The World in Our Backyard

If current trends prove true, over 2 million people from foreign countries will come to the shores of the United States this year. By those same trends, the vast majority of them will not leave but will make this country their permanent home. It is a statistical fact that immigration is at an all time high, counting for 37% of the population growth of our land in recent years. The topic has become a political hot button among so many Americans, and it brings out passionate feelings on all ends of the spectrum. Today the call for immigration reform has increased. Anti-immigration rhetoric, that used to be found only in obscure circles, has become much more prevalent. The New York Times recently ran an article reviewing an anti-immigration book in which the author asserted: “There is no precedent for a sovereign country undergoing such a rapid and radical transformation of its ethnic character in the entire history of the world.” The author goes on to assert that the possible result will be the ‘snuffing out of the American nation – like a candle in a gale.”

As we read this, we too will undoubtedly have our own opinion of the wave of immigrants into our country. But, for my purposes today I want to ask one question as a follower of Jesus Christ: Does God have an opinion on immigration?

Now immediately we may be inclined to think God doesn’t care where people live. But I would take exception to that thought based on Scripture. First, I believe that the word of God teaches us that God is Sovereign – the absolute ruler over all creation - and has total control and determination over all that happens. Daniel 4:34-35 is one of many passages of scripture that teaches us about God’s ‘everlasting dominion’ over the earth. But someone may point out that He does give us free will. This is also a true statement, however, the free will granted to the human race can never trump God’s sovereignty (Proverbs 19:21) or God would cease to be sovereign. Even still, would we really choose to believe that God controls where people live or choose to move? Look at this most interesting verse from Acts 17:26-27: “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him…”

My response is Wow. The Word is teaching us that it is God who chooses the place where people should live. Does God have an opinion on immigration? It appears that indeed He does; and what is His purpose? His purpose would be that those people would seek Him and find Him. Perhaps this assertion is ringing true or perhaps it seems quite radical. In case of the latter, let’s take a look at one more picture from the biblical book of Acts. Actually if we go back to the end of Luke we find that Jesus tells His disciples that the ‘promise of my Father’ is coming to them, but they are not to leave the city ‘until they are clothed with power from on high’. Now Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit who arrived at the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Why did God choose Pentecost to be the day he poured His Spirit out onto the disciples? Why did He choose this time to give the ‘promised gift?’ Well, the answer appears in Acts 2:5, which speaks of this particular feast and says: “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven”. God had gathered people from every nation in this one place and this one time, and He had done so for a Holy purpose. When He poured His spirit out on the disciples the result on that day was thousands of new believers in Christ. God, as one friend of mine has put it, is in the business of creating an audience for Himself that He might display His glory and bring people to His presence. And if He would choose to do this in the First Century AD, there is no reason to believe He is not still doing this today.

In His sovereignty, I believe God is bringing millions of people from all different backgrounds, cultures, and nations to the shores of the United States. Too many times our first response upon seeing immigrants of any nation may be questions like: ‘I wonder if they are legal or illegal, are they here to hurt us, or why can’t they stay home?’ We may react in anger based on economic concerns because after all, how fair is if for immigrants to take our jobs, right? I believe the Bible to be a book of justice and I am not in anyway promoting a disregard for our country’s laws or our patriotism. We must be careful, though, that our patriotism never trumps our dedication to Christ and His word. Let me say clearly, that our personal prejudices will put us at odds with our God. Why should our first thought not be: ‘I wonder if they know Jesus’? Do we not understand that God desires for people to worship Him and that He has chosen where everyone should live that they might seek him and find Him? Do we believe that He is bringing people of all cultures and countries to us, at least in part, to give us an opportunity to show them who Jesus really is and how they can be worshippers of the one and only living God? And if we do believe God is bringing immigrants here, are we willing to throw down the rags of politics and prejudice to take a hold of the riches of the call of God to bring Glory to His name and to make disciples of all people?

Let us not be blind to the reality that in this day, God is bringing the nations to our communities; the world to our neighborhoods. They are coming to live, work, and learn right beside of us. They may think they are motivated by a myriad of economic, social or circumstantial reasons, yet God purposes where people live so that they might seek Him and find Him. And we have an opening, should we decide to seize it, to help make disciples of all nations in our own backyard. I pray that on the day we stand before Him we will be found faithful not to our own ideals, politics, or patriotism, but to the call and to the opportunities that He so clearly gave us.

