, it’s all good. But, Thai food is my favorite. The flavors are exotic and complex. Different tastes intermingle to give your tastebuds a rollercoaster ride of culinary delight. Phad Thai, nua nom tok, yum gai, I could eat those things every day of the week. And, some day I may try.

But Thai food isn’t for everyone. For some it’s too spicy. For others the complexity and variety of flavor is foreign to their American sensibilities. For others, though, it’s simply that they’ve never had it. Like myself, once they’ve given it a try, nothing else quite measures up.

We see the same thing in church - people with very limited spiritual palates. Like those distressed souls we read about in the book of Hebrews who had barely tasted of the things of the Spirit, they’ve not really developed an appetite for the deeper truths of the Bible. The writer of Hebrews half-scolds, half-laments that while his readers ought to be imbibing of the full goodness of God’s truth, they still needed someone to spoon-feed them the elemental truths of the faith (Hebrews 5:12). They had settled for ‘Nilla Wafers’ when they should have been feasting on filet mignon — or Phad Thai for those of us with a taste for the unusual.

The Christian walk, from beginning to end, is one of continual growth and development. The Great Commission tells that we are to ‘make disciples,’ that is lead people to the Lord, ‘teaching them’ to observe all that Christ had commanded his first disciples (Matthew 28:20). But, that learning which takes place at the beginning of one’s faith is just the beginning. Paul reminds Timothy, himself a pastor at that time, to ‘study’ to show himself approved before God (2 Timothy 2:15). In the Old Testament, we read of Ezra, that great man of God who enjoyed God’s stamp of approval on all that he did, enjoying those blessings of God because he had dedicated himself to the study of God’s Word (Ezra 7:10).

We should take these admonitions and examples seriously. We do not want a church full of anorexic Christians who barely know the basics of the faith. We want to field an army of believers who have gorged themselves on the riches of the Bible. To accept anything less would be to fail the Great Commission. To accept anything less would be to fail the kingdom. To accept anything less would be a sin.

So, let me encourage you to commit yourself to studying God’s Word. Feast on God’s mercy. Nourish yourself with the teachings of Christ. Dine on the writings of the Holy Spirit.

Let me further encourage you to sate your spiritual appetite with not just private Bible reading, which we all should be doing anyway, but with teaching ministries of the church. We have gifted people in our churches ready to share with you what God has shown them in the Bible. Make plans soon to join a Bible study; my guess is that your church has one for people just like you. The glorious, and sometimes difficult, truths of God’s Word are for His people. They’re for me and they’re for you. So, be sure to study to show yourself approved.

There are days I have nothing to say. So, I don’t post on this website. Some days I’m too busy to get around to it. I don’t know how these pastors who post multiple times during the day have time to minister to their flocks and the Internet. Other days, I have too many things to talk about and struggle to choose one. Today is such a day. So, I’m not going to choose. I’m going to mention briefly two things that have come to my attention in the last 12 hours.

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Obama is the AntiChrist!

I received that tidbit of priceless theological divining last night via email. According to someone, somewhere, with too much time on their hands, Barack Obama is the antichrist. The basic gist of this “theologian’s” argument is that Revelation 13 describes the coming antichrist as a Muslim. Funny, last time I looked at that passage, I didn’t see anything that would suggest that John was concerned about a religious movement that was 650 forthcoming. But, to make sure we don’t elect the antichrist, this intrepid emailer is trying to reach every Christian in America and mobilize the defenders of freedom and a particular eschatological faith.

I’m old enough that I’ve lived through several such antichrist scares before. In the 70s, Hal Lindsey was certain the antichrist was going to come from Russia. His followers declared that to be true in the 80s when they labeled Mikhail Gorbachev the antichrist because he bore the mark of the beast on his forehead. Then the Soviet Union fell. Then, in the 90s, it was going to be someone from the European Union who would preside over the 10 European powers from the hills of Rome. Now there’s something like 20 nations in that union. So, nowin the 2000s, it’s an American and his name isn’t Damien. It’s an American with a Muslim name. Who’s it going to be in 20 years, guys?

