Become the Watchman Against Human Trafficking

Most of us have studied in history about the heinous activities during the early days of this country when people were taken from Africa and brought to the United States and sold as slaves.  Many lives were given to stop this act, the Civil War separated families, and the civil rights movement spanned decades of struggle, and the work is still not done.  It has been a long road, but unfortunately there is still so much to be done.  Much of what is happening is happening today in our country and we are often unaware of it.  The issue of human trafficking is larger now than at any time in history.  Children are being stolen, sold and transported constantly in the United States, but for the most part, we are unaware. About 3/4 of human trafficking today is for the sex trade, which is why it remains behind closed doors.  Adults and children are both taken, raped and abused and put in a live of slavery.  There are currently more slaves in the world today than any other point in time.  Slaves are sold for sex, labor, organ harvesting and for criminal activities.

Human trafficking has occurred in all 50 states.  It happens on our interstate systems, people are taken from other countries and brought through the US.  Some are taken from the US to other countries, it's become an international issue.  The rise of orphans in Africa due to the AIDS crisis gives great opportunity for these criminals to take advantage of the situation and traffic children all over the world.

This issue came to my attention as I read and reviewed a book by Jennifer Pitkin called Watchmen for Morning.  This is a great book about a young girl studying in Italy who meets the man of her dreams but ends up involved in a feud that involves organized crime and human trafficking.  This is a great story and blend of story telling, but also educating us to the reality of organized crime involved in human trafficking.  I knew of some of the issues that came from Mexico from human smuggling into the US and human trafficking, but I was unaware of the global crisis.  Jennifer Pitkin helped to shed some light on the issue, especially the plight of orphans in Africa being sold and smuggled with little care given to their well being.

You can check out some Little Know Facts about human trafficking, and I recommend you check out Watchmen For Morning.  Jennifer and her husband are parents of an adopted child, knowing first hand of the international issues overseas and the plight of the orphan as well as the desperate situation for women globally.  As a father of a daughter, my heart breaks and cries out to God for His people to stand up for the abused and repressed.  Please join me to pray against human trafficking.

The Pros of Having a Little Fear

Ever heard someone say "I'm not afraid of anything?"  Well, people may say that, but I think that is often untrue.  I have said that, but there are a few things I'm afraid of.  I have lost a lot of people in my life, I am not real keen on the idea of losing my wife or my kids.  I am sorta concerned about cancer, having lost so many family members too it.  I am also scared of birds in enclosed places.  It's a phobia, I can't explain it.  I have also discovered this applies to bats as well.  When I get a bat in the house, I get a little panicked.

Now, there are good fears that are good for us.  Most of us are afraid of falling off large drop offs, deep bodies of water with man eating creatures, fire and explosions and things that cause us death or dismemberment.  Our natural instinct is not to die.  Most of us prefer to live rather than to suffer a painful, gruesome and awful fate.  It's self preservation to survive, and the fight or flight reaction is often a life saving reaction.

Many fears in life effect us negatively, however.  Fears keep us captive, hold us back, stop of from fulfilling our dreams or moving forward.  They stop us from saying the things that need to be said, doing the things that need done and keeping us captive.  Many fears can be bad negatively effect the quality of live, but there is one fear that I want to focus on.  This fear is necessary for our healthy living and our well being.

The Bible tells us over and over that we should fear the Lord.  Solomon said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  In our American Christian culture, we dismiss this idea we say "well it's not really fear, it's more like reverence or respect." Sure, reverence and respect is part of it, but we have lost our minds if we think we need not fear God.  We approach God without even giving thought to the power and holiness of God.  Every person in the Bible who saw God experienced fear.  Isaiah fell down as dead, Moses changed forever, John the Apostle fell down at the feet of the Glorified Lord and Savior when He appeared to him.  Fear is the beginning of wisdom, because of the power of God, His holiness and the fact He punishes sin.  We sin without even thinking that we are offending a God who is all powerful.  He holds our lives, our eternity, our very existence in His hands, some reverence, respect and yes, even fear is warranted.

