Rocket Ships

by Scott Wetzel

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

I was listening to Doug Bursch the other day and he said something rather profound..  It was actually rather convicting and challenging and many of you know how I hate to be convicted and challenged.  Though it’s good for me, the feeling of stretching and changing is rarely peaceful in the beginning.  He said (and I paraphrase) we sin a thousand times a day and we don’t even know it.  Sometimes we even sin and claim that we are doing what God wants, but when we really dig in, we realize that it’s cultural and not scriptural.

We have a Christian culture that’s based on politics, finance and patriotism.  All those things can be used for good, but the CULTURE has taken those things and put them above the SCRIPTURE.  I know, I know this is something that I’ve talked about before and you probably think I’m some hippie Liberal that’s out to destroy the Conservative Evangelical movement.

You probably also don’t know me very well.

These things that I write are very difficult to put down on paper (er, monitor).  They go against the very core of my nature/upbringing.  I’ve worshiped at the alter of corporate consumerism for years.  I’m afraid some of you might even get the wrong impression of who I am in Christ, since this might go against the American church culture.  However, it’s completely okay to be countercultural when that culture is contrary to the word of God.  Sometimes the American church is all about God, country, money and in no particular order.  We cross our spiritual wires and think that as long as God is in there somewhere, we’re good.  So here it goes.  We’re going to talk about finances and it probably won’t be the last time.

I’ve been asked to lead the ministry part of our Sunday morning worship service many times.  I honestly really love doing that.   I love praying with people.  I love listening to the Holy Spirit as He intercedes with words I couldn’t have said on my own.  I love hearing people put aside their pride in order to allow God to do as God will do.  The Holy Spirit has been very faithful to provide me with sermonettes that speak to at least one person in the congregation.  Ministry time is always about healing in our church.  It can be healing for physical things, relational things, spiritual things or financial things.  I always mention financial things.  I never DON’T mention financial things.  I always feel a little weird about mentioning it, though.  I don’t have issues praying that someone might have shelter or a job or provisions, but I’m always afraid that someone will ask for prayer for superficial things.  I don’t know how Jesus feels about praying about 401k’s or our overpriced home.  I don’t know if Jesus WANTS us to pray about those things.

Nice things are great to have (and I believe God loves His children enough that He’ll give us treats sometimes), but Jesus didn’t teach us to pray about stock futures.  He taught us to pray about our daily provisions.  He wasn’t concerned about where He would lay his head or whether He could retire comfortably.  He was concerned about whether or not our hearts were fully engaged in the eternity that the Father has for us.  Much of the financial teaching in the Bible isn’t really about money at all.  It’s about where we put our faith, hope and love.

Most of us in this great nation have created a cult out of spirituality and finances.  We build a broken rocket ship model; wishing that the thing WE built is real, successful and will rise above everything we can see in order to save us.  Ultimately, though, it will be an earth shaking disappointment when it won’t fly or it crashes to the ground in a fiery mess.  Then we turn around and blame God, citing the Bible and telling Him that if we follow Him, He’s supposed to make us successful.

The thing we haven’t realized is that it’s not real.  It’s something we created.  The Word of God clearly tells us that.  If it were the real thing it would have been bigger and it would have been fulfilling.   We may not have had the excitement of building it with our own hands, but we have the excitement of being a part of something eternally successful.

Maybe the problem is that we define success differently than God does.

Letting Go

By Scott Wetzel

“‘Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?’
‘Caesar’s,’ they replied.
He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s’.” Luke 20:24-25 (NIV)

My wife and I have a baby daughter.  I know she’s ours.  She has my eyes and my wife’s mouth.  She does things that remind me of me sometimes and other times she reminds me of my better half.  When people look at her, we never know if they are going to say she looks like me or if she looks like my wife.

But it’s obvious she’s ours.

She doesn’t look like anyone else in the world but us right now.

She HAS to be ours, right?

The sad fact I’m trying to deal with right now is that she’s not ours.  She’s on loan for a time.  Eventually we have to give her up.  Eventually she’ll leave us and be lent to someone else for awhile.  We might have influence, but we will no longer have control.  God will have a whole different role for us.

