YMCA Basketball Champs....

This is a note that I gave each of my 9-10 year old basketball players after the championship game yesterday, actually I gave it to their parents and the parents could pass it along if they approved. They played an amazing game yesterday and won the Statesville, Hickory, Conover, and Lyle Creek YMCA basketball tournament championship for their age division.

I have so enjoyed coaching each of you guys. I ran across a picture of a team I coached 11 or 12 years ago and I could still remember each of the kids. Now I didn’t remember each of their names but I could remember something about every one of them. You guys are a team much like them, great kids that I will remember for a long time to come. During the tournament we focused on five things. I want to share with you five things about life that go along with those five keys to basketball.

Trust - In basketball there is nothing more important than trusting your team mates and passing the basketball. In life I would encourage you to trust people until they prove to not be trustworthy. My favorite line from the Chronicles of Narnia is “Have you ever known Lucy to be a liar before?” That line isn’t in the movie... so you would have to read the book to find it.

Believe - In basketball you have to believe in your shot, and in life I would encourage you to believe in Jesus Christ. Now I want tell you to find a certain religion or a certain church, but I would tell you to believe in Jesus and follow Him with all of your life. Allow Jesus to guide every area of your life. He is the world’s greatest coach, He died for His team and He picks you.

Talk - Find other followers of Jesus to talk to and talk to them often. In life just like in basketball you need team mates to coach you and you need to coach one another. One fourth of the New Testament was written by one man (Luke) to one other man (Theophilus). Those books are the gospel of Luke, and the Acts of the
Apostles. They are the best example I know of humans coaching one another.

Find - In basketball we talked about finding a place for your butt. In life I would encourage you to find a place for your hands. Find something that you love and do it well. If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. Except in America and America may change someday, so find work you love and do it with all your energy.

Scream - Well screaming scares the other team and allows you to enjoy the game. In life I think you should do the same thing. Never be afraid to scream and enjoy every part of life! Life is fun and every commandment that God gives, helps you enjoy life!

- Hope to see you again, Josh

What bothers me most about modern day religious leaders

I think I figured it out… I think I can begin to put into words what bothers me the most about modern day religious leaders —you know who I am talking about —pastors, preachers, evangelists, Religion professors, Sunday School teachers, Priests, Rabbis, the whole lot of them.

I remember back pretty clearly the moment that caused me to first become frustrated. I was in my mid to late twenties and I was totally immersed in the whole religious scene. I was in one of those meetings with others who were deeply immersed in the religious scene — you know, or if you have always been a lay person maybe you don’t. Sometimes the preacher types get together and act ministerial.

Well this was a small meeting of those types, and one of my close friends was giving the devotional. During his little devotion he spoke of Mother Teresa. It was quite interesting to me because Mother Teresa received absolutely no respect from the crowd that I associated with at that time. The big moment was right after he gave the devotional, the leader of our little group spoke up and asked him in an extremely condescending way, “You do realize that Mother Teresa is most likely in hell right now don’t you.” Now before you get too offended understand that the person who said this was someone that I looked up to and respected tons, but that statement broke something in me. I too wondered if Mother Teresa knew Christ, I too wondered how she could live like she did and still associate with the Catholic church, I too thought about her belief system and wondered what was the real answer, but the certainty with which he rebuked my friend shocked me and caused me to question things again. By the way, I know me calling someone condescending is just as bad as me calling someone fat — pot / kettle / black — I get it, but this made me think.

Ok, now let me make my point. The thing that bothers me the most is that so many of us religious type professionals talk like we have it all figured out. We speak about doctrinal things like we are the only ones who really understand. Ask us a question about the Bible and we give you the answer. We pretend we know and understand it all. For most of my life I thought that I just hadn’t read the Bible enough to understand it, but now I think I realize that I just hadn’t read it enough to realize and admit that it is full of things that I don’t understand!

Let me give you a taste — simply a taste of stuff that I don’t understand from the first 3 days of One Year Bible reading — oh, yes I have read this stuff before, but it is different when you aren’t trying to make the world think that you know it all….

· 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

o Why did God say where are you, if He knows everything? (I do still believe He is all powerful and all knowing – did He limit Himself for Adam and Eve?)

o Most religious people would say that God asked a question not because He didn’t know the answer, but because he wanted to teach Adam and Eve something, maybe that is exactly right, but today I admit that I don’t know. There is a tiny bit of me that thinks that God wouldn’t have asked a question that He knew the answer to because it seems like backhanded deceit — tiny bit of me.

o How could God be in the presence of sin? (I think I was taught that He can’t let our sin into heaven because it would damage His holiness.)

· 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, " Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

o I am still wondering why someone didn’t put this chick in a padded room since she was talking to snakes!

o But in the next sentence God talks to a snake and even curses a snake — go figure!

o Unless you are talking to snakes and hearing responses, I think it is time that we all admit that we don’t understand it all.

· 2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 "If you do well, will not {your countenance} be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

o Why again was Cain’s offering not accepted and Abel’s was? I know that we say it was about the blood — Abel’s had blood and Cain’s didn’t but is that it?

o Others say that Cain’s offering represented his work and Abel’s represented God’s creation, but didn’t God create the plants just like He did the animals?

Well, I hope you get my point — there are tons of things that I don’t understand and I think it is time that we admit that we don’t really get it all.

What I do get and know beyond any doubt is that God wants to walk and talk with me and you, while I may not understand all of the Bible, and I certainly don’t understand all of God, I do understand that He was willing to do anything to get my sin and my shame out of the way so that I would quit hiding from Him just like Adam and Eve did in the garden.

One Year Bible and Talking Snakes

Well after two years off I have decided to attempt to read through the Bible in one year again. I am using a system where you read Old Testament, New Testament, and a taste of Psalms and Proverbs each day. You too should consider this. I have used the One Year Bibles in the past and I highly recommend them, but this year I am reading from the Message and using the bookmarks you can find at One Year Bible Online.

Well I am not going to take a ton of time to blog, but I just wanted to share what is on my mind. Over the past three years my inability to see through any lens other than my old fashion Baptist paradigm has begun to crumble. Now it seems that every time I read the Bible I see something differently than I had believed all my life, but I didn’t expect it to happen in early parts of Genesis.

Genesis 3:1 (The Message) says — The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: "Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" I read it again and again. Then I searched before and after that sentence for additional information that clarifies that verse, but I didn’t find what I was searching for.

Next I looked up the same passage in another translation. My good old standby is the NAS and there I read — “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Do you see what I am reading? Every time I have read that passage before I am sure that there was somewhere that Moses made it clear to everyone that this wasn’t just a snake, but it was a snake controlled by Satan himself. I remember as a kid thinking, “Why did God punish the snakes, they were just a victim of Satan?” I must have been taught that Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent, but I certainly can’t tell why from reading this passage.

For those of you who can’t watch or read Narnia stuff because of talking animals — throw away your Bibles, because animals talk and I am not just talking about an ass this time!

Well it is 1:19am so it is very likely that I am totally missing something. Maybe it is clear somewhere else in scripture that Satan was using the serpent as a puppet like I was taught growing up, but at this moment I am going to bed thinking about mankind being damaged and filled with shame because Eve and Adam chose to listen to a serpent instead of their creator! That serpent, better have had wings and a Mohawk or something cool!