One Pastor's Perspective

Several adults in a church … Followers of Christ, mind you … Decide they don’t like a certain adult because ____________ (fill in a reason).  So they ostracize.  They criticize.  They gossip.  They pick apart each flaw and every mistake.  Their pastor sees it, and it breaks his heart.  And nothing anyone tries to do will sway them or change their minds.

I saw an article today about a scientific study that said hanging around in a bar where everybody knows your name is a good thing.  Step beyond the fact that it is a bar and I am a Southern Baptist pastor, and see a HUGE truth here:  It IS healthy to be a part of a community that accepts people in spite of their faults, just as they are … THAT is what the article is getting at.  And, as a pastor, it disgusts me to think that a bar could be outdoing any church.  My church.  So, the true question for those of us who follow Christ is this:  DO WE ACCEPT OTHERS?  CAN WE SEE BEYOND THEIR FAULTS AND SINS AND SEE THE POTENTIAL GOD HAS FOR THEM??

I mean, after all, Jesus Christ embraced US JUST AS WE WERE.  WHY are we not capable of doing the same?  Why would we ever ostracize, criticize, and gossip?  Will we read these truths and realize when Jesus said to LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF that THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE MEANT?

No, I am not recommending that anyone go find a bar to be your community.  No, church, that is not at all what I am saying.  What I AM BEGGING YOU TO DO IS UNDERSTAND THAT WE NEED TO BE THE COMMUNITY THAT ACCEPTS OTHERS.  Period.

Church, we are in the middle of troubling times.  The way the world has changed in the past two years (let alone the past two decades) is troubling at best.  The things Jesus taught about in Luke 12 concerning character and the possibility of persecution for the Church could very well come true in our generation.  We need NOT fear (go read Luke 12 if you don’t believe me!!), but we do need to be ready!!

Growing up at Washington Avenue Baptist Church in Greenville, I had two great pastors:  Dan Greer and Eddie Greene.  Both of these men reminded us constantly to be ready, that there might be a day when we will not have God’s word readily available.  They both impressed the need for us to memorize it in case there is a day when we cannot have it.  I never could imagine that being a reality in America.  Today, I almost see it as a certainty in the next few years … We never know what will happen.  BE READY!!!

Now more than ever, this world needs us to BE the people of God we are called to be!!  I’m praying we all strive to that today.  Hope you will join me, not only in praying for this but also in stretching towards that goal!!

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us there is a season for EVERYTHING and a time for every purpose under Heaven.  Even a time to live and a time to die.  (Ever hear that song from the ’60s by the Byrds?  The lyrics are DIRECTLY from Eccl. 3).  From that logic, death is a natural part of life.  So, why do we have such a difficult time with death?

We do not like to lose relationships with those we love.  When we lose someone who means something to us, it is tough:  Realizing there will be no more words, visits, phone calls, etc.  Losing a parent, spouse, child, relative, or friend can leave a significant void in our lives.  And, believe me, that is tough!

We do not like change.  We are creatures of habit.  PERIOD.  Even the best of us who seem to embrace new things and change have habits that we love.  Even the best of us, deep down, really don’t like change.

We do not like the mystery that is DEATH.  To quote Capt. James T. Kirk, it really IS the “final frontier.”  We have no hard evidence or facts to KNOW what will happen when we die.  Many speculate what it will be like.  Some even claim to have gone and come back.  I have no ideas about that, but I do know this:  God PREPARES us for this day.  In fact, Jesus spoke specifically about this in John 14 (go read it!!).  Paul wrote specifically about it in 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 (both great reads).

WHY is death a part of life?  I have no idea.  I know death entered the world when Adam and Eve fell into sin.  Death hurts those of us who survive much more than the ones who walk through that door.  We don’t like it.  We can even turn that on God and blame Him, which really accomplishes nothing at all.  Death is a fact of life.  A part of life.  The end of life.  If I knew all of the answers, I would probably own my own island by now ….

