Lukewarm

Years ago, I had a friend from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I visited my friend's family there four or five times.  Since the family was Finnish, they kept a traditional Finnish sauna on their property in the woods, next to the river.  The general idea is to sit in the sauna until you're good and sweaty, then you lather up with soap and shampoo, and then you go jump in the river.

I could do the first two things, but I had a real problem with the third.  I hear it's invigorating.  I hear it can even be therapeutic.  But I like staying in the sauna.  When it comes to water, I don't like it hot and I don't like it cold.  I guess you could say I'm a "lukewarm" kind of guy.

It's interesting, because in Revelation 3:16, Jesus had some harsh words for people who were lukewarm:

"So, because you are lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold -- I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

These words were directed towards the church at Laodicea, and we need to understand a couple of things about Laodicea, the city, in order to fully grasp this scripture.

Laodicea was built in an area that had a lot of seismic activity and, therefore, the city experienced a lot of earthquakes.  Where there is seismic activity, there are often "vents" which allow boiling hot water to come up to the surface, creating "hot springs."

In the nearby city of Hierapolis, these hot springs were famous.  People came from all around to enjoy the therapeutic qualities of the water.  Some people even believed the water had healing, medicinal properties, and they drank it.

There was another city near Laodicea called Colosse.  Just as Hierapolis was known for its hot springs, Colosse was known for its cold waters.  People would also travel from all over to dip in the refreshing waters of Colosse.

Now, once upon a time, the people of Laodicea decided they didn't want to travel the six miles to Hierapolis to soak in the hot springs -- they wanted to pipe the hot water to Laodicea.  And that's what they did.

It was considered one of the largest construction projects of its time.  The people laid six miles of pipe to channel the hot water from Hierapolis to Laodicea.  And it worked.  Sort of.

The pipes delivered the water, but by the time it got to Laodicea, it was not only lukewarm, but it had a sickening, nauseating taste.  It was so putrid, no one wanted to drink it.  As you can imagine, Jesus' caution to the church at Laodicea carried a strong punch.  I think he was basically telling them:

"Because you have become so dead, so dull, so sickening, so nauseating -- because no spiritually refreshing waters flow from you and you have no healing properties left -- I will spit you out of my mouth!"

I think the church at Laodicea was stuck in the middle -- both geographically and spiritually -- like something that has lost both its flavor and its heat along the way.  

You see, with God, there is no middle ground.  As representatives of Christ, we need to be refreshing (like the cold water) and healing (like the hot water).

Let's spend some time this week seeking and praying about staying both hot and cold, and let's allow the Holy Spirit to work on our "lukewarm" areas.

Be blessed -

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The Schematic of Co-Existing

Romans 12:2 (NIV)
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

In Romans 12, the apostle Paul says we are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  The Greek word in Romans 12:2, translated in English as conformed, is the word from which we get the word schematic.

A schematic is an electrical diagram that, if followed, produces a desired outcome every time.  There is a schematic for wiring a radio, a schematic for wiring a telephone, and a schematic for wiring a doorbell.  If the schematic for each of these is followed accurately, the radio will play music, the telephone will ring, and the doorbell will ding, usually while we're in the shower.

I think Paul is telling us not to be forced into the schematic of the world.  In other words, as believers, we shouldn't be squeezed into the wiring diagram of society.

Instead, we should be transformed.

Interestingly enough, the Greek word for transformed is where we get the word metamorphosis (undergoing a complete change in form and appearance).  The Greek word also means to co-exist.  We are to be in this world, but not of it.

Look at Daniel in the Old Testament.  Daniel was brought to a foreign land and was forced to live in an ungodly society, with an ungodly religious system and an ungodly government.  He was educated in ungodly institutions to learn ungodly ways.  He even had to work at an ungodly job.

But Daniel never became ungodly.  He learned to co-exist.

We drive on the same roads, work at the same jobs, shop at the same stores, and go to the same schools as those who have not chosen God, but it doesn't mean we have to become like the society in which we live.

We can co-exist.

Today, my prayer for you is that your wires don't get crossed.

Be transformed!