We fear God, but we rest in knowing He loves and cares of us.  He is gentle, He is loving and caring and while He could choose to destroy all mankind in their sin, He chooses instead to redeem us.  He has every right to destroy us, but He instead chooses to be patient.  Don't be fooled, however, one day time will run out and He will reveal His wrath against sin and evil and unrighteousness.  At that day, many will understand what it means to fear the Lord.

What God Told Me About "Strange Fire" By John MacArthur

I recently finished Strange Fire by MacArthur, and I learned a lot.  He goes through a lot of history and I learned about a denomination and a movement that I have never really been a part of.  So, as a Baptist, as a non-Charismatic I opened MacArthur's book thinking I would probably agree with most of what he wrote.  What I found was what I typically see of MacArthur and why I choose not to read a lot of his books.  I like and respect John MacArthur a great deal.  He is brilliant, he has a mature and discipled congregation, he stand firm on what he believes and for the most part I think his theology is good.  I agree with much of MacArthur, but there are things that make me shy away from his writings and teachings.

I have found that MacArthur can push to the extreme in much of what he says.  In his book, he finds the most obvious issues, men like Benny Hinn and many of the men who have had moral failure and uses them as an example.  I agree, there is a side of the charismatic movement that I would call destructive and heretical.  MacArthur then pushes all charismatics into this category, saying they are all degenerate heretics. There are some out there in the charismatic world who are doing great things for the kingdom.  He also lumps in things that I don't find to be the evil he calls them.  MacArthur lumps "Experiencing God" by Blackaby in as a negative thing, since it teaches to listen for God speaking in your life.  He also spins "Jesus Calling" as a negative book, since it writes devotions from God's point of view.  Discussing this with fans of "Jesus Calling", the consensus is that MacArthur is taking this out of context, since the devotions always point to scripture, not detract from it.  In the end, MacArthur calls for all Continuists to renounce their views, become Cessationists and condemn Charismatics.  I would call myself a Continuist.  I don't believe that speaking in tongues as the gift appears in the New Testament is practiced, I have never experienced the gift of prayer language or glossolalia and I have mixed emotions about it.  I don't believe that the office of Apostle is legitimate, since the requirements of a Apostle is to see Christ resurrected.  Paul was the last Apostle.  I don't believe that there are modern day prophets, but instead those who have a gift of prophecy simply illuminate and communicate scripture.  I don't believe that anything trumps God's word, adds to it or is as authoritative as it.  That being said, I don't call myself a Cessationist for a few reasons.  First, I'm not a dispensationalist.  I believe that God did some things in the past that He is not doing now, but I would not go as far to say that it's a time that He cannot do similar things.  I believe that God continues to do the same things in different ways, He doesn't change, things just naturally change.  He called men to pour the foundation, he called men to build the frame, he is calling men today to finish the work, and one day the church will be complete as Jesus returns.  God is continuing to do what He began, the structure just needs different work.

When it comes to the issue of Charismatics, MacArthur calls for us to make a stand and to purge them, take away all legitimacy from their movement and condemn them as a heresy.  While I agree that there are frauds that are getting rich by taking advantage of people, but I think we need to focus on one area.  Paul told his followers what to watch for, who to listen and who to avoid.  We need to teach our people to listen to the right voices, shun those who teach false doctrines and test everything by scripture.  If we teach and train people to be correct, we will have done our part.  Those deceived by false teachers will be deceived by something, if not these men, then other heretics.  It has existed as long as Christian faith.

When it comes to men like Hinn, when it comes to others that I believe teach false doctrines, I don't mind pointing out what they teach that is false, but I will avoid condemning the person.  If they claim to serve Jesus Christ, I have three verses that I use when it comes to this issue.

Mark 9:38-41 tells the story of some disciples who tried to stop men from casting out demons in Jesus name, since they were not part of the disciple's group.  Jesus told them not to stop them, because men serving in the name of Jesus today will not curse and turn against Him tomorrow.

John 21 tells us about Peter asking Jesus about John, what John was going to do.  Jesus replied in verse 22 that if Jesus wants John to remain until He returns, that's not Peter's concern, that Peter should just follow Jesus.

