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Dog friend Hannah loves the morning walk.

When she sees me grab the walking shoes she begins to vibrate with excitement. If T.Boone Pickens wants to find an untapped energy source we should harness Labrador tails. Got to think Hannah could power a small apartment building when she gets excited and that tail starts going. I love the morning walk as well. It is a time to meditate, pray, listen to messages and good music and enjoy God’s company.

The walk is pretty much the same each day for Hannah. She checks for new messages left by other dog friends on her social network. Sometimes she leaves a reply. She gets excited when she sees another person or dog or, to be honest, anything breathing. Hannah loves life. But I noticed something about my canine friend today that caused me to reflect on my own faith journey.

Hannah is happy to just be get out and go walking. The fact that she is on a leash does not keep her from heading out the door in anticipation and despite that restriction she still finds lot of stimulation along the way. Today the park we regularly visit was empty. On the backside of the park there is a wooded area and I felt comfortable letting Hannah off the leash. She became energized by her new freedom. She ran ahead of me and turned and ran back. She spotted a squirrel several yards away and she instinctively froze. Her body tensed in anticipation, she crouched down and took a couple of slow, deliberate stalking steps toward the critter. Then she bolted at the squirrel at full throttle with ears flying in the wind. The squirrel darted up the tree and Hannah stopped, looked up the tree and turned with a look of complete satisfaction as she trotted back toward me. She had a dog smile from ear to ear. It occurred to me that Hannah is fully alive when she is off the leash. Her freedom gave her such joy and energy. The squirrels did not care so much for Hannah’s release to her canine calling. When we reached the front part of the park I called her and re-attached the leash. Her body language was still happy but there was not quite as much spring in her step.

For some reason Hannah’s foray into freedom made me think about my journey with Jesus. I have spent too many years on the leash of legalism and performance based acceptance. When I take off that collar of bondage and put on the no leash allowed collar of grace I am free to be fully alive in Christ. There is a bounce in my step and spirit. In the freedom of grace I am realizing and believing who God says I am. Unleashed in grace I am understanding and trusting who God says He is. I could live on the leash and get by. I know that to be true because I have done it. Most of you wouldn’t really notice my constraints. I would still have fun and enjoy the journey just as Hannah enjoys the restricted part of her walk. But why should I accept partial freedom when God is offering complete freedom in His amazing grace? Take off whatever leash is holding you back today and walk (or run with ears flying) in grace. You were created to be in relationship with God. Don’t settle for walking with Him on some self-imposed leash. God’s grace can unhook the leash and allow you to run in freedom and worship. God will love watching you joyfully run in freedom.

I love thoughtful questions and graceful challenges. Reader Barbara asked a really good question in response to my recent article about the marketing campaign by Washington DC atheists. Here is her note to me.

Help me out here, Dave.

I, too, believe we shouldn’t spew hate and should “proceed cautiously and with grace” but am not always sure what that looks like in being Christian living in a secular world.. e.g. As I remember, last year, the city of Ft. Lauderdale was reportedly going to deny Christians the right to place Christmas trees or mangers in a city park but said it was ok to install other religious symbols like a Jewish menorah. Because of a public (Christian) outcry, the city fathers backed down. Should the Christians not have spoken up? Should there not have been a public outcry? If that was all true, and we know there are similar happenings all over the country, how do we proceed cautiously and with grace? I am not arguing with you – I believe we should pick our battles carefully – but I truly don’t always know how or when to ‘turn the other cheek”: or how or when to “turn the tables of the moneychangers”. It would be wonderful if I always felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit – and sometimes I do – but shouldn’t common sense and fair play cause us to seek to have a voice even if we have not felt His nudging?

Can I tell you a little secret? Barbara’s approach gets a much better response than notes I get that start with little nuggets of encouragement like this.

“I can’t believe you call yourself a Christian…”

That always makes me want to read on and respond with joy. But notes like the one from Barbara are indeed a joy. Her question is important so let me give you my take on the cultural “turn the other cheek” issue.

Every situation is different so there is no one rule fits all. But I do think that most of these cultural issues fall into one of two categories. Legitimate threats to our religious freedoms or annoying and/or amusing actions by those who disagree with our views. I placed the Christmas advertising campaign by the atheist group into the amusing category. Another question I ask myself is this one.