Setting aside theological debates about the manner in which the end of the world as we know it will come, do we really think that if Obama is the antichrist predicted infallibly 2000 years ago that we can do anything to stop it? There’s some pretty strange theological rationale at work here. So, next time you get one of these pre-election warnings, trust God to do what is right because that’s all that He can do. In the meantime, get out and vote for the guy who isn’t antiChristian.

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Worshiping Money

No, I’m not advocating that we worship money. I am arguing that God has given us money to worship — Him, specifically. God has given us all the resources we need (not necessarily how much we want). In fact, he has given us abundantly more than we can really ask for. Out of the overabundance, we give back to God what He has so graciously loaned us. We do it in our worship services because giving/tithing/offering is an act of worship.

I am greatly concerned when I scan a worship bulletin and see the offering strategically placed in the center of the order of service as though it is the center of our worship service. It may be what we’ve always done before and it may be that we don’t mean to make it the focus of our services, but we have to remember to look beyond our traditions and assumptions and ask what we’re communicating when the offering is placed dead center. Children, visitors, and non-believers pick up on these subliminal messages far better than the average Joe in the pew. Next time you’re in worship, think about it.

Many churches have responded to this concern by moving the offering time. Some have gone to electronic debit machines at the door. Bad move. It’s hard to worship when you’re punching in your PIN. Others have moved the offering to the end of the service. It strikes first-timers as odd but I like it. By placing the offering at the end, we allow our giving to become a response mechanism, not to the quality of the performances we’ve just sat through, but to the grace of God displayed for the past hour. The leadership has to communicate this message to the flock clearly, but the message communicates clearly once people know our motivation.

I also dislike the practice in many churches of taking up the offering during Sunday School as part of taking attendance, counting alleged contacts and the number of Bibles brought to class (as if we should even have to ask how many brought their Bibles to Bible study, ah, but that’s a blog for another day). If giving is an act of worship as I’m arguing, and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:6-10, we ought to do it as part of corporate worship. We do so not so others can observe our giving (though it does set a good example) but so that we can with our money worship our God along with our songs, our prayers, and our submission to the Word of God explained in the sermon. No one has ever argued that Sunday School is a time of worship; let’s not start now so we can defend, not a biblical practice, but a man-made tradition of the last century.

What brings all this up: there’s an interesting little article on MSNBC about the church and the economy. See, they’re even watching how we spend our money in a time of economic difficulty. Are you going to be a hypocrite or worshipper?

No one likes to be wrong. Worse, no one likes to get caught. But, perhaps the most frustrating is when you’re swept up with the real offenders and deemed guilty by association.

Ask my children. They hate when one gets in trouble because the other has done something wrong. They squeal. They complain. And, they both suffer the consequences when it’s determined that both bear the blame even if only by association.

As we enter the final week of the fall election season, its time to ask whether this same principle applies to politics. I’m afraid it does. I’m even more afraid that many Christians this electoral cycle will be found guilty by association — guilty by vote.

Yes, I acknowledge that choosing the right candidate in any race can be a daunting task. Yes, I admit that in many, many cases it’s little more than a matter of trying to choose the lesser of two evils. In fact, many of us approach the election selection process by trying to determine who really offers the lesser of two evils. But, you know what? When it comes to being found guilty by association, that’s biblical.

You see, we shouldn’t be picking our candidates based on race. Choosing candidates based on political party isn’t a whole lot better. Choosing a candidate based on his or her college affiliation is even more reckless.  Imagine someone casting his or her vote for a politician because he’s a black Republican who graduated from Georgia. Ludicrous, huh? Yet, people will cast their die and lend their support to one candidate and not another next week for reasons just as silly and even more dangerous. If you knew that you were going to be found guilty by association, maybe you wouldn’t be so cavalier about your options.