Finally, Romans 14:4. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. I will trust in the Lord when it comes to those who proclaim His name.  This doesn't mean that I won't warn those around me not to listen to some of the things they say, but I will not cast judgement on them as Christ's servant, that is not my place.  While I agree with much that MacArthur says, and I will encourage those that I teach and disciple to watch out for over emotional, non-Scriptural teachings that are contrary to sound doctrine.  I think MacArthur goes a little overboard in his book.

All in all, it was a good read, it was well written and I learned a lot.  I would recommend this book to those who want to see where the Cessationist viewpoint is.  It should be read with an open mind, MacArthur uses very strong verbiage and descriptors when it comes to this group.  If you are a Charismatic, you will probably be offended.  I wouldn't say it open up for dialogue, but it makes strong points.  If you are on the fence about the issue, give it a read and consider what MacArthur says, but also look at other opinions.

If You Can't Be Productive, at Least Be Amusing

Life is hard.  Money is getting harder to come by, and the price of stuff keeps going up.  They raise the bottom, and up goes the ceiling, so no one really gets ahead.  Time is always in short supply, and to top it off, things break.  That was vague enough that you can probably relate, we all know that life is hard.  People are frail and bad things happen, so what do we do?  How do we make it through the daily grind of life's in and outs.  I learned a valuable lesson years ago, that not everything has to be productive, as long at it has some entertainment value.

Now, we all know that when we sit down to watch TV.  That is unproductive (unless we are watching educational tv, which is neither productive or that amusing).  Maybe what you need is some amusement time away from the TV.  When is the last time you threw a snowball at someone?  Living in Iowa, we have lots of opportunities for that.  When is the last time you acted goofy with your kids, or your friends kids, or some stranger's kids in the mall?  Sometimes we need to break out of the serious mode and act a little goofy once in a while.

In all seriousness, we know that one of the most devastating factors on health and wellness is stress.  Stress will destroy you, which is why Jesus reminds us not to worry.  Stress won't add time to your life, it will actually take it away.  Stressing never fixes anything, and sometimes we need to break out, have fun and do something that is amusing.  It's good for the soul to be a little silly, even at work or church.  I have enjoyed my job so much, and it's not because I have the most amazing or amusing job, but I work with great guys who crack me up.  Find some joy in the every day, and if it's not there, put it there.  Maybe you are the only stress relief others will find.

So, to sum up, relax some, have fun and be funny.  It will do you some good, and even if it doesn't, it will probably help those around you.  Enjoy life, this is the only one you get.

Why We Lost the Culture War

You have heard many say there is a war on Christianity, or a war on faith or a war on the church.  I want to submit to you today that it was slightly larger, there was an all out culture war, and it's pretty clear that Christianity lost.  We are now in a "Post Christian" culture in the United States, and there has been a radical value shift.  If you look at church attendance and membership, it's down.  Churches are closing their doors and shutting down.  There are still strong and healthy churches out there, but we have seen the slide away from faith accelerate.  There was a culture war, and we lost.  I want to provide a few reasons why I think we lost the war and what we can do about it.

1.  We have no idea who we are fighting.  We are not fighting people, we are fighting ideals.  The ideals of hedonism, secularism, humanism, atheism and pluralism.  They are telling us that there is no room at the table for Christianity, but we are more than welcome to a stop at the little kids table.  These ideals have pushed Christianity to the side and no longer take anything that is said seriously.  This has happened because we have tried to destroy people, institutions, organizations and groups.  We used tactics like boycotting, picketing, campaigning and lobbying.  While many groups focused on presenting their view as the compassionate and accepting thing, we ended up looking condemning, hate filled and unloving.  There are some groups that claim the name of "church" that express beliefs that contradict almost every other church in the United States, those groups seem to make the most noise by picking funerals and making a disturbance.  They have not helped our cause, but the judgmental sentiment that we have thrown around, it hasn't helped much either.  All these things gave their ideals a boost and we began to lose.