Would it further the agenda of (whatever group) if Christians generated free publicity with an angry, coordinated response?

I would wager the DC atheist group fully expects to get ten times their advertising investment in breathless news stories about anguished responses from Christian groups. This ad campaign is not a religious rights issue. It is simply an ad buy. They can spend their money on busboards all day long and so can Christian groups. I could buy busboards that debate their message if I chose. That is why I think this is a battle not worth fighting. I will look at their signs, smile and wish them a hearty “Merry Christmas”! 

The particular issue you brought up in your note is, in fact, a religious rights question. One faith was being favored over another and absolutely the Christians needed to gracefully yet clearly express that fact to the city government. And remember that Jesus response when He “turned the tables” was not in the public square. That was going on in the temple and the moneychangers were defiling God’s house. 

My bottom line is to prayerfully evaluate each situation. Run my little “bad Christian” diagnostic and decide how to respond. Hope that helps out a bit Barbara. Merry Christmas! And be good for the gospels sake! And did I wish you a Merry Christmas?

 

In our last humble rambling we looked at a hard hitting bus advertising campaign in the United Kingdom that boldly proclaimed there “probably” is no God. The humanists in the good ole US of A are ratcheting up the faith advertising campaigns with a new series of ads in Washington D.C. This story ran on Foxnews.com (just lost some readers right there) recently.

Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December.

The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday. In lifting lyrics from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

“We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you,” said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. “Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion.”

I feel your pain. In the middle of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Clause, Frosty The Snowman, The Grinch, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer and scores of politically correct holiday sales it is certainly hard to find a secular refuge. Nonetheless, I do not deny your absolute right to bring together like minded folks. One thing you can count on is somewhere in the article there will be the proclamation that people who believe in God are stupid.

Edwords said the purpose isn’t to argue that God doesn’t exist or change minds about a deity, although “we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people’s minds.”

Implication? If you have faith you are not thinking rationally and critically. A look at the cultural landscape in the past couple of years reveals that tons of “seeds” have been planted to discount the idea of God. Several best-selling books have declared not only that there is no God but implied that religion is the source of many or even most of the world’s problems. Yet a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll from earlier this year found 92 percent of Americans believe in God. That must drive the rational eight percent absolutely crazy. 

I am sure that many Christians will be offended and make a ruckus about the campaign. I would suggest that you proceed cautiously and with grace. Angry Christians only confirm the perception of people of faith. I have long felt that billboards and road signs make little difference in people’s faith decisions. In my neighborhood a local restaurant has this message on the marquee.

Jesus
Saves

Chicken Special
$6.99

I am sure their intentions are good but I don’t think that many people are being influenced toward faith by this sign. I can report the chicken special was excellent so that does give them some credibility. Nonetheless, I think most people’s decisions on such matters go a little deeper than a restaurant marquee or bus ad. So protesting this campaign is a battle not worth fighting in my view. I would rather mature in the grace of Christ Jesus and see if that will influence more people than even the chicken special sign. 

It will not help to attack those who deny Jesus and God. I cannot persuade the folks behind this campaign that I am right. I would like to tell them that I don’t hate them for their views. I don’t fear their questions. If I am wrong about God then this campaign is harmless and perhaps helpful. If I am right about God then a few busboards can not damage or thwart His plan for mankind. God does not need me to defend Him from attack. If I believe in the Creator of the universe I suspect He is quite capable of dealing with negative advertising. What I believe God does expect and desire from me is that I reflect His love. I am sorry for those who have had a bad experience with people of faith. That experience does not negate the potential truth of the message. 

I have called myself a Christian for well over 30 years. I have wrestled with doubt as I defined my faith. I did not come from Christian “indoctrination” so I came to my own conclusions. I have read the views of all sides. I have absorbed the arguments of the best thinkers on every side.  I have decided that Jesus is the Son of God. That is my decision. His presence and reality in my life have only been amplified in our recent trials. I guess I don’t have the energy to spend on indignation over this ad campaign. There is so much more to be accomplished by reflecting the love and grace of Jesus. That is the way we will make a difference to a suspicious and skeptical world.

So I extend good cheer to my humanist friends during this season. I hope you will find enough “good for goodness sake” to allow me to say Merry Christmas. I will extend Christian grace to allow you to wish me a happy “good” season and receive that with a smile. I just hope you won’t sneeze during our greetings because then I really wouldn’t know what to say.

