A New Song: Play Skillfully

For nearly five hundred years, the cello has been played as a filler or background for some of the most incredible musical masterpieces. Occasionally, a cellist will get center stage, but typically, the same cello sounds come out. After hundreds of years and God knows how many tens of thousands of cello artists later, two men change everything. If you haven’t heard of 2Cellos, two Croatian men Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser, and you have any interest in music, you should listen to them. (I’ll provide a link at the bottom of this post.)

These two gentlemen have transformed what many would consider a boring instrument into something that captivates your attention. Neither Luka nor Stjepan trained on anything different than was presented to all the other cello artists over the centuries. It was the same structure of thin wood, taut strings, and ornate knobs, but they turned it into something that is played at teenage rock concerts to standing ovations.

Nothing is different about the instrument. Nothing has changed. No cello creator would be offended as the instrument is in tact just as intended by the maker. The only difference…presentation of the material. The notes float off the same treble and bass clef that has existed for millennia, but the sound they create captures the imagination of the coldest of classical music haters.

The instrument is old, outdated, and many would consider it boring. In the right hands, however, the music can be just as sweet; it can change with the culture without changing the focus and can appeal to the youngest of minds…and the cello creator is not offended.

"Sing a new song of praise to Him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy."

Psl. 33:3

Instead, the craftsman is encouraged as new and innovative ways to honor such a beautiful instrument is pieced together so that the instrument does not fade into oblivion.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is considered by many to be old, outdated, and boring. One thing is certain, however, the center of that attention, Jesus Christ, is still just as sweet and soothing to the heart as He has always been.

“How sweet your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey.” Psl. 119:103

The statistics have been clear for decades; the younger generations are tuning out the gospel message. Why not pick up that instrument of old and play a new song that captures the imagination of a teenager, college student, or grandparent?

The Creator will not be saddened by your new approach, but instead, He will be grateful that someone cares enough about the Good News of Jesus Christ that they picked up the same tool, played from the same sheet of music that Paul, Peter, and Martin Luther did, but with a new sound that captivates a new audience. The pages stay bound to the book, the words do not run, and the message is consistent: 

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). 

Perhaps simply because you earnestly sought God anew or begged for a new way to present the same message, the listener may hear the care, love, humility, and honor you give your Savior and see something different about you than other Christians.

The others seemed to them to simply want to stroke the same chord with little to no effort, concern, or passion for the person, but only wanting a notch in their Christian belt.

During this Christmas season when we sing, hum, or listen to Christmas songs such as Joy to the world or my personal favorite Hallelujah, please don’t forget the message of old continues to be a soothing sound to a troubled heart. The love of Christ is still just as peaceful as it was when the angels proclaimed His birth to rugged shepherds.

“Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” Luke 2:10-11

Listen to the band 2Cellos in Concert

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Snow Melts

In the record-breaking blockbuster Frozen, the supporting character, who most viewers consider the main character, is a happy go lucky snowman named Olaf. I have to admit, he made me laugh several times, and his demeanor is hard to dislike. He sings the second most popular song in the movie called, “In Summer”. For those three people who have not watched this movie, here are some of the lyrics: “Bees will buzz, kids will blow dandelion fuzz, and I’ll be doing whatever snow does in summer…my snow up against the burning sand probably getting gorgeously tanned in summer.”

Of course the humorous thing about this melody is everyone knows what will happen to this poor snowman in summer…

he melts.

The snowman has limits, and unless or until he learns to embrace those limits, he will surely do whatever it is that happens to snow in summer.

Here is the unshakable reality of life:

Truth will always dominate one’s hopes, beliefs, and aspirations.

In fact, everything created has limits. Nothing is exempt from the actuality of our physical laws that hold us together as well as the often-ignored spiritual laws that, if followed, keep us mentally together. We are both physical and spiritual. We have a physical being that is useless without the spirit that makes it alive. That is, all the DNA, RNA, and billions of cells can do nothing without life being breathed into it and we call this our soul…our spirit.

Health conscious people are cautious about what they eat, drink, and think. The interesting thing is that most of them miss the reason they are limiting themselves…

They live with self-imposed restrictions not just to look good, but so they can

“feel” good.

Feelings come from our spirit, not from nerves, electric impulses, or genetics. It is our spirit’s interpretation and assimilation of that constantly fluctuating data that makes someone ‘feel’ good. Our gray matter is our brain, but our mind/spirit cannot be located…it is this mind/spirit that allows us to feel anything.

If you live your life ignoring your physical limitations, you will feel it spiritually.

You will melt

Olaf’s friends hesitated to be honest with him and tell him exactly what happens to snow in summer. If they truly cared and loved Olaf, they would humbly inform him and suggest he daydream about summer, but seek the artic north. For Olaf, he can only prosper and remain happy-go-lucky in the cold.

