Month: March 2007

For the next several days I will be working on a new book project. During that time I will be posting some excerpts from the previous books. We begin with a chapter from “Bring’em Back Alive” – A Healing Plan for Those Wounded by the Church. This chapter is called “Your Bleating Heart Will Tell On You” and it deals with the uncomfortable truth that sometimes we choose to remain in victimhood.

Blessings,

Dave

 “As scarce as truth is, the supply is always greater than the demand.”  Josh Billings

In this chapter I am going to take a plunge into truth that I pray will be woven lovingly into a tapestry of humility and grace. I will confess that writing this chapter filled me with more fear and trembling than any topic I have yet tackled (except politics). I pray that my tone will reflect the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath and that I will “Do No Harm.”  If I do not create a spirit of love the truth of this chapter could do damage and that would break my heart. I feel this may be the most important chapter in the book.

I hope this book will be read by many wounded lambs. Some of you were abused by shepherds who should have restored but chose to condemn you (or worse). Some of you have been neglected by churchgoers who should have cared enough to seek you and return you to the flock.

But we must also acknowledge (time to duck and cover) the real possibility that sometimes we choose to remain victims. I am not going to deny that we are often victims of sinful, selfish and hurtful acts from those in and around the church. One of my prayers and goals for this book is that we honestly search our hearts and prayerfully evaluate if we have, in fact, made a decision to embrace woundedness. 

It is an incredible waste of our spiritual potential to fixate on how things could or should have been different. It took me about forty-five years to figure out the following information that I am going to pass along to you (at no additional cost) for simply buying this book. Are you ready?

Things are not different.

We can usually make a case that would persuade any jury that our treatment by other Christians should have been different. We can obviously
make a solid case from the wisdom and conviction of scripture that things would have been different if Christians applied His words consistently. And yet there remains the unflinching fact that things are not different. No amount of time spent dwelling on how another sheep hurt me or should have done something different changes my situation. But the most natural thing to do is to focus on those unexpected wounds.

Imagine if you were shot and rushed to the emergency room. Would you spend all of your time worrying about who shot you? Or do you think your first concern might be to survive? I am pretty sure my priority would be to seek help and healing. Who shot me would be the least of my worries at that point. After healing I can concern myself with the shooter and whether justice is done.

Still, when we are victims of a shot from other Christians (or people in the church) we do seem to dwell on the shooter, not the healer. This is another strategy of the enemy who knows that healing is available. The last place Satan wants us to visit is the emergency room of God’s grace.  In the case of Christians the act of healing allows us to leave justice in the hands of God and takes us out of the process. That is exactly where I need to be.

 to be continued….

Remember the Gilda Radner character, Rosann Rosannadanna, from the early SNL days? She would always shake her head and proclaim, “It’s always somethin’.”  That is how I feel today as I am fielding e-mails from readers who are getting a weird message instead of the daily dose of Bad Christian ramblings.

We recently did a little facelift (website only) and apparently something got changed in the settings. Super Webhero Robin believes he has fixed the issue and you should have a fresh-baked blog in your mailbox tomorrow.

Sorry for the hassle. Thanks for caring enough to let me know.

Blessings,

Dave

Newcomers to this site may not know that my primary source of income is television sports directing. Soon I will head into another season of Major League Baseball with my beloved Texas Rangers. Reading the positive reports from spring training has me excited about this season. I picked up the paper today and found a Peanuts cartoon that hit the nail on the head on a couple of levels. Peanuts creator Charles Schultz loved the Lord and loved baseball. That should qualify him for sainthood in my scorebook.

This particular strip has Charley Brown standing on the mound ready for the first game of spring. Charley Brown loves baseball more than any character on the planet except my friend John Frost. Charley raises his arms in triumphant joy and exclaims, “I love the start of baseball season.” In the next panel he has a nostalgic smile and notes, “There’s a certain indescribable feeling in the air.” From rightfield Lucy decides to add her feelings about what is in the air. “Defeat!”, she shouts to Charlie Brown.

Isn’t that what most of us deal with from time to time? Or maybe all of the time. We feel excitement. We feel triumphant. We feel optimistic. And then that voice from rightfield tells us that defeat is certain. That voice can be programmed from childhood. Negative parents, teachers, coaches, siblings, friends (?), other Christians (?) and assorted others have laid down tracks on our mix of negative thoughts. But another voice that believers hear is the voice of Satan.