A recent advertising campaign in the United Kingdom caught my attention. A comedy writer in London noticed that the local buses often carried messages for faith in God.

Ariane Sherine came up with the idea after seeing a series of Christian posters on London buses. She said she visited the Web site promoted on one ad and found it told nonbelievers they would spend eternity in torment in hell.

I wrote about that very topic in my most recent post. I was first exposed to a faith that created fear of damnation instead of grace and relationship. Ms.Sherine continues:

“I thought it would be a really positive thing to counter that by putting forward a much happier and more upbeat advert, saying ‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to hell,’” said Sherine, 28. “Atheists believe this is the only life we have, and we should enjoy it.”

First of all, with all due respect to Ms Sherine’s intellect I cannot fully trust her assurance that I will not go to hell. That seems to be slightly above her pay grade as a comedian to decide eternal destinies. As for enjoying life I really wish that Ariane could spend some time here in scenic Garland. I can’t imagine that my days could include any more humor, laughs, fun and absolute delight. How sad that so many have that perception about Christians. Yet I can understand how it happens.

At any rate, the bus ads will have this “much happier and more upbeat advert”.

“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” 

Well, I feel better. However, for the guy who always picks the wrong line at the supermarket, the wrong lane on the freeway and the wrong team for a friendly wager it is a bit unsettling to see even the atheists using the “probably” word. That actually makes me worry more. Probably?

Richard Dawkins (the mean spirited atheist and not the former game show host) had his usually positive take on people of faith.

“This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion.”

Mr.Dawkins cracks me up. He must think all Christians are intellectually comparable to Homer Simpson.

I have invested much of my life and a considerable amount of my resources into my faith but I never really thought much about it? That makes a lot of sense. Disagree with my conclusions but to say that thinking is anathema to my faith? Sighhhhh….

I would encourage my fellow sojourners of faith to not get our undergarments askew over this new advertising effort. This debate has been going on since the garden or, depending on your view, since our emergence from primordial ooze. In spite of best selling books and open disdain of religion it continues to flourish.

At times I believe the strongest apologetic for Christianity is that God keeps calling people to Himself in spite of Christians. Tomorrow we will look at the atheist campaign that is coming to America. In the meantime I am going to enjoy my life. I wasn’t worrying in the first place. I guess my ignorance is bliss. (Prediction: some website will take that line out of context. Book it.)

Yesterday I had the privilege of spending the day with the guys behind the curtain at Leadership Catalyst. LCI is the mothership for the TrueFaced resources that I yammer so much about. The cool thing was when you pull back the curtain on these “wizards” there is no hiddenness or deception. It was a day of energizing and honest conversation that flowed without judgment, posturing and pride. What a joy! Do you think there has been a meeting with those dynamics in Washington in the past 50 years or so?

I pondered on the dynamic in that room as I jetted back to scenic Garland today. If only more Christians would trust these truths of identity, protective love and grace what difference would it make?

When I was a kid the preachers used to bellow about revival. We need REVIVAL! Lord, give us revival! They would have week long revival meetings badgering us to sell out. We got yelled at about our sin. We heard clearly a message of condemnation and fear. We heard that we had better shape up or else! We heard stories about backslidden Christians burning in hell because they wouldn’t repent. We heard that we had better get serious about Jesus.  And we believed we would. That fear based compliance lasted for a day or two or maybe a couple of months if we really got convicted.

Then I wondered what difference a revival centered on the grace of God might make in the church and ultimately the culture? What if a revival was based not on avoidance of damnation but on being reconciled to have an actual relationship with God? What if Christians really understood that they are new creatures when they put their trust by faith in Jesus? What if Christians really got that there is no condemnation for them because of the Cross? What if Christians really understood that they are no longer have to prove anything and they could instead trust God with their maturing into who He created them to be? What if Christians saw that Jesus stood beside them ready to resolve their sin instead of looking with disappointment from afar? What if Christians learned to trust God and others with who they really are and dropped the dadgum masks? (My grandfather’s favorite Christian cuss word). What if Christians had the courage to put their full weight on these truths of identity and grace and allowed God to love them and others through them? These are the truths I have learned, refined and had a chance to discuss with the guys at TrueFaced.