Some of you are still waiting for me to explain how on earth you’re going to be found guilty by association. How? Why? Because the Bible says so.

In Romans 1, Paul begins his seminal epistle on salvation by pointing out his confidence in the Gospel and his concern for his fellow man, Jew and Gentile alike. In chapter 1 he generates a long list of ugly and vile sins. He points out the dangers of worshiping idols. He adds homosexuality to his list of evil. His list is a veritable who’s who of wickedness and Christians are rightfully repulsed at the list of infractions. While we’re busy pointing our fingers at the depraved culprits, Paul whips out a mirror and places it between us and them. “You see,” Paul says, “you should be pointing at yourself.”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” you complain. “I’ve never slept with a member of my sex.” “I’ve never sculpted an idol that looks like a boa constrictor or a robin.” “What am I guilty of?”

“You’re guilty by association,” Paul rebuts.

“How,” you whine, your hand seemingly clear of the cookie jar.

“You knew what they were doing was evil and you did nothing to stop it,” Paul explains.

Paul deals with the allegedly innocent by-stander in Romans 1:32. “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death (so far, so good, right?), they not only continue to do these very things (”not me,” you say) but also approve of those who practice them (ouch!).”

Guilty by association.

By doing nothing to inhibit the evil, by not doing anything to stop wickedness, by failing to stand up for righteousness as we stand by and maintain our innocence, we become guilty of the very acts we allegedly oppose. (By the way, it works that way in American law as well).

Paul said it, not me. Want to go on?

Thus, on November 4, when you elect a candidate, you are also, by implication, supporting his or her position on a myriad of issues. Vote for a candidate who is pro-abortion because you like his stance on the economy and you have (wittingly or otherwise) thrown you name in as an abortionist. Vote for the homosexual rights activisit and you’ve become one. Your vote of approval in one matter implicitly becomes a vote of approval on all matters, whether you intend it or not. You are part of the consensus the new president will point to when he forwards his agenda.

Take note, not all issues are created equal. Some are more eternally important than others. I propose that there are issues that God regards more highly than others. I believe God is going to place a greater emphasis on the sanctity of human life than he is on whether my local county is going to repave any roads or not. I believe that the issue of marriage being between one man and one woman is far more important (because God instituted that arrangement) than the question of how much of the tax payers’ money Candidate A may have spent frivolously. I’m not saying that the misappropriation of funds is excusable. I am saying that saving the institution of marriage is far more important than the state of South Carolina saving a few million dollars.

“Wait,” you object. “All sins are equal in God’s eyes.” In that they’re all vile and a violation of His perfect holiness, yes. But, ask yourself, is my coveting my neighbor’s big screen TV as bad as having another god before the one, true God? I think not. If that principle applies to Commandments #1 and #10, it is reasonable and logical to assume that it would apply to Commandments #2 through #10. Murder is far worse than lying. Adultery isn’t as bad as worshiping an idol made of wood and stone. God is going to judge or reward our every deed. If there are various penalties and crowns, there must be some things better than others and some that are worse.

Besides, our own society operates under the same premise. Speeding through a school, no matter how bad that might be, isn’t going to elicit the same response as if I had shot the sheriff (and I didn’t kill the deputy). We have various degrees of murder for a reason. We differentiate between homicide and manslaughter because they differ, even if only by shades of motive. None of us live as though all evils are equally evil. We can’t afford to. There’d be no one left on the outside to pay the taxes needed to support our prisons.

Thus, as you cast your vote next week, you will have to choose between the lesser of two evils in many cases. You will have to decide what you think is more important. The economy or infants. The war in Iraq or the war for the home. Euthanasia or financial aid for children from Asia. The good news is that we don’t have to decide. God has already done that. We don’t have to vote our values, either. As Christians, we have to vote God’s values (remember that whole “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” passage?). If we don’t, we’ll be guilty by association.