2.  We fought each other. A lot.  Put 5 Baptists in a room, they can find something to fight about.  Calvinism, Cessationism, drinking, smoking, communion, Eschatology, and if all else fails we can argue over worship style.  The culture war was lost while we were busy fighting internal battles.  Many of the -isms that over took Christianity did so while we were too busy to notice.  We were too busy with our church splits to notice that we were losing traction quickly.

3.  We lack the language to communicate outside our sub-culture.  We use words that no one else uses and they have no idea what we are even talking about.  We talk about sin and atonement and depravity and salvation and redemption.  They sorta know what sin is, they have heard of the Salvation Army, and redemption is when you take a coupon into the store and use it.  They don't understand what we are talking about, and they don't care.  They use strong language, we use Church language.  We talk past each other, we have not engaged the culture in a way that is meaningful to them in regards to language.

4.  We assume they will come to us.  Let's face it, we buy glowing signs, open the doors and expect people to visit our churches.  They aren't.  They don't.  They don't even think about it most of the time.  The days are gone when people come to church.  We are slowly dying waiting for people to just show up, and they are not showing up.  Sure, the occasional person trickles in, but they are almost always previously churched.  The unchurched are not visiting churches.  We haven't made the attempt necessary to go out and share that the competing ideals have.  They have been active in the community while we have been in the building.

5.  We have forgotten it's a war.  We just assume no one is competing for the souls of humanity.  We are on the winning side when it comes to earth, time, space and all of history, but the goal is not to be one of the few that gets to Heaven.  The goal is to share with others so they can be there with us.  The casualties of war are the spoils of the enemy's camp.  Satan is using all the tricks he knows and he has been active while we have been passive.  He has used media, music, society and social networking and made sin look so appealing.  We haven't exposed the chains and torments of sin as they are, and the world is seeing what Satan is selling, not what Christ is giving away.

When I look at the world, it's ideals and how fringe Christianity is becoming, I am convinced that we are going to have to change tactics soon.  This is one reason I am so passionate about a House Church network, about reading students in the public schools, reaching coworkers at work and sharing faith in the marketplace and in the community.  We may have to change our tactics to make a real difference.

Why Do We Want to Belong

I have seen and read and studied a lot about church growth, and I have come to one conclusion.  We really want our churches to grow, and we have little to no idea how to do it.  We find markers and correlation, but you have probably heard me say "correlation does not equal causation".  We look at worship styles and preaching styles and decor in the worship center, parking and seating and lighting.  We look at all these things, but if you really get down to it, if you ask yourself why you attend the church you do, what is the reason?  Chances are, it's relationships.

I have been a part of great churches, I have been part of lousy churches.  I have known worship leaders who should cut a CD, and I have led worship, and everyone should have left screaming.  I have heard the most gifted preachers share the most amazing messages, and I have walked out of church with no idea what the sermon was about (and neither did anyone else).  I once heard a sermon about stealing a pig.  I have no idea what the point of that message was, but I don't think I'll steal any pigs, so maybe it was effective.  We may like, love or tolerate the preaching and the worship.  The reality is, church becomes a family and you stay with your family.

People want to belong.  Kids join gangs and do illegal things because they want to belong.  Men physically push themselves to the breaking point to get strong enough to join the team.  Many turn to illegal (or barely legal) substances to help them excel.  You can say it's for the fame or the money, but many of them just want to be on the team.  We have an innate desire to belong, even those of us who are introverted, we want to belong in the back and left alone, but we still want to belong.  Everyone wants to be part of a group, a family, a circle of friends.  We want to be part of the team, the band, the circle, no one want to be left out.

This is true of church too, this is one of the reasons I'm always harping about Sunday School and Small Group.  It gives people a place to connect and belong.  Sure, people can feel like they belong in Worship Service, but it's more difficult to connect with people.  Sunday School is a great place, it's a natural place to connect.  Invite people you know and you like to come connect with you in Sunday School.  It's amazing thing that takes place when you build your class into a community.  When you spend time together in and out of class.  When you have fellowships and go out and do things, play softball and watch the Superbowl.  It builds a community and people want that.  They want to belong, they want to be invited, they want to be in on the inside jokes.  Invite people, connect with people, actually care about people.  It's amazing what a difference community makes.