Here is what one tired and discouraged Christian learned when he began to understand the message of grace. It is changing me. And I have had the best year with Jesus of my nearly forty years on the journey. I have had some really good spiritual seasons along the way but I have never had the consistency of joy and peace that I have experienced in this past year. I have never felt such spiritual freedom until I leaned into grace that allows me love God, receive love from Him and allow that to flow to others.

What if Christians really trusted who God says He is? Could we change our walk with Jesus? Could we change our family? Our church? Our culture? Dare we believe this? To paraphrase and put a much better spin (in my opinion) on the lyrics of John Lennon.

You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one.

Perhaps I am a dreamer. In Hebrews you find a familiar passage that lays out a simple starting point.

It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. (Hebrews 11, The Message)

I have seen the power of my God. I believe in His faithfulness and love for me. I believe he cares and does respond when I seek Him. I can start the revival in my heart today. You can do the same.

This last election has shown that associations can be held against you. Last week John Lynch of the TrueFaced group wrote a blog about your humble rambler and confessed that I am a guy in his grace neighborhood. Since I am not above liking others saying nice things about me I give my space to John today. And check out his blog at TrueFaced.com. Enjoy John’s blog about the message of grace.

Several weeks ago I was on facebook, instant messaging with a really funny and great guy named Dave Burchett.  He’s a writer, blogger and television producer for the Texas Rangers baseball games. Anyway, in the middle of our conversation he wrote these words:

“Hey John, my 1-year Grace Anniversary was this week.”

I stopped typing, took my hands off the keyboard and just smiled. My friend gets it. An incredibly gifted communicator and writer, Dave cannot stop talking and writing about grace these days. It flows out of every blog he writes. Check out his website, Confessions of a Bad Christian. You’ll love it.

About a year ago, he and his wife were invited, through a friend, to an event we put on in Carlsbad, California. He came for the beach, the hotel and the food. He left with his entire world rocked. The Grace of God apprehended Dave. He knew the saving grace of God before that day. But grace, as a way to live every day, grace that would cause Him to trust God’s ability to woo his new nature rather than attempting to fix behaviors and appearance through his silly efforts, grace that would free vulnerability, trust, joy, playfulness and intimacy with Christ and others, grace that would free him from managing his sin by taking it out of hiddenness into the light where it would lose it’s power, grace that would teach Dave that God’s arm was around him, and that God was absolutely crazy about him on his worst day – this was all radically, astoundingly and wonderfully new. It began to repaint his entire landscape.

The nature of who and how grace apprehends is often perplexing to me. Others at the same conference, sitting at a table right next to the Burchetts might have said, “That was a good time. Enjoyed the teaching, some interesting insights. Those guys have some good takes. That Lynch guy was strange, but funny. Great desserts!” And they would stuff whatever concepts they learned into the duffle bag of a thousand other contradicting sermons and epistemologies. And not much would change.

God does not have twenty voices. He has one. And at the core of His voice, throughout all His different dealings with man, are these indisputable truths:

“Therefore now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

“I have been crucified with Christ and it no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.”

“I want to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.”

“We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

I remember exactly where I was – back in 1987, in my office, preparing a sermon in longhand, on Ephesians chapter 1. I could no longer preach messages of “buck-up and try harder, like me.” And I could no longer bluff that I was living the life I was trying to convince others of. And God, through an environment of grace that had been enduring my arrogant, messages of religious self-effort, finally broke through. I said something like this to my audience that Sunday morning:

“Hey, I’m discovering I haven’t been preaching the truth to you. I was exegeting the text the best I could. It’s just that my methodology was bankrupt. I’ve been telling you in a hundred ways, that if you’ll just try harder, care more, be better, somehow you’ll get closer to God and He won’t be so let down by you. Something you can do to make things happen. It’s a lie. You can’t do it. It won’t work. It’ll let you down…If it’s any consolation, until this week I didn’t know it was a lie. So, if you’ll endure my learning curve, Ephesians has been convincing my heart of an entirely different way of living that God has for us. From today forth I will be preaching the grace of God and how to live out of who He says I am. I don’t know what I’m doing, but maybe we can learn this together. What do you say?”

That was over twenty years ago, and the same batch of rabble allowed me to stay and take a hack at learning these truths. Go figure.