Grace and Peace

David 

and you shall call his name Jesus

‘And the angel said to her…you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great…and of his kingdom there will be no end’ – from Luke 1
 

The morning after the 2009 BCS National Championship game I was listening to a morning sports show here in Birmingham and one of the guys brought up the issue of Tim Tebow giving props to God during his victory interview on national TV. The broadcaster was adamant that football and ‘religion’ do not belong together and that Tim Tebow needed to leave his beliefs off the field. Now I could write an entire blog about that issue within itself. I would make the point that Tebow was just being who he is – a follower of Christ. When Christ lives in you, there is no leaving Him behind while you go to the work, school, the 7-11 or the BCS national championship game. But I have another point for today and it involves not what the radio guys said, but more of what they refused to say. Even though Tim Tebow’s exact words were something like ‘I want to give thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’, I noticed that this broadcaster would not say the name Jesus. And as time wore on and this issue continued to be discussed, it became glaringly obvious that they were going to say anything but Jesus. The rest of the radio team also gave their opinions on the subject, and they too apparently refused to say Jesus. I heard them say ‘God’ and ‘faith’ and ‘religion’ and ‘church’ and ‘your beliefs’ – but never did I hear the name Jesus. And then it was the callers turn. As they opened up the phone lines, I listened as one by one the participants on the phones did the same; they also avoided using the name of Jesus. Many of these men were people who identified themselves as people of faith or regular church attenders, but one by one they referred to all types of religious symbols or innuendo without mentioning Jesus. This discussion continued for several segments, until finally one of the broadcasters actually referred to Tebow’s direct quote that included the name ‘Jesus’, but even then  I noticed an obvious pause right before he said it. 

Now before I come under conviction for being hypocritical – let me point the finger toward myself for a moment. I was recently interviewing for a full time secular job and during the interview the discussion of my role as a pastor came up. I was attempting to discuss how I felt it was taught in the Bible for a worker to hold himself to a high degree of integrity and character and work as if he is working for the Lord. In the midst of this diatribe I found the perfect opportunity to say ‘Jesus teaches me’, but instead I paused….and then they came – the dreaded phrase ‘my faith teaches’. Now, I call it dreaded because whenever I say ‘my faith…’ it seems to conjure up thoughts of a private belief that may be different but equal in validity to another religion’s teaching. Yet, I found myself saying it. It reminded me of the movie A Christmas Story where Ralphie is sitting on Santa’s lap but instead of saying he wants a Red Ryder BB gun he cops out and agrees to a football, and as he is going down the big red slide, he is beside himself at what he had just done. I felt that way, almost immediately screaming at myself: ‘what are you doing – why didn’t you say Jesus, you wimp?’

So assuming I am not the only one who has experienced this, what is it about the name of Jesus that so polarizes people? People, even Christians, are comfortable mentioning God, Faith, or Church; and as one of my closer friends pointed out recently, we might even say ‘Christ’. But when it comes to the name Jesus it is as if we are hesitant – as if we stumble. Then again, isn’t that what the bible says would happen?: 

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” – Romans 9:33

A rock of offense. Is it not true that so many are offended today by the name Jesus? So many religions claim a ‘faith’, a ‘God’, or even a ‘church’ – but there is only one Jesus. When we call out His name, in private or public, we leave no doubt as to where our allegiance lies. We speak a name of power, glory, holiness and love. We speak the name of our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord. We might comfortably say ‘God’ but we cannot come to know Him without Jesus. We might comfortably say ‘faith’ but Jesus is the author and finisher of that faith. We might comfortably mention church, but Jesus is the one who purifies the church and will present her to God as holy and blameless. Without the name of Jesus, we have nothing: no hope, no faith, no redemption, and no future. 

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:11 

I speak to myself more than anyone else when I say that we must not be shy to embrace the name of Jesus. Whether in private or public conversation, we must not shrink back. It is because of His name we have authority and power to withstand the work of God’s enemy. It is because of His name that people can experience a transformed life. It is because of His name that shattered relationships can be brought to restoration, sinners brought to repentance, and the weary brought to a new found strength. It is because of His name that we can say “anything is possible” for those who will believe. It is because of His name that our past has no control over our future, that anxiety does not have to rule our life, and that peace can consume our minds no matter how deep the valley. It is because of His name that those who are hurting and sick can be healed. It is because of His name that those held captive by drugs, alcohol, pornography, lust or greed can be set free to a new life.  It is by His name that death and disease will never have the last word in the life of a believer. 