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Career Counseling 101

In 1988, I enrolled at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, to pursue a masters degree in English.  After one year, I found myself questioning whether English Literature, Shakespeare, and creative writing were my cup of tea.  I just wasn't too excited about a career in that particular field.

During that year, I noticed a group of students who were always together and always having a good time at pretty much every event held on campus -- comedy clubs, karaoke nights, concerts, bingo, movie nights -- you name it, they were there.

One day, I couldn't stand it any longer.  I decided I had to find out who they were, and more importantly, why they were always together and having a good time.  I approached them at a concert on campus and asked them, "Who are you? And why are you always together?  And why are you always having a good time?"  Part of me was worried that they belonged to some crazy cult.

To make a long story short, they told me they belonged to the Student Personnel Association, which was a student organization for graduate students in the Counselor Education/Student Personnel Administration program.

I had never heard of such a thing.  These students were actually getting degrees that would allow them to work with college students as a career.  I couldn't believe it.  It sounded too good to be true.  My goal in life was to stay on a college campus as long as possible, so this sounded like the career for me.  I could stay on a college campus for the rest of my life and get paid for it!

I immediately applied to the program, was accepted, and earned my masters degree in Student Personnel Administration.  Since 1992, I have worked with college students in various departments on three college campuses in International Student Affairs, Student Activities, Greek Life, Diversity Programs, Leadership, Drug & Alcohol Education, Student Organizations, and Orientation.  I have been blessed to have the opportunity to impact young lives, and it's been an amazing ride.

But here's the kicker:  My parents still have no idea what "Student Personnel Administration" means.  My dad thinks I'm a licensed counselor, and my mom simply believes I plan picnics all day.  After 20 years in the business, I still find it difficult to explain to them what I do.

As Christians, do we often find ourselves in similar circumstances?

The world might have a few preconceived ideas about what it means to be a Christian.  Are we showing them the fullness of a life centered on Christ?

Some people might see Christians out and about and wonder why we are always together and having a good time.  Are we letting them know about our hope?  Are we bringing them into our "organization"?

The world might view our decision to follow Jesus as "too good to be true."  Are we taking the time to show them that it is good and it is true?

I challenge you to get out of your comfort zone this week and explain the joy of your hope to someone who may be wondering.  Who knows?  You just might be changing someone's "career path" for the better.

Mucho Blessings -

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Dear World, I Think We Should Break Up.

I was reading the book of Judges the other day, and I started to notice a pattern concerning the Israelites.  It seems to go like this:

1)  Be blessed by God.
2)  Get comfortable.
3)  Commit a really bad sin, like idolatry.
4)  Get punished by God.
5)  Cry out for mercy.
6)  Get redeemed by God.

And the cycle begins again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Those crazy Israelites just don't get it, do they?  I'm so glad we're not like them (wink, wink).

It's kind of like a dating relationship, isn't it?

1)  A guy meets a really great girl and she totally rocks his world.
2)  The guy gets a little too comfortable and starts taking her for granted.  Soon, the love letters and  occasional flowers become fewer and farther between.
3)  He does something really stupid that harms the relationship.
4)  She punishes him in some way.
5)  He begs her to come back.
6)  She does, and all is well.  For a while, anyway.

In Judges, God "commissioned" the tribe of Judah to go into Canaan and drive the Canaanites out.  And they did.  Sort of.

The tribes of Benjamin, Manassah, Nephtali, Asher and others "sort of" drove them out, too.

The problem was, the tribes of Israel saw a perfect opportunity to enslave the Canaanites and make them do all the hard work -- and they began to get comfortable.  They got so comfortable, they even began to accept the pagan practices of the Canaanites, and they even began to intermarry.

God sent an angel to warn the Israelites, and in a nutshell, the warning went something like this:

"Stop doing that, or you'll regret it."  (My paraphrase.)

They didn't stop, and they later regretted it.

If we want to learn the lesson that the Israelites failed to grasp, I think we need to do three things:

#1:  Stop flirting with the world.  She's a lousy girlfriend/boyfriend.  You'll thank me later.  You can even tell the world something really cheesy, like, "It's not me.  It's you."