One thing is certain as you follow Jesus. If you are doing something for the Lord you can count on hearing from the Enemy. I get letters and emails and stories nearly every day from heartbroken people in the church. It almost always starts out the same way. I was serving Jesus and it was going great and then…

Another churchgoer did or said something.
Or someone took my place or took me out of my place.
I didn’t get appreciated or honored.
I was disappointed by someone or something.

Then the voice jumps in. And the voice starts telling you what you want to hear. That they should never have said that or did that if they were really a Christian. Or you deserve that spot, not them. Or how dare they take you from that position? Maybe the voice reminds you of how hard you work and no one cares. Or how others don’t work and you have to do it all and they still don’t care. That voice is not the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. That voice is the one yelling “defeat” from rightfield. That voice is the one robbing you of your joy in serving Jesus. Let’s be honest. If we are serving Christ to honor Him we should be serving without expectation. Have I done that really well? No. Am I getting better? A little bit.

But if I approach my service without expectation then it is about Him and not me. I am always ready to reverse the pronouns. If I offer to serve and I am not picked…praise God. He knows my heart and knows that I had an unselfish desire to serve. If my four decades of following Jesus have taught me anything it is that God will honor that spirit. Don’t let that “voice” ruin your walk with Jesus. There is another voice. It is much softer and requires a lot more effort to hear. You have to slow down and be quiet and spend time in prayer and God’s Word. Casting Crowns has a great song called the “Voice of Truth” that describes this spiritual battle.

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I’m in
onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He’s holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again, “Boy, you’ll never win!”
“You’ll never win!”

The song goes on to describe that other voice.

But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
And the Voice of Truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth

Jesus had to deal with that voice. Three times He was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4). The very men who Jesus invested His life into heard that voice and made ungodly suggestions. James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a town that did not welcome them. Jesus rebuked them. And Peter got his hair parted when he tried to explain to Jesus that the events the Lord had just outlined really couldn’t happen.

But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.  Matt 16 NLT

All of us hear those voices. The voices from bad experiences in our past may require a little help to erase. Here is a little tip that I have learned. The voice we hear in the spiritual battle is the loud one. Listen for the quiet voice. Be still. Pray. Read His Word. The Voice of Truth says, “This is for my glory.” That is a plumbline for righteous action. Is it for His glory? That is what the Voice of Truth tells you.

I am choosing to listen and believe the Voice of Truth.

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I had no idea on the morning of February 26^th that NBC’s Today Show had an exclusive story that they believed might rock my Christian faith. I had no idea because I join millions and millions of fellow Americans every morning by not watching the Today Show. The “exclusive” story, interestingly enough, was first reported in 1980. I guess the time-frame on exclusive is pretty wide. You would have thought that this was a startling new discovery based on the proclamations of Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira. Here are some samples.

A somber Lauer introduced the twenty-seven year old breaking story…

“A shocking new claim that an ancient burial place may have housed the bones of Christ and a son. This morning a Today exclusive that could rock Christianity to its core.”

He looked so sad. I guess he was concerned that he was going to mess up Easter for all of us believers. It reminded me of an episode of the cartoon Super Chicken recalled from deep inside the memory banks of a wasted youth. The intrepid crime fighter Super Chicken is on the trail of the Easter Bunny who has been robbing banks across the city. Alongside his lion sidekick Fred, Super Chicken moves in to capture the beloved Easter Bunny. Fred reacts with a deep and very personal concern about busting the Easter Bunny.

“But we may not get any Marshmallow Chickies on Easter Morning.” Super Chicken does not dodge the consequences of this development.

“Fred,” he says gently. “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”

It seemed that Matt Lauer felt the same weight as he announced the news but, like Fred, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it. Meredith Vieira, however, was almost giddy in her segment. Vieira led off her interview of documentary director James Cameron with this hyperbole.

“There are so few ‘wow’ stories out there, this is one of them.”

To be honest Meredith, you have more ‘wow’ stories on your Millionaire show every week than with this discovery. I generally try to stay away from stories like this one because it seems almost pointless to weigh in. The skeptics demean the “predictable” response of Christians to this find. Of course they will deny this research because it will upset the industry created around the Christian religion. I will be completely honest here. I have not sold enough books to generate a decent second job, let alone an industry. So I examine every claim carefully.  I am not interested in living my life based on something that I no longer believe to be true.

I spent a fair amount of time reading all sides of The Jesus Tomb claims. So has the book rocked my faith?

No.