I love how Jesus responds to the Pharisees when talking about taxes.  It’s strange and distant.  It’s almost as if He’s not talking about taxes.  And I’m camping on the idea that He’s not.  They ask Him what we need to pay and He shows them a coin engrained with the image of a leader.  The person that runs the country is etched into the coin so it’s unmistakable where that coin eventually needs to go.

Our daughter might look like my wife and me, but ultimately she’s made in the image of God.  She’s stamped with His likeness before ours.   There is a part of me that’s sad about that but it also puts a greater responsibility on us to make sure she’s taken care of.  I have to begin to realize that God doesn’t give us our children or significant others.  He lends them to us.  We have to be willing to say “God, I’ll take care of this for You for as long as You would have me do it.”  When His image is stamped on it, it’s His.

Eventually we have to let go.

Stop Falling In Love

By Scott Wetzel

"(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Cor 13:7

I’m at the age where I begin to see a lot of divorce in my age group, whether it be believers or unbelievers.  It’s all over the place in the friends that I have.  Almost every time it’s because of infidelity.  There are not a lot of things more shocking than a friend admitting to you that they had an affair, especially when it’s a person you thought had more integrity than that.

The most shocking part of it all is that they generally make the same rationalization, “I just fell out of love.”  It probably SHOULDN’T be shocking to me, honestly.  Our everyday conversations are filled with the term “falling in love”.  If we can fall in love, why can’t we go deeper and fall out of love with that person and in love with another?  Falling is unintentional.   To most people, love is an unintentional, random feeling.  It is the increased heart rate, serotonin, libido that makes you want to be around that special someone.   When that feeling is gone, obviously the love has left, right?

We’ve reduced love down to a simple emotion.  Love is no longer an eternal gift to be given, but a fleeting tingle in our hearts (or loins) that makes all of our selfish desires turn to reality.  Once those selfish desires are fulfilled we move on to the next selfish desire and the next and the next and the next.  If our significant other can’t provide for our selfish desires, we begin to search for someone who can.

There will NEVER be a person that can fulfill all of your selfish desires.

YOU can’t even fulfill all of your selfish desires.

True love was defined by Jesus in John 15:13 when He told us that there is no greater love than a person sacrificing their life for another.  That’s a big revelation after hearing about self preservation for multiple generations.  Real love isn’t about self preservation at all.  In fact, it’s about self cessation.  We no longer focus internally, but instead we focus externally in order to better the one we love.  We end our lives in order to extend the life of another.  When we marry, we should essentially be saying, “my life doesn’t matter any more, but yours does.”   When that’s reciprocated, the result is a singular entity rather than two opposing forces trying to work together.

We’ve lost that in marriage.  We’ll go on mission trips, feed the poor locally, serve the church, but reduce our marriages to “falling in love”.  Yes, it’s just a phrase, but it’s a destructive phrase.  It’s silly to think that a quick stumble into a relationship would be eternal.  All things of great eternal consequence need to be worked at, refined and ultimately, sacrificial.  If Jesus relates the church to our marriages (or at least the way our marriages should be), it completely changes the dynamic of love, doesn’t it?

Real love is not about falling.  It’s about rising.

In Spite Of:

By Scott Wetzel

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” Jude 1:24  (NIV)

Jesus loves you in spite of:

•  Short Attention Spans

•  Sexual Addiction

•  Substance Abuse

•  Selfish Attitudes

•  Little White Lies

•  Big Black Lies

•  Idolatry

•  Speeding

•  Anger

•  Control Issues

•  Agendas

•  Political Affiliations

•  Uncompassionate Hearts

•  Murder

•  Unwillingness to Change

•  Legalism

•  Rebellion

•  Apathy

•  Immorality

•  Broken Families

•  Hateful Speech

•  Hateful Attitudes

•  Hateful Actions

•  Every Sin we’ve Ever Done, Big or Little.

If you can accept that, you are on the road to loving Him back.  Loving Him back begins a natural progression into righteousness.  If you love Him, you’ll keep His commandments.  There is real joy in real love and real love involves submission as well as reception.

Love is a choice.  Jesus chooses to love us.  Will you choose to love Him?