First Amendment Dead in Dearborn? UPDATE: They were arrested.

A twitter friend tweeted this video and I was shocked to see what I saw.  Christians detained for passing out the Gospel of John on a public street in Dearborn, Michigan.  While they weren’t arrested the Christian group was directed to be at least 5 blocks outside of a Muslim festival in order to pass out the Gospel of John on a public sidewalk.

Unless the group who rented the festival area also rented the 5 block area around the festival, this is an apparent violation of the First Amendment, right?  Watch the video and see what you think.  I’m going to call the Dearborn Police Department and see if they have an explanation. (I did and it’s below the video)

 

Just got off the phone with the Dearborn Police. The lady I talked to in the Public Information office was very nice and was glad I called to get more information. She did decline when I asked if I could record the conversation for playback here, but this is what she told me.

Apparently the City has a right to establish a “Freedom of Speech” area, which they did for this event. A designated area where all groups were welcome to pass out material.

All groups were welcome to rent booths from organizers of the street fair. Four Christian groups did just that and another was allowed to have a booth by court order (not sure what happened there).

No one was prohibited from walking around the street fair and talking to whomever they pleased. However, passing out of materials was restricted.

The group in the video was not arrested. They were detained for awhile so that the rules could be explained to them. It’s not known if they knew the rules ahead of time.

200,000 people attended the street fair and apparently it was a very successful family friendly event.

The City of Dearborn hopes to have a comprehensive response at CityOfDearborn.org in a day or two.

In conclusion, I wonder if the Christian group that made the video was being provocative? Would a better strategy have been to rent a booth and reach others through smoked turkey legs (for example) (mmmm) and the Gospel of John?

There is probably even more to this story, but I think we all have to be careful not to jump to conclusions when we see a video like this. I’m glad I called the Dearborn Police to find out more. Sheds a little different light. If the rights of the Christian group were violated, they should call the Alliance Defense Fund. If not, I would recommend they get a booth next year and see what God can do with some corn dogs (mmmm) and the Gospel of John!

UPDATE: I guess they WERE arrested.

Freedom isn’t Free

It struck me yesterday as I looked at my calendar.  Yesterday was Memorial Day and today is Memorial Day observed.  A long weekend we set aside in the United States as a reminder that freedom isn’t free.  It has been bought at a high price.  Men and women who have been willing to give their lives if necessary so that we could enjoy our God given freedoms that are protected by our Constitution.

It also reminds me of what God did for us.  He paid for our freedom (freedom from sin and His coming wrath) by sending His Son Jesus.  Jesus was willing to die so that anyone who accepts His gift can be set free forever.  Romans 5:7-8 says:

⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Yesterday we honor those men and women who were, and are, willing to dare to die for a country that honors freedom.  Willing to fight to keep us free.  I am also reminded of a God who loves us so much that He was willing to die so that we could be free to be with Him forever.  All motivated by love.  For the soldier it’s love of country and sacrificing to make a better life for loved ones back home.  For God, He demonstrated His love.  A love for those who would chose to be His children by accepting His gift of sacrifice.

Today is Memorial Day Observed, but really, in many ways, we observe it every day.  By enjoying the freedom we accept as a free gift that was paid for with a high price.

Driven to Meekness?

It’s weird the things God shows me.  Sometimes it’s weird when He shows me these things.  This one was a particularly painful illustration for me, but one that helped me understand an important principle in being Christ-like.  I call it, “Driven to Meekness.”

It’s a lesson that God has been trying to show me for more than a few months now.  It really hit home when I was driving home Saturday afternoon.  I was tailgating again because someone wasn’t going as fast as I wanted to go.  My heart sunk when she gestured that I was number one when I finally had the opportunity to go around.  It really bothered me, and for good reason.  I was guilty of driving while being a jerk.