This is reminiscent of Geraldo Rivera’s exhumation of Al Capone’s vault. If it were only Christians defending the sloppy research and startling conclusions drawn in the book and documentary then it would be harder to defend. But scholars of all bents are debunking the scholarship of this project. For example, The Israel Antiquities Authority said in 1996 that the probability of the ossuraries belonging to the family of Jesus were “next to zero”. Archaeologist Amos Kloner, a professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, documented the tomb as the Jewish burial cave of a well-off family more than 10 years ago. Respected Christian sources weighed in as well.  Probe Ministries has a good overview of the story and Crosswalk blogger Regis Nicoll addresses the claims as well. Ben Witherington offers a more detailed examination of the book’s claims at his blog.

What is predictable is the call from many organizations to boycott or cancel the show. I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness but I am suggesting just the opposite. Educate yourself with the facts about this discovery. Be prepared to offer why you believe this account to be false. Whenever Jesus is “watercooler” talk it is an opportunity to discuss why you believe that Easter is still on for this year. I view these moments as opportunities, not attacks on my faith.

Vieira concluded the segment by saying to James Cameron that the claim is “absolutely fascinating, potentially, I mean, many would argue the biggest story or one of the biggest stories of our lifetime if you are correct.”

James Cameron was the director of the wildly successful movie Titanic. When accepting his Oscar he famously proclaimed, “I am the king of the world”. I believe that Mr.Cameron overstated his role on this planet a bit. There is a ruler of this world. That ruler will be eternally downsized when the King of this world returns. The biggest story of our lifetime will not be an exclusive to morning TV. That story involves a tomb but it was empty. Nothing has changed my mind about that story.

Online banking has changed one tradition in the Burchett household. The monthly avoiding of Dad on bill paying day. The boys learned either by oral tradition or by hard lesson that when Dad was hunkered over the checkbook with a scowl on his face it was best to steer a wide path. Now with just a few computer clicks when bills come in I can spread the angst over the entire month. And somehow it seemed far more painful to write a check than to merely fill in numbers and hit send. I remember one constant source of irritation was the paying of the cell phone bills. Sons who rarely spoke could somehow fill up 2000 minutes and compose hundreds of text messages. Here is a scintillating example of the Algonquin Round Table level of interchange in these text messages. 

IB
HRU
JP
XLNT
POS…. GTR
TTFN

For the rest of us, this is an interpretation of the above cryptic code.

I’m back.
How are you?
Just playing.
Excellent.
Parent over shoulder….got to run.
Ta ta for now.

I paid hard earned American dollars for dialogue like this. So it was with considerable empathy that I read a story at MSNBC about a Malaysian man who put my little bill paying woes to shame. Yahaya Wahab said he nearly fainted when he received a phone bill for $218 Trillion US dollars and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution. It seems like the phone company could have set up a reasonable payment plan. How about paying, oh, let’s see, one billion a month for a few hundred years. That might be doable. But no…the phone company gives you 10 days to pay more than the Gross National Product of Malaysia (about $74 billion in 2000). It just doesn’t seem fair.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father’s phone line in January after he died and settled the 84-ringgit (about $23 US) bill, according to the New Straits Times. But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported. It wasn’t clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya’s father’s phone line was used illegally after his death.

But the ridiculous extent of the debt presented to Wahab brought to mind another debt that was just as hopeless. A debt that was presented to me that I could not pay. It might as well have been $218 trillions with a 10 day deadline. It was trying to reconcile my sin debt with a Holy God. There is a little internet story circulating around that illustrates the problem.

A man dies and goes to Heaven. Of course, St. Peter meets him at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says, “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in.”

“Okay,” the man says, “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart.”

“That’s wonderful,” says St. Peter, “that’s worth three points!”

“Three points?” he says, slightly concerned. “Well, I attended church all my life and supported its ministry with my tithe and service.”

“Terrific!” says St. Peter. “That’s certainly worth a point.”

“One point!?!” he moans, now really getting worried. “I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans.”

“Fantastic, that’s good for two more points,” he says.

“Two points!” the man cries. “At this rate the only way I get into Heaven is by the grace of God!”

St. Peter nods and says, “You finally get it! That is 100 points! Come on in my son!”

Jesus was willing to pay a sin debt for me and you on the cross at Calvary. I was just as overwhelmed as that poor guy in Malaysia or the man frantically trying to tally up points for good deeds. I had my good works tally up to about 3 points so I am grateful for that gift of total grace. We are generally a bit suspicious of an unmerited gift. But that is what led Jesus to the cross.  John 3:16 has become devalued by people with crazy hair holding up signs at sporting events. That is sad. Because that verse is not a joke. It is the most amazing communication you could imagine from a Holy God to me…and you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

If you want to know more about how to cancel that sin debt please click here.