Every now and then someone believes such verses and doesn’t try to balance them with other verses that seem to say the opposite. Instead they look at all confusing verses through the grid of the plain and clear revealed love, grace, delight and sovereign power of God for us. And they find themselves risking to stand against all the methodology, technique and impressive sounding hype of disciplined self-effort. Instead they trust Christ to live and release His power through them. It is scary. It feels like you’re giving up the store. But soon they put their full weight upon God’s ability to mature them. These are the ones who get to live free, free the captives, restore families, and experience the tender intimacy of a God who is not disgusted. They get to turn the world upside down. They have language for those who have waited for such hope all their lives. Oh, and they have a really great life – Messy, fragile, but unrehearsed, alive, authentic and full of playful joy.

Oh, and sometimes like my friend Dave, they can remember the day God apprehended them with grace to live almost as well as the day His grace first apprehended their souls to belief.

Billy Graham celebrated his 90th birthday on Friday, November 7^th. Over these nine decades he has preached, by some estimates, to over 200 million people. Only God knows how many thousands of people trusted Jesus because of his preaching. Our family did not attend church on any sort of regular basis. But we watched Billy’s “crusades” on our black and white Sylvania television every time he was on. I was influenced by Graham’s passion and by his simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe Billy Graham’s messages were planted seeds that God would later harvest in my life.

I still remember the familiar cadence and distinctive accent of Billy Graham as he pleaded with sinners to come forward to the strains of “Just As I Am”.

“I’m going to ask hundreds of you to come forward. If you’re with a group, don’t worry. They’ll wait…”

For some reason I loved that line. I know people personally who became followers of Jesus because of Billy Graham’s ministry. His life is a good example that no matter how much you dedicate your life to Christ there will be those who condemn you. Type in Mr.Graham’s name and heresy and you will get over 100,000 responses. You will find men and women who have had little or no impact for Christ condemning Mr.Graham for statements he has made or positions he has supported. Even if a concerned brother or sister disagrees with Billy Graham’s theology can we discount what Paul said to similar critics in his day?

It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! (Philippians 1, The Message)

God has used Billy Graham in amazing ways and I celebrate his birthday. I also was touched by his comments as he looks toward heaven.

“I’ve discovered that just because we’ll inevitably grow weaker physically as we get older, it doesn’t mean we must grow weaker spiritually,” Graham, still the evangelist, said in response to questions e-mailed by the Charlotte Observer. “Our eyes ought to be on eternity and heaven – on the things that really matter.”

The Charlotte Observer story continued.

The author of many books, Graham is working – though slowly – on a final one, about aging. It’s a subject that has become real to him and one he’d like to see churches better prepare their members for. As a Christian, I know how to die, Graham has told family and friends, but nobody ever taught me how to grow old. The tentative title of his last book: “Nearing Home.”

Brother-in-law and evangelist Leighton Ford of Charlotte brought by Dennis Hollinger, president of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, co-founded by Graham.What would you like the teachers and students at the school to emphasize? Hollinger asked. Graham shot back without his normal hesitation: “Christ and the Gospel.”

Graham took it hard when wife Ruth died at 87 in June 2007. He doesn’t travel much anymore, but when he does, it’s usually to Charlotte to attend board meetings of the association that bears his name. On a visit in April, Graham asked to be driven to the adjacent Billy Graham Library grounds.

It was still daylight when he climbed out of the car and lowered himself into a wheelchair. At the end of a cross-shaped walkway, he gazed on Ruth’s gravesite for the first time since her burial.

Three times, he asked his staffers to read the message she chose for her headstone: “End of Construction – Thank you for your patience.”

I love that. The sanctification process was a life long construction project for Ruth Graham. And what a humble final epithet for a woman of fame and influence. It goes back to an observation I have made over and over. Maturity in Christ always results in humility. All of us should pray for grace as we undergo our own maturing process and especially as we watch others under construction. My friends at TrueFaced call the process maturing into what is already true about me. I am righteous. That became my status when I put my faith and trust in Christ. My construction process is trusting that truth and building my life around that truth.

As Billy Graham celebrates becoming a nonagenarian I would like to thank him for his heart for the gospel. I remember Ruth Graham for her humility and faithful journey. 

My own construction project has been erratic. It feels like I have spent a lot time leaning on my shovel and not making much progress. But then I look back and see a lot of work has been done over the years. Someday soon the construction project will, praise God, be finished. Thank you, my dear tens of readers, for your patience.