What is about driving for some of us?  I am one of the most mild mannered people you will meet (we’ll I’d like to think so most of time) yet when I get on the road that speed demon comes out in me.  And while all of us are guilty of being selfish and at the center of our own universes, that is particularly true of me behind the wheel.  If you are not driving the speed I want you to and I can’t get around you, I get a little upset, and I use my God given gifts of sharp eyes and reflexes to follow closer than is safe, or comfortable for the person I am following.  Add to that that God has allowed me to buy a car with a little power and definitely some quickness that is FUN to drive.  I love to rabbit start off the line and get to 5 over the speed limit as fast (and safely) as I can.  But, if someone gets in my way, well, sometimes that can be an aggravation.  One I sometimes don’t mind expressing with some skillful tailgating.

What does all that have to do with God?  Meekness.  Jesus came to Earth with all power of heaven at His disposal.  By His standards I am slow to understand, slow to obey, slow to be righteous, courteous, long-suffering, slow slow slow.  Jesus could have easily run me over with His supremely superior skill, knowledge and righteousness and laugh as He left me in the dust.  But He’s not like that.  His ministry on Earth wasn’t one of running over the weak because He was in a hurry to get to His destination (the cross to die for us all).  No.  It was the journey itself that was as important as the destination.  As He stopped and He healed all that came to Him, He was revealing the character of the Father.  Jesus comforted the down-trodden and ultimately He died for jerks like me.

It’s called meekness.  Jesus has all power of heaven and earth.  Yet He used that power to serve.  Mark 10:42-45

⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I have a nice car.  I have a certain amount of God given driving ability.  (probably not as much as I think!)  There’s nothing wrong with enjoying those things.  They are gifts from God.  But when I start to get arrogant in my giftings.  When I use them to run people off the road, or scare them, or tick them off then I am not exactly using my gifts for good.

I can have fun driving when it’s safe and when it doesn’t adversely affect others.  I can enjoy God’s gifts, but I need to do so in love!

Galatians 5:22-23

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

The driving analogy is more than an analogy in the sense that it is literally true for me.  I need to do a better job of driving in love (and I have since Saturday).  It applies to all areas of our lives.  What has God gifted you with?  How are you using those gifts?  Do you get annoyed at others who aren’t as strong as you? as smart as you? as spiritual as you? as fill in the blank as you?

The answer is of course you do!  Our sinful nature is always pulling us in that direction.  But, if we listen to God and obey, we can do better and better.  We can serve more today than we did yesterday.  We can be meek in the areas that we are strong.  I guarantee you that it will be a great witness to those around you.  It’s the best shot you have at being number one in the ways that count.

What About Tiger Woods?

Tiger Woods told the world he was sorry today.  His infidelity has turned his life upside down.  His family has been torn apart.  He has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals.  He has left the game that he loves so much and that God has gifted him so well to play.

Reaction to Tiger’s apology are generally favorable, although there are still many taking shots at him.  So what is God’s perspective on all of this?

First of all I think it’s pretty evident to all that sin has consequences and those consequences can be painful.  The Bible is clear, ALL fall short of God’s standards.  NO ONE seeks Him, not even one.  In other words.  We are ALL guilty.  We can’t help it.  We were born that way.  All of us suffering the consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Our sin nature is evident.  We lie, cheat, steal, sleep around.  This is the nature of man left to his own devices.  Sin is wrong.  Transgressions are wrong.  We pay a price for the mistakes we make.  The bigger the mistake, the more damage to ourselves and those around us.

What’s worse, even the slightest mistake makes us unworthy of living in God’s presence forever.  Want to go to Heaven?  Live a perfect life.  Good luck with that.  It can’t be done by mere men and women.

Of course the good news is we don’t have to live a perfect life!  Jesus did that for us.  Since He is God, He was able to pay the price of sin for us.  Death.  Jesus died so we could live.  God cannot lie.  He promised that the penalty for sin is death.  God also promised that He loves us.  This apparent contradiction is resolved at the cross.  The price for sin is paid for by His son.  God’s love is now available to those who can’t live a perfect life.

There is only one catch.  You can’t receive an awesome gift unless you, you know, receive it.  In other words, the Bible says that we have to believe that Jesus is God, that He died for us, and rose from the dead.  If we do that then we are saved.  Romans 10:9 and 10.