So, here is what I am driving at with all of this:  HAVE FAITH.  TRUST GOD.  I have no doubt that when a believer in Christ dies, the next moment for him/her is to be in Heaven with Christ!  (Luke 23:43 … SERIOUSLY, GO READ IT!!).  And, in our times of sorrow and mourning, we can draw near Him and know that He cares.  He loves us and shares our heartaches.  And if we trust Him, He will give us what we need to make it.  I promise!!!  Even better, HE PROMISES!!  (Most of the New Testament … GO READ IT!!)

It’s a difficult job.  It really is.  KNOWING people are watching your every move.  KNOWING people are making judgments about Christ and about the church based on YOU (whether that is fair or not).  KNOWING you are NOT PERFECT and anyone can see you in a weak moment.  And they will talk.  BOY, will they talk.  But, as I’ve often been reminded, “YOU SIGNED UP FOR IT!  YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE GETTING INTO!”

YES!! YES, I DID!!

And there is a HUGE irony in that statement which I will reveal in a moment.  Is it fair that people outside of the Kingdom of God would look at my life and judge the Kingdom of God, the Power of Christ, and the Reality of salvation based on how I live??  Fair or not, I might be the only glimpse of it they get in this world.  So, fair or not, it is ON.

YES.  YES, I signed up for this the moment I knelt lakeside at White Oak Conference Center and asked Jesus Christ to be my SAVIOR!!  YES, I LOVE HIM and YES, I PROMISED TO LIVE FOR HIM!!  Yes, I signed up for this. And if Christ is your Savior, so did you!!

Some will read this and say “WAITAMINUTE!!!  I NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A PERSON OF INFLUENCE, A LEADER!!”  That sneaky little irony is this:  People are watching and perhaps FOLLOWING you whether you like it or not.  Whether you signed on for it or not.  Because YOU, TOO, could be the only glimpse of Christ they see in this dark world.

Hmmmmmph!!  Kind of puts a spin on how we live our lives, how we treat our fellow workers, fellow students, merchants and workers in the marketplace and out in the world. Puts a little more emphasis on the words we say, the actions we do, and the things we post on social media.  If Christ is your Savior, remember that!!

IF you really have a relationship with Christ, YOU are a leader!!  Make a great impact for HIM today!!!

I had a discussion the other day with my son.  You know, Drew.  Our little boy.  Who is almost 21 years old, a junior at FMU, and single-handedly keeps Amazon.com in business.  Yeah … THAT Drew.

Drew works at the Lifeway Bookstore in Florence.  One day, as he was leaving the store, a man stopped him and asked for money.  Said he was hungry and needed it for food.  NOW, here is where it gets interesting to me:  Drew, who probably DID have some cash on his person, did EXACTLY what we have talked about.  (HE WAS PAYING ATTENTION!!!!!)  EXACTLY what my father taught me:  “I can’t give you any money, but I will be glad to buy your dinner.”  And the man took him up on it!

Drew had no idea, but that just reminded me that Drew has a heart just like my dad’s.  Drew is the kind of guy who will help you, even with his last dollar.  With his last shirt.  That is just what he does.  And he doesn’t really brag about it, either.  He was telling us about that in the context of something else, explaining another story.  If not for that, we probably would’ve never known.

It took me a couple of days to realize the above-stated fact that Drew is so much like my dad.  And I love that.  And in addition to that, he was listening.  He was watching, even when I didn’t realize it.

SO … Instead of the shameless bragging on my son, I leave you with this:  PARENTS … KEEP ON DOING WHAT GOD LEADS YOU TO DO.  Remember, YOU are helping to build the next generation of workers in the Kingdom of God.  Don’t be discouraged … Just keep on keeping on.  Even when they act like they are not, THEY ARE WATCHING.  LISTENING.  LEARNING.

Be sure you are teaching them things that are WORTH LEARNING.  THINGS THAT BUILD THE KINGDOM OF GOD … NOT TEARING OTHERS DOWN.

At the risk of channeling my inner Theodore Geisel, today’s rambling is about the church.  My church.  Our church.  Any church.  Every church (that truly follows Christ).

WHO ARE WE?