You can't have a passionate relationship with both the Lord and the world.  Our hearts are too narrow.  We'll either love one and hate the other, or hate one and love the other.

And do it quickly.  The world won't like the breakup one bit.  (But God will.)

#2:  Change your phone number.  Actually, my advice is to change your focus, but you get the idea.

I had a bad blind date in college -- it just didn't work out.  When I told her I didn't want to go out again -- ever -- she didn't take the news so well.  She slashed my tires, and even tried to run me over in her car.  I eventually had to change my phone number just to stop the awful phone calls.

When the world thinks it has your number, change it.  Put your focus on God and stop paying attention to those worldly things that would distract you.  I don't know what those things are, but you do.  Movies?  TV?  Books?  The internet?  Wrong set of friends?

Put your focus on something better.

#3:  Get real.  The Israelites had a tough go of it because they didn't obey God.  But we can learn from their mistakes and take obedience seriously.  I think that if an angel of the Lord showed up and told me to stop doing something, I would stop.  Even if it was something crazy, like drinking Coca-Cola.  Or watching professional wrestling.  I think I would stop cold turkey.

But the fact is, we have God's Word, and it's full of good stuff to keep us on track.  His Word is what we need to take seriously.

I wish you well on your break-up.

And if the world says something cheesy like, "I hope we can still be friends," you know what to do.


Blessings -

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Little Bunny Foo Foo

It was Easter 1979.  The kids down the road were raising rabbits to sell, and they talked me into buying one for my little sister, Julie.

In the days immediately following Easter, she would excitedly rush home from elementary school to play with the baby bunny.  The way she treated that animal would have you believe that all she ever wanted in the whole world was a baby bunny.

There were daily bunny tea parties, bunny dress-up galas, bunny parades, and hare balls (rimshot).

Two weeks later, the rabbit became ill.  Julie didn't seem to notice, but it became progressively worse.  The bunny was dying.  My dad asked me to take care of the bunny the next day, before Julie came home from school.  

Now, my interpretation of "take care of the bunny" differed a little from Dad's, who apparently once belonged to the Mafia.  When I took the little ball of fur outside behind the barn, I just couldn't bring myself to "take care of the bunny."  Instead, I put it in a large wooden box behind the saddle house, promising myself I would return to bury it after it died.

But I forgot.

I did, however, tell Julie that the baby bunny missed its mommy, and the mommy bunny came to pick it up while she was at school. Although she was understandably upset, she bought the story.

Problem solved.  (Except for that part about remembering to bury the bunny.)

Three months later, Julie invited me outside for a little game of hide-and-seek.  I began to count to twenty, while she ran off to hide behind... the saddle house.

Before I reached "twenty," I heard the high-pitched scream.

I have seen third-world cultures on the Discovery Channel in which the natives adhere to the practice of wailing when someone dies.  I have seen hundreds of scary movies with shrieking girls, screaming zombies and screeching monsters.  I even had my phone ring in my ear one time (with the volume on high) when I thought I pressed the "answer" button.

But nothing compared to the sound I heard that day.

I took off at full speed toward the saddle house.  Julie came running at full speed from behind the saddle house.  The first thought that came to my mind was, "Gee, I didn't know first-graders could run so fast."  She blew right past me, making her way to the house and the comfort of Mom.  And Dad.

My life flashed before my eyes.  It was Golden Rule Number One in our home that when Dad told you to do something, you did it.  No excuses.  Golden Rule Number Two was that you just didn't upset his baby girl.

I checked the wooden box behind the saddle house.  Yup.  Dead bunny bones.  Julie had found them and put two-and-two together.

Since Easter 1979, I have referred to this day as The Day Julie Learned About Death.

My father was not pleased with me, but I think he knew the sorrow (and terror) I caused my little sister was punishment enough.

On the upside, though, I think the experience taught me some valuable lessons that I've tried to apply to my life:

• Do what you say you're going to do.  Proverbs 11:3 says, “The integrity of the honest keeps them on track....”  Following through, I think, is one of the earmarks of integrity.  If you think you gotten off track somewhere along the line, check your integrity.
• Think through the repercussions of your actions.  Proverbs 14:15 says, “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.”  Most people I know who’ve gotten into hot water generally didn’t think things through before they acted.  Most of us would do well to look twice before we leap.
• Never dress up a bunny in cute little costumes.  It’s probably in the Bible somewhere -- I just can’t find it.