Tiger made a huge mistake and he is paying a huge price for it.  I think it is right for Christians to extend love and forgiveness to a hurting person who is suffering as a result of his mistakes.  God gives us second and third  (and fourth and fifth and sixth…) chances.  We should do the same for Tiger.  Even as we hate the sin we can show love to the man.  All of us are just as guilty (maybe not of exactly the same thing, but we all have our issues).  The difference is we are now forgiven and that allows us to share God’s love with others.

The ultimate show of love is to share the good news of God’s gift available to Tiger and to anyone else who will accept it.  That’s what Brit Hume did awhile back.  It created quite a reaction, but to Brit’s credit he stuck by his words because they were true and they were spoken in love.

What about Tiger’s marriage?  Should Tiger’s wife divorce him?  The Bible is clear that infidelity is grounds for divorce.  She is well within her rights to leave Tiger if she chooses.  Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.  Forgiveness is given, trust is earned.  Tiger is right when he says that his right actions over time are the only way that he has a chance to regain the trust of his wife.  I pray that that happens.

I, for one, will still be a Tiger Woods fan.  I hope that he has a successful life and a successful career.  Of course the ultimate success is measured by our relationship with God.  That relationship starts by accepting His free gift.  I pray that someday Tiger embraces grace.

You are Holy!

or you can be if you’re not.  Holiness is for everyone, but it’s not something you fight for or strive for.  Holiness is something you receive!

When Jesus died on the cross and said, “It is finished” and then rose from the dead on the third day, it really was finished.  Jesus completed the greatest exchange in history for those who will accept it.

Let me back up just a few steps.  Joel Engle was in Tucson this past weekend for the Kingdom Men 2010 Conference, “Always Better Together.”  There were nearly 2,000 men in attendance to hear messages like the one Joel gave.  Joel is a Christian music artist and also the founding pastor of “The Exchange” located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

I’m going to take just this one point that Joel made and expound on it a little bit.  I want to share it with you and drive it a little deeper into this thick head of mine so I can get it into my heart.  I believe that if God’s church can really believe how much we are forgiven, and how much God loves us we will have much more joy in our lives and we will be able to share that with others.

So Joel is on stage Saturday and asks, “How many here think they are Holy?”  A lot of hands went up, but most were hesitant, and a lot of hands didn’t go up.  I was thinking, “I think I’ve been taught that I am, but I’m really not sure.  I know I don’t always act like it.”  And that’s when Joel put this verse on the screen:  Hebrews 10:10 “…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

We ARE Holy!  Not because of anything we do.  We ARE Holy because of what Christ did.  It’s the exchange, as Joel says.  Jesus took our mess and exchanged it for His Holiness.  We were separated from God, but He made a way back to Him.  Jesus took our sins and unrighteousness and exchanged it for His righteousness!

If you have Christ as your Lord and Savior then you are on the winning end of the exchange.  You definitely got the better deal.  Through no effort of your own, you have been made righteous and Holy in the sight of God.  You have been adopted into God’s family as a son or daughter as a co-heir with Christ and all the benefits of sonship or daughtership.  God Loves you as much as He loves Jesus!  Even though you still sin, you are no longer a sinner.  God is for you and not against you.  It really is good news.  The best news actually.  The God who created the entire Universe wants to be your best friend.  That is amazing if you really think about it.

Many of us fall into the trap of trying to earn God’s favor.  We waste a lot of time and energy feeling condemned because we mess up.  Should we mess up?  Of course not.  There are consequences for making mistakes, and big mistakes can bring a lot of pain.  But know this.  If you have taken advantage of God’s incredible offer and believe that Jesus is who He claims to be, then God is not mad at you.  If you run into His loving arms in good times and in bad, even when the bad times are your fault, He will fix it!  It may take time, but when we trust Him and follow Him, blessings follow.  God delights when we rely on Him.  When we trust in Him and His goodness.

