The Phil Files

Over Christmas, my brothers and I, along with our families, were all together in Abilene. Christmas Eve was a beautiful day and we were all suffering from cabin fever. So I brought out several compound bows — the archery kind and not the wrapping paper kind — and a target. Using the easiest bow to pull back, however, we all missed the target — we’re still looking for one of those arrows! Our form was good. The target was set up well. So what was wrong?

The aiming device on the bow was broken! No matter how hard we worked and how proper the target, we weren’t going to hit it. This effort in futility made me think of how simple this principle is, yet how so few people actually get it when it comes to life. Most folks have good goals for life — a good family, a productive job, joy, love, making a difference in the world … The problem, however, is the aim at getting to those goals is off. We make it about us … what we want … what we like … what brings us glory. Our aiming device is wrong. Listen to Jesus’ words:

Then he [Jesus]said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? (Luke 9:23-25).

This passage got me thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As I did, I “googled” his name and an article I wrote nearly a year ago came up first in the link list. As I read this article, I was convicted by my own words — words I had written less than a year ago yet words I couldn’t remember writing. I was so convicted by them that I reprinted them in this week in Heartlight: Even if It Means a Cross. I encourage you to read the article and contemplate the sacrifice and be willing to follow Jesus … even if it means a Cross … because it does!

Then I’d love to hear from you in regard to these questions:

Do you think most Western Christians really only want a “Tinkerbelle Jesus” or is that too harsh an indictment?
Do you think we really “get” the meaning of the Cross?
Do you think we really only want the Savior side of Jesus and not the Lord side of Jesus who calls us to follow him no matter the cost?

One of the folks at our office was angry and sad when I encountered her at the office Monday. Her emotions were battling to see which would win out. She was holding the paper and was justifiably upset — upset as in angry and also upset as in grieving.

A young man her son had known in high school had been killed in a major accident on the Interstate. His truck had crossed the grass median and struck another truck with a trailer carrying prize winning steers. The tragic loss of this 22 year old man’s life was briefly mentioned as well as several other signficant injuries to the other people involved. Amazingly, however, there was much more information about the steers, and the emotions of the owners of these steers, than there was about the people who were injured and the young man who died. (It was later learned that the young man had been accidentally shot by the discharge of hunting rifle in the back seat of his pickup truck and this caused him to cross the median.)

While I’m certain this was not intentional, the way the article was written made the young man’s death appear as less significant than the injuries to the cattle. While all sorts of explanations can be made — like it’s West Texas where cattle is king, the reporter could not get information released on the people, the people were sent to the hospital so the cattle were the only visible story, or this was simply poor taste by the writer and editor — the bottom line is that the story was insensitive and offensive. After I read this, I was angry, too.

With the avalanche of bad news from across the world that floods in around us, we can often get worked up over the wrong things and grow calloused to the important things. This is when the value of a person becomes cheapened and the preciousness of human life is degraded.

What ultimately separates a Christian view of a person from those who do not share our faith is very clear. It’s not that we devalue the worth of the animals or the environment. Like these things, we are creatures made by God and are connected to them. We also realize that the environment and all “creatures great and small” are to be valued as the living expression of God’s nature, love, and craftsmanship (Genesis 1 and Romans 1 both make these points..

However, only people are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). While we are creatures, we the only creatures that reflect the nature of God. Even in our fallen state, we bear the Father’s image and are called into relationship with Him and with each other (James 3:9) . From the moment of our conception, God has been at work forming us with a purpose and knowing us personally (Psalm 139:13-16). When a person dies, no matter his or her race, place, politics, or social status, eternity is touched and creation cries out in anguish (Romans 8:19-24).

So I join my co-worker in her grief and anger. What’s more, Jesus himself considers death His enemy, the last enemy to vanquished (1 Corinthians 15:24-26). Let’s not treat the death of a person, any person friend or foe, stranger or family, with less regard than does the Lord!

In my Heartlight article this week, “Beyond Remembering,” I share how my dad very powerfully shaped my values even though he died at a young age.

I want to urge you to think about the person who is most responsible for helping you know how to live. I want to encourage you to go beyond remembering them; honor them by reminding yourself of the core values you learned from them, commit to live the character they challenged you to embrace, and follow their example and teaching as it reflects the nature of Jesus. I would encourage you to share these insights with this special person if they are still living and give thanks to God for them and their influence if they are not.

Here are a few questions to help you think this through:

What values did this person teach you?

What sort of character does their teaching call you to demonstrate?

How has their teaching helped you to live more like Jesus?

This Sunday, I preached on being focused on the “one thing” God made us to do. My article for Heartlight this week also focuses on this. Finding what this “one thing” is, however, is not so easy. I don’t think it can be reduced to a formula. But, when I look at what Jesus says and what Paul said, it sure seems that a consuming passion for Jesus must be a key starting point.

My heart aches right now that so many who claim to be Christians know so little about Jesus and seem so unwilling to spend time seeking after him — seems like we’ll read almost anything that’s light and sweet that talks about Jesus before we actually will pick up our Bibles and read the story of Jesus, listen to the teaching of Jesus, and be astounded by the compassion and character of Jesus we see in the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

So I want to both challenge you and also hear from you with basic question:

What do you do to listen to Jesus in your life?

In my article this week in Heartlight, I talk about the front porch as a great image, a biblical image, of what the church should be in today’s culture. I’d love to hear your take on the article and also on a couple of questions:

Is this an image we need to help remove the defensive, anti-culture, retreat from society, and elitist thinking that threatens many of our churches today? Hmm … maybe that’s too harsh a judgment on today’s churches … what do you think?

And what do you think about seeing ourselves as God’s front porch to a culture hungry for Jesus and yet turned off by what they think churches stand for?

This was a hard, tough, and yet meaningful week for us at Southern Hills! Seeing folks ministering to people in the hospital, walking with friends through grief, teaching New Orleans kids who had never been to a Bible Class about Jesus, going to weddings, preparing for youth camp, coming back from a mission and service trip to a village in abject poverty in Honduras, raising $20,000 in a garage sale for one of our own battling cancer, and just the normal stuff of ministry was a blessing and inspiration. Thanks, brothers and sisters, for your great demonstration of the love of Jesus. As I thought about your hard work and loving service, I remembered the image below and the message of Galatians 6:2 found in the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Thanks folks, you are great servants and it’s an honor to serve with you!