Blessings -

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The Purple Ink Buzz

I recently led a seminar in Mentoring in which the discussion eventually got around to church involvement.  It seems like we're all always looking for the latest gadget, newest idea, or magic pill to get our members involved and engaged in church activities.

I mentioned to the group that I could still remember the days of mimeograph.  (For those of you under the age of 30, look it up.)  Mimeograph was a way of producing duplicates or copies of documents.  It used purple ink.  It was messy.  And a deep breath of the still-wet ink would give a third grader the greatest buzz known to man (or at least third graders.)

Mimeograph was how we communicated at the time.  We used it for making copies of tests in school, copies of church newsletters, and copies of flyers announcing meetings, dinners and special events.  (There's a scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High with the ink-sniffing thing.  If you've never seen the movie, stop what you're doing right now, and go watch it.  We'll wait for you...)

Back already?  Wipe that popcorn off your shirt.

Anyway, mimeograph was eventually replaced by the copy machine, once it was made affordable to the general public.  Now we had a faster, more efficient, less messy way of communicating with the rest of the world regarding our meetings, dinners and special events.

And guess what happened next?  We discovered that if you used colored paper, even more people would pay attention to your flyers.  

"Pure genius!"

"It's so crazy, it just might work!"

And work, it did.  For a while, anyway.

Next came butcher paper and the huge paintbrush markers.  Then we all ran out and bought poster machines and button makers.  Soon after, along came email.  Blinking LED message boards.  Vinyl banners.  T-shirts that said, "Ask me about my church!"  MySpace.  FaceBook.  Blogs.  V-blogs.  Text messages.

And the list goes on.

And we still wonder why there are empty seats at our services and events.

You see, I think we've come full circle in this whole how-can-I-get-your-attention thing.  The best way I know to put hineys in seats is by sending myself on a mission.

The mission?  Meet people.  Shake hands.  Personally invite them.

We've come full circle and landed right back at relationships.

There’s an old leadership formula that says:  Leadership = Relationship + Influence.  Personally, I think Relationship = Influence.  If you want to influence someone, you’d better have a relationship with them.  But somewhere along the way, we were distracted by colored paper, vinyl banners and blinking lights.

Skip's Challenge of the Week:

Take the time to forge relationships and invest in other people, especially when it comes to helping others have a relationship with Christ.  It’s called discipling.

It'll pay off in the long run.

And what do you have to lose?

Only a purple ink buzz.

Blessings -

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A Camping We Will Go...

Mention church camp to me now (as an adult,) and it has an entirely different meaning than when I was a kid.  Back then, my parents would ship me off to a Baptist camp in Oklahoma, and we weren’t even Baptists.

I remember the long, hot summer hours we spent each night in the “tabernacle” as a visiting evangelist called for “every head bowed and every eye closed” as we sang 27 verses of Just As I Am.  One night, my buddies and I drew straws and the loser had to go forward, just so we could get out of there.  I lost.

I still feel a twinge of guilt when I think about that night, and the fact that my coming forward during the altar call wasn’t quite sincere.  I think I even feel more guilt when I think about all the times we held hands in a prayer circle at camp.  Someone would pray, and when they had said about all they could say, they would squeeze the hand of the next person, then that person would pray.  Every time they squeezed my hand, I would say, “Pass.”

Oh well.  I guess we all have regrets.

One thing I will never regret, however, is taking the kids to camp as an adult.  I L-O-V-E- it.  And I wouldn’t miss it for all the tea in... wherever they keep tea.  To be honest, I don’t even really think about the kids.  I think about me.  Me, me, me.  And all the fun I’m going to have with the other pastors and youth pastors.

But don’t tell my youth group.  They think I’m sacrificing just for them.  It’ll be our little secret.

Please keep our youth (and me) in your prayers.  We head to camp in Kansas City July 8 - 13.

While you’re at it, specifically pray for no “altar call fake-outs” and no “passing.”

Mucho blessings -

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