For humankind, we can only prosper and remain happy-go-lucky by accepting and living the way our Creator has informed us via sixty-six books that we call the Bible.

God, because He IS love:

Warns His beloved that we will, in a sense, ‘melt in the summer sun’.

He humbly requests, does not demand, that we follow His leading because He knows how we function properly, and He desires for us to spiritually prosper.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible is not a book of rules…it is sixty-six books filled with unquestionable wisdom that transcends time, the whims of man, and the silliness of momentary cultures.

Read it.

Study it.

Apply it.

It is from these truths that you will thrive. God is on your side if you would trust and allow Him to lead, you will realize this amazing certainty.

Don’t be an Olaf living in a false fantasy. Live in reality and embrace your boundaries as our loving God has articulated.

Limits are not a bad thing; they keep us alive and keep us 
Frozen.

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’" says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” Jer. 29:11

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Walls

On a short hike through the hillsides of Pittsburgh the other day, I came across this 150-yard-long rock wall. The large structure has many boulders that must weigh several tons each. This barrier is in the middle of nowhere; at least, nothing surrounds it today. As I walked along the top and spied a snake or two, I wondered, who built this thing and why? I imagine it took a great deal of effort, sweat, and planning to create. I don’t know if someone built it to keep something in or out, or both. Regardless, here it sits, a remnant of days gone by, and no one cares if the wall is here or not. It may have done its job in the day, but it does nothing now, except provide a place for snakes to absorb the warmth of the sun, bees to make nests, and plants to hold on to for stability.

As I took some time out of my hike to sit and ponder the wall with my new snake friends, I compared the manmade walls of Christianity that we have built over the centuries. There are rules and regulations on church dockets from years past that are nothing short of ridiculous and humorous at best, and despite the committees it took to form them and the infighting parishioners went through to create them, few care that they are there today. They are useless old walls, which, unfortunately, have done their job. These manmade barriers to eternal life with Jesus Christ are desperately sad and disturbing, and Jesus spoke against them continually. As Alex Himaya wrote, “Jesus hates religion” or man-breathed rules. Many of these hurdles impeded those who were earnestly seeking answers.

Hunters of truth who were turned away because they did not fit into a human-made structure.

I wonder how many simply stopped trying.

How many people simply moved on, assuming they weren’t good enough for God because they weren’t good enough for humankind?

The wall from space,
Google Maps

Beyond those manmade ‘clay tablet’ rules that Jesus despises, how many parents, grandparents, and churchgoers have thrown up similar walls? The most perplexing to me are those who continue to trumpet their ignorance or fear of answers by saying, ‘it’s a sin’ or ‘it’s not right to ask questions about one’s faith’. If we don’t or can’t ask questions:

How do we learn? How do we grow? How do we know God better?

God told us to “test the spirits” 1 John 4:1

That means, ‘Ask questions’!

I wonder how many times a student, son or daughter, or those on the “outside” couldn’t see over the well-constructed rock wall of religion and missed the relationship. I know this; nature despises a vacuum and will always fill a void. If seekers of truth don’t or can’t ask us, they certainly will seek their answers elsewhere. The world happily gives them the answers they seek, and gladly fills the void.

I could recount many life stories that I have heard where the person at a young age sought truth, but ran into a self-righteous wall of fear or disinformation never to return. We need to stop building walls and start building relationships that bring people to dynamic life in Christ. Clothes, tattoos, cars, houses, jobs, education, looks, athleticism, smells, ignorance, actions, God haters, etc. We can’t let any of those offend us to the point of building a wall that Jesus is trying to tear down. I was a God hater until the age of twenty-seven. I am grateful someone did not build a wall that I could not get over, like so many in my life had already done. Lisa Shores saw me for what I was, despite my adamant belief to the contrary: a man in need of a Savior.

Be a wall destroyer, not a wall builder.

“Human pride will be humbled, and human arrogance will be brought down. Only the LORD will be exalted on that day of judgment.” Isa. 2:17

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Dead Squirrels

 

Everyone can associate with the squirrel on the road. You know the one that dodges, darts, and dashes to get from one side to the next for no apparent reason. For the last few weeks, one of those gray, furry creatures would run in front of my car on a small side road on my way to work. This week, he juked when he should have jived and met his end.

As I drove by him on the road, I considered his brief life. His ‘home’ was on the side of the road surrounded by dozens of wooded acres with no homes, cars, or roads, everything he could possibly need or want to live a happy life. He would run to the other side of the road, which is a walled subdivision. It reminds me of the classic question, “Why did the chicken/squirrel cross the road?”