May we be strengthened to proclaim loudly to all we meet the name of Jesus.

Pastor’s Thoughts: Leading Your Heart (by J. David McConnell)

Leading Your Heart

A few weeks ago my wife and I went to see the movie Fireproof. Many of our friends had seen it and highly recommended that we go. Overall, the movie was fantastic. I must say that the acting…well, no one in it will win an academy award. But…it was well put together, with a good script and a cast of people that you were fond of by the time it was over.

The story, of course, made the movie. I don’t cry at movies, actually I don’t cry a lot ever…but I will say that I came close. The guy in front of us was dishing out napkins to his wife in huge quantities, and then turned around and gave my wife some as well. Thankfully, I didn’t have to take any from him (which would have required that I surrender my manhood card immediately). Interestingly enough, it wasn’t so much the scripted words that made me emotional. As I sat there and watched this movie, and the deep love being portrayed from a man to his wife – I realized how much God really loves us. I know, you are thinking ‘wow, what a deep thought: God loves us.’ But just seeing someone love someone else so much that it physically hurts them and to realize the only way we can have that capacity is because God gives it to us, and then to realize how imperfect we are and that we are not capable of loving anyone even a fraction of how much God loves…well, I was overcome. Oh, How He Loves Us.

Anyway, let me get to the point of this blog. A friend of mine had told me about a particular line in the movie that really impacted him and when I heard it, I was equally struck. The line went something like this: ‘we don’t follow our hearts, we lead our hearts’. I was thinking about how often we make decisions based on emotion, or how we feel. It might be a relationship decision, a financial decision, a decision on where we should worship or whether we should go to worship at all. We decide whether or not we should forgive someone, or whether we should serve God or tell others about Christ. This list goes on and on…but I can’t tell you how many times I have seen someone making what I felt like was a bad decision, while saying ‘I feel like this is the right thing to do’.

My own life is the same, as I have often based decisions on how I feel. As a matter of fact, a lot of my sin is based on doing what I feel like doing, instead of what is right by God. In the past year and a half, I can’t tell you how many times I ‘knew’ what I wanted to do in ministry and what I felt like God wanted me to do. Only to find out that it wasn’t God’s plan. I am so thankful for doors God has shut, that I would have walked through based on how I felt at the time. The problem is our hearts are born corrupt and with an inclination to evil (see Genesis 8:21), so sometimes following our hearts is not the right thing. Even with good intentions (wanting to follow God is a good thing) feelings can be deceptive. Our hearts, our feelings, are susceptible to deceit and temptation. We have to be aware of that fact.

So, this would lead to a question of how do we live out our lives? How do we make decisions, both big and small and trust that we are doing the right things? How can we know God’s will for our lives and what he wants us to do? Well, I think we can find a lot of direction on that in Philippians 2 (v. 12-13): work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Within these verses, Paul is not teaching us that salvation comes from works, but rather he is encouraging the readers to put their salvation into action. In other words we are to ‘work it out’ referring to living out what we are taught and what we know to be true. We are to do this ‘with fear and trembling’ meaning that we are to live our lives understanding we are totally and completely dependent upon God; we can accomplish nothing for Christ apart from the power of God within us. And that is the beauty of what Paul reveals to us, that it is God who works within us (our hearts and minds) to mold our desires (will) into His desires for our lives. At the same time He empowers us to accomplish what He gives us to do.

We really want God to e-mail us, or write in the sky what His plans for us are; what it is that He wants us to do in life. But, the picture we see most often is that we get up day by day by day and we do our best to live out our salvation. We pursue God through prayer, His word and by our actions (putting His word into practice in our lives). And as we do this – step by step and day by day – we trust that God is working in us to lead us where He wants us to go and that He will not let us make a mistake. If we are totally dependent upon Him for everything and we pray for direction and wisdom, God is faithful to lead us and bring us to the places and the tasks He has planned for us.

This is a far cry from decision-making that is based on how we feel. The life that Paul implores us to live is a life desperate for God, desperate for Him to mold and change our hearts to match His will for us. And we are kept from bad decisions or incorrect choices, by the power of our Savior. He is more than capable of bringing us where we need to be, the safest place in the world, directly in the middle of God’s will.

For HIS Glory

David McConnell
Family Pastor
families@agapepinson.com