We are a collective of DISCIPLES.  BELIEVERS.  We take the Word of God SERIOUSLY as not only a rule of thumb for spiritual affairs, but in our everyday walk.  AS WE LIVE, we live by His word.  It really is that simple.  We believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY WAY of salvation, contrary to thoughts of the world.  We believe John 14:6 is true.  We follow Christ.

WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?

Because over time we have realized what Jesus told us 2000 years ago to be true:  That we are meant to be HIS HANDS, HIS FEET, HIS VOICE in this dark world.  WE are to be bearers of LIGHT — HIS LIGHT.  We are HIS ambassadors.  We are WHO we are because we believe in WHO HE IS.  And HE is why we do everything we do.  Jesus reminded us that everyone would know we belong to Him if we LOVE the way HE loves (with God’s kind of sacrificial, unselfish love) and they would know we belong to Him if we follow HIS words.  Period.  HE is the reason.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE TO DO?

The nuts and bolts of it all.  Here are some thoughts, but they will not encompass everything:

WE WORSHIP.  We ascribe the highest honor to GOD.  HE ALONE is worthy of our worship.  We worship HIM as TRIUNE:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

WE LIVE FOR HIM.  We go about our daily lives constantly living His word. No matter where our lives take us.  School.  Work.  In the market.  In the neighborhood.  At our church.  In our home.  We do everything we do as an act of worship to Him (Romans 12:1-2).

WE TELL OTHERS.  When the Holy Spirit shows us an opening, we tell others about Christ.  We tell them about the PURPOSE and MEANING He brings to our lives.  We tell them about how HE forgives of sin and walks the difficult paths of life with us.  We talk about what we DO know about this life and about Heaven.  (NOTE:  Others will ONLY take us seriously if we are also living for Him.  It does US no good to live a life that has no evidence of the power of Christ and then try to tell others about His changing power.  It just won’t work.)

WE PRAY.  We constantly talk to God and even more often, we LISTEN for Him.  We seek His face by reading His word, by gathering with other disciples, by looking for Him as we walk in our daily lives.  Henry Blackaby shared in Experiencing God that “He (GOD) is at work all around us.  Our job is to find where He is at work and join Him.”

WE REALIZE THAT WE ARE NOT PERFECT, JUST FORGIVEN.  We cannot abide in the presence of a Holy God without the saving grace HE extended to us when He sent His Son to pay the price for our sins.  NONE of us are perfect … NONE of us are better than anyone else in the world.  The ground at the foot of the cross is level.  Our job is to point as many people to that cross as possible.

Are YOU trying to figure all of this out?  Let me assure you that I DO NOT have it all figured out.  But as I walk with Him day by day, He does show me a little more … The only way to draw closer to Him is to start.  TODAY.  If you need help with this, I would love to do all I can to help you.  davidwike@ebcsc.com

There is a risk any time you do an interview with someone who will then take your words, edit and interpret them, and then present them in a media outlet.  The Florence Morning News interviewed me and a fellow pastor last week about Advent, and specifically what Advent means to our respective churches.  For the most part, she was pretty true to what I said.  But it is amazing the difference ONE WORD can make on such a topic!!

So, what does Advent mean to me?  The Advent season is a celebration of the first coming of Christ.  Celebrated by many Christian churches around the world, we recognize the state of the world into which Jesus, the Son of God, entered 2000 years ago as part of God’s plan to redeem His creation.  And I believe with all of my heart the world He entered 2000 years ago was not so different than our world today.

Sure, we have made great strides in civilization, technology, and almost every imaginable category.  But at the base of every man and woman, we are basically the same as they were over 2000 years ago.  We are a people who look around this world and do not see a lot of hope.

HOPELESSNESS … That was the word.  Jesus did not enter a hopeful world.  He entered a world that had drifted farther and farther from God as sin ran rampant and there was no way for man to rectify that situation.  No way for humanity to redeem itself in the eyes of a Holy and Perfect God.  It was a world that seemed to be in a spiral with no hope and no seeming relief on the horizon.

A world, much like today.  And as I watch our world spiral farther and farther away from Him, I wonder if the hopelessness I see in humanity was exactly what Jesus saw when He came.

THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE, CHURCH!!!  WE HAVE THE ANSWER.  The answer is CHRIST!!  The answer is John 3:16, John 14:6, Romans 5:8.  The answer is FAITH IN CHRIST.  He is the ONLY WAY of salvation, the only way to have a relationship with the ONLY TRUE GOD.

And we live in a world where some will read the paragraph above and be offended by it.  And there might come a day when some fight to revoke my right to even WRITE words like this.  To even SPEAK thoughts such as these.  But, not today ….

GET BUSY, CHURCH!!  We are NOT guaranteed a tomorrow.  And tomorrow might be too late.

It will never be the same.  Yesterday marked one year since my mom died. I found myself just trying to focus on my responsibilities in worship yesterday.  Once I got through that, the reality set in.

On the other hand, I have wonderful memories of mom.  And I know, as the excitement builds for Christmas, this was her favorite time of the year.  This Christmas will definitely be different, too.  Last Christmas I think I was still in shock over the whole thing.  So far this year, remembering her and what Christmas meant to her has been a great thing.  I hope that trend continues.

I miss her.  No doubt.  But I also know it honors her to carry on.  In fact, she invested herself in me and in helping me be able to carry on.  That teaches me to do the same for my children.  I, too, am mortal.  And I think that’s the right thing to do.

But I do not look at a decoration or sing a Christmas carol without thinking about her.  And there is something right about that, too.

If you had to share your most fond memory of Christmases-gone-by, what would you share?  Last night, I was in a room full of ministers and spouses and we were asked.  I probably wouldn’t have said anything, except I was under the impression we ALL had to share.

My answer?  You know, I’ve thought about this so much since last Christmas.  Honestly, the holidays took on an entirely new meaning to me after Mom died almost a year ago.  That feeling that it will never be the same always hangs out there.  My mom LOVED Christmas.  And the thing she loved the most was my answer …

When I think back through the 49 Christmases I’ve spent on this Big Blue Marble, the gifts I don’t remember … (Well, honestly, I do remember some of them.)  When I think about the most significant trait of Christmas, I remember my grandfather, Ben Hooper.  I remember how much HE LOVED being with his family.  Christmas was one of his favorites BECAUSE of family.  Honestly, Christmas really changed for me in 1995 when he passed away.

My fondest memories of Christmas were spent down at his house with mom’s family, her four sisters and brother and their families.  Papa getting his projector out and us watching old movies he made with his Super-8 camera, which had NO sound.  The awesomeness of this was that we were all together.  That made my Papa happy.  Now I realize it made my mom and dad happy, too.

So, when I think about what was special about Christmases gone by, those memories of my family flood in.  And I am grateful.  And it inspires me to try to make those kinds of memories with my family.

The world tells us the greatest things of Christmas are GIFTS … STUFF.  Funny how untrue that really is!

You’ve heard it.  I’ve heard it as well.  I’ve heard it said and I’ve heard it implied.  “If you bless God, He will bless you.”

Now, I DO believe God will bless those who bless Him, who live according to His word and pursue His will for their lives.  In fact, there are so many blessings involved in that it might be too many to name.  HOWEVER, God’s definition of blessing is a little different than ours.

In the western world, we equate blessing with money and material gain.  Don’t we??  We see someone who seems to be doing well financially and think “God has really blessed them.”  I DO believe God is responsible for everything we have and everything we are.  But when it comes to God blessing us, He often blesses us with things money cannot buy.  With the peace that material possessions cannot bring.  That is hard for us to understand, but I believe it to be true.

So, when that tele-preacher tells you to send him $100 and God will send YOU $1000, don’t be so quick to jump on that.  But hear this:  If you follow God and pursue Him with all of your heart, and if you seek His will for your life, you will find God heaping blessings around you even in the midst of storms.  Even when times are going tough.

Because, this statement is absolutely true:  GOD WILL NEVER FORGET YOU.  And if you draw near to Him with your life, He will take care of you.  In good times.  And in the not-so-good times.

And that is something money can never buy!!!