I really believe that if we as Christ’s body can accept this then we can be so much more effective in ministry.  We will quit wasting time striving for God’s favor and instead we can unite in the joy of what God has done and tell others.  God is good!  He LOVES you!

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and taken advantage of the exchange, what are you waiting for?!  A life of adventure awaits!  Just do what Paul said to do in Romans 10:9-10:

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

You don’t even need a sinners prayer.  If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, the only Son of God, and if you believe that He lived a sinless life and died for you on the cross and rose again on the third day and you confess it with your mouth you have just completed the exchange!    Now it’s time to get in a good church, start reading the Bible and practice living this new life that has been placed inside of you.

I love this line… you are no longer a liar, so stop lying.  Because you have exchanged your sin for His Holiness your nature has changed.  You are no longer a sinner even though you still sin.  This is what the world has a tough time with, and so do we.  If we are made Holy how come we don’t act like it many times?  It’s called our flesh and we will war with it until the day we die.  In the meantime we are to die to it daily and walk in the Spirit so we won’t walk in the flesh and mess up.  But when we do we should run to God.  He always treats us with love.

Never forget and constantly remind yourself.  God is for you, not against you.  He’s not mad at you.  Trust Him.  He sees you as Holy and Righteous and He Loves YOU!

How Much Love?

God Loves Us!   We know that.  We’ve been told since Sunday school, Jesus loves me yes I know, for the Bible tells me so.  But what does the Bible say about this awesome, amazing, even unfathomable love?  Lots!  Let’s try to scratch the surface.

I guess it’s been 4 years or so ago.  I had the privileged of teaching the Junior High students at church one Sunday.  I decided to do a little math to demonstrate how great God’s love is.  It fell a little flat, so I hesitate to go there here, but only a little.  Here goes.

It starts with one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Psalm 103:11.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.”

That’s quite a statement.  God’s lovingkindness towards those who fear Him is as high as the heavens!  When this was written a few thousand years ago, it wasn’t really understood how high the heavens are.  Now we have Hubble Telescopes and reflectors and refractors with giant mirrors on mountain tops that explore the deepest reaches of space.  God’s creation really does pour forth speech!

Let’s say that the farthest we’ve seen into the Universe is as high as the heavens are.  I have a feeling they are a lot higher, but the second heaven at least may be about 12 billion light years “above our heads.”  OK.  Now we can do some math!  (this is where I lost the Jr. High class).

Light travels at 386,000 miles per second.  386,000 x 60 = 23,160,000 miles per minute x 60 = 1,389,600,000 miles per hour x 24 = 33,350,400,000 miles per earth day x 364.25 = 3,143,275,200,000 miles in a year x 12,000,000,000 light years = 9,429,825,600,000,000,000 miles.  In other words a galaxy 12 billion light years away is 9,429,825,600,000,000,000 miles away!  At a minimum, that’s how high the heavens are above the earth and at a minimum that’s how much God loves YOU!

Still not convinced?  I promise I won’t do the math on this one.  Consider Psalm 139:17 & 18a:

¹⁷How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand

So God’s precious thoughts towards you would outnumber the sand?!  How many grains of sand do you suppose there are?  Starting to get the point?

Paul prayed that we might comprehend this mystery in Ephesians 3

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,
¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,
¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
¹⁹and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
²⁰Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

AMEN!  Now there’s a prayer.

God told me once and has reminded me many times since then, “Don’t ever forget how much I love you.”  The God who gave His life so that I could live in His presence forever wants to have a close, intimate friendship with me, Mike Nobody.  But see, I’m not a nobody, and neither are you.  Because of what Jesus did we are God’s adopted kids with rights of full sonship and full daughtership!  Don’t forget it.  If you believe that Jesus is God’s only Son who gave His life for you and rose from the dead on the third day, then you are God’s kid!

I’ll leave you with this.  When Jesus went to the cross, knowing what He was going to endure, had you on His mind.  Hebrews 12:2

²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus endured the cross with the joy set before Him.  Jesus was thinking of you!  He was already rejoicing in your choice to trust in Him even as He suffered.

How much love?  (stretching out His arms on the cross)  This much.