Yoga Pants, Rape Culture and Raising Kids

There is a debate out there right now about yoga pants, you know the skin tight pants women use to wear during exercise are not worn everywhere.  A read an article about a Middle School who requires girls to have a shirt or skirt that is fingertip length to cover their rear.  There are lost of groups who are upset, like the Jezebel organization who says it promotes rape culture to expect women to dress modestly.  These groups say we just need to teach boys to not look.  I have a girl and two boys, so this hits me right where I live, and I want to say, the statement "teach boys not to look" is close to the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

First, people wear "fashion" for people to notice, so if the boys aren't going to look, what is the point of wearing it?  Just from a surface argument, this is a dumb statement.  On a deeper level, there are so many things wrong with the whole situation.  There is so many things wrong with the mindset of these groups that want to chalk boys looking to the establishment of "rape culture".  Let's start with that one.

Rape is not a culture, degrading women is not a culture, it's a form of depravity.  Reality check, you can't pick and choose morality.  When morals are in decline, they all decline.  When pornography becomes acceptable, when sexuality in any situation becomes acceptable, when disrespect and indifference become acceptable, rape will occur.  Bad moral and bad actions breed bad morals and bad actions.  When you expose young boys to sexuality at a young age, you change the way their mind process when it comes to interaction with women.  When you build a culture the depends on how people look and how successful they are sexually, you have put all the ingredients together.  It's not a rape culture, it's a culture of selfish pleasure and self seeking.

In raising my kids, there are things I need to think about.  First all, all the yoga pants promoters, you can say the solution is to teach little boys to behave, but every parent have tried to teach their children to behave, yet there is still crime.  If it was that easy, it would be done.  We are told not to hurt our child's self-esteem, no corporal punishment, but we must teach a boy to disregard a primal instinct that is hard wired into his hormone filled brains.  It's not gonna happen, and the reality when they have done surveys at universities across the country, more than 50% of boys say they would rape a girl if they knew they wouldn't get in trouble.  Boys want sex, and no amount of teaching and training will make them not want sex.  Boys are going to look at girls in yoga pants, it's a fact you can't stop it.

My daughter is not allowed to wear those sorts of clothing out of the house.  It's not even the little boys I'm worried about, it's the adult men who have been shown to try to prey on children.  Face it, we live in a perverse world, so instead of dealing with it, we add to the issue by sending our daughters out to the wolves wearing the things that draw attention of the perverse.  You can say "that's isn't right" or "a girl should be able to wear whatever she wants" but the reality is that we live in a world that if full of evil,  Children starve and suffer and are attacked and trafficked.  Human trafficking exists in the United States, people take kids to sell them into a sex trade that shouldn't exist.  It shouldn't, but it does and we can't ignore it.

As a dad of boys, these groups that say girls should wear what they want and boys just shouldn't look make me angry beyond belief.  This is the equivalence of telling my kids not to eat candy and then sending them to the candy store. Young boys go to school and are surrounded by girls who look much older, more mature and more sexualized that the boys are ready to handle emotionally.  The boys, who mature at a faster rate, are not cognitively or emotionally prepared to deal with the stimulus they are not surrounded.  It completely destroyed the work I try to do as a parent, and these groups have no respect for teachers, administrators and parents of boys who are working hard to raise gentlemen.  They are constantly bombarded by these women's groups that seem to want to destroy males more than elevate women.  It's absurd and I want my daughter no where near these groups, and I can say with much certainty that my wife agrees completely.  My daughter is more than just a frame to put tight clothing on and parade for whatever reason.

It is time for adults to think like adults and less like perverted children.  Let's realize the world is evil, fallen and filled with trials and temptations.  Let's not make it harder on our kids than it already is.  Let them dress like little girls and not like yoga instructors.  By the way, yoga pants are best for yoga studios, not so much for everywhere, all the time.  Just sayin.