This story plays out untold thousands of times a day around the world, but it’s not just animals, it’s us. God gives us what we “need”, and yet, we want what’s on the other side of the road. Our discontentment with His provisions and curiosity is so strong that we are willing to risk the dangers inherent in those decisions. Somehow—I’ll never understand how—we convince ourselves that what happened to millions before us will not happen to us; “It can’t happen to me!” We believe we are wiser or have figured out a trick that ‘they’ didn’t know. In the end, the wheels pin us to the road, and the result is the same…passersby glance at our outcome, and then shake their head in disbelief about our poor choice to leave the known to run to the unknown. The funny part is that the squirrels on the side we’re running to are running to our side believing the same thing about our side.

God warns us over and over about desiring the other side of the road because longing leads to running, which leads to our demise.

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” 1 Timothy 6:6-8

Stories of men and women, who have refused to be content, litter humankind’s history from the most powerful leaders to the lowliest survivor. Curiosity killed the cat, the squirrel, and us.

 “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” 1 Timothy 4:11-13

If you are finding yourself looking, longing, and lunging for the other side, consider the dangers…consider our mandate to be content…consider our first goal, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:33

 

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Morbidly Obese

Occasionally, a news article describes a crime in which people stood by and did nothing to stop what was occurring. A woman is violated, a man is beaten, a child is verbally assaulted, and the list is as endless as the depraved human mind is evil. As we read about these senseless events, there is something inside of us that incites righteous anger. “Why didn’t anyone do anything?”, “How could they just stand there?”, “If I was there I would have…!”

Now imagine those same scenarios, but the bystanders were police officers or armed military. Or what if they were high-powered executives who had knowledge of an ongoing criminal act where innocence was robbed. We rightly become more indignant because we all know that with great power and/or knowledge comes tremendous responsibility. Unlike the typical bystander, the officer and militia are highly trained experts on how to handle nightmarish situations. And CEOs receive training on what to do if “X” occurs, and the answer is never, ‘Sit back and allow the crime to continue.’ The court of public opinion would rightly be one of outrage.

What about the Christian who remains silent?

 

The viral YouTube video of atheist, Penn, of Penn and Teller accurately describes the Christian who says nothing to a person who they believe is going to hell. He says, “Some Christians don’t proselytize because they’re afraid of it being socially awkward…How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?”

The Body of Christ is filled with wide and expanding souls who refuse to share the gospel.

It appears the Body of Christ has become morbidly obese. That is, they continue to gorge themselves at the table of God’s knowledge week after week, absorbing the truth of Christ, fat with lifesaving information, full of life, bursting at the seams with eternal knowledge that sets the captives free. Yet most, according to research, remain silent.

I fear the day when we stand in heaven and my perfect ears hear the righteous indignation and chorus from those departing to eternal separation from God rightly crying out… “WHY!?” “HOW COULD YOU!?” “IF I HAD KNOWN, I WOULD HAVE…!?”

Spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a calling or a gift; it is a command!

 

Imagine what could happen if the New Year’s resolution of the Christian was, “To go out and make disciples of Jesus Christ.” In other words, I will no longer sit week after week watching my friends, family, and co-workers walk the path of eternal destruction. I will obey the command of God. I will stand up for the righteous cause and not be a bystander anymore. I will get my soul in shape by working it out on the lost.

“How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?” How long will we ignore the command of God?

Our calling is not to get to Heaven by the skin of our teeth. We are trained, equipped, and commanded, at minimal, to attempt to...

bring others with us.

 

Jesus is a Myth

 

For several years, billboards loudly proclaiming that Jesus is a myth have sprung up around Christmas time. Various atheists’ groups are proud to claim responsibility. One such sign, recently erected in Times Square, depicts a rendition of Jesus with the words “Jesus is a Myth”. As a Christian, I could not be happier…once again, Jesus gets free advertisement. I almost feel bad for Buddha (originally, Siddhattha Gotama), Shiva, Vishnu, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, and thousands of others who apparently do not rise to the level of concern for atheists. Only Jesus of Nazareth rises to such distinction. So strong are their feelings towards Him that they will give their greatest resource—money—just to tell others about Him. Praise the Lord!

In business, there is a saying, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” Church buildings are boring. Christians are often very boring. But posting something that goes against all logic, historical evidence, and long-standing acceptance is exciting. It grabs one’s attention and makes them question the truthfulness or falsehood of the statement.

I love this technique, and I’ve personally challenged hundreds of students throughout the years to spend a week or two of their life, using all of their intellect and research abilities, to try to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. I believe the fastest way to saving faith or unbearable realization that Jesus indeed lived, died, and rose again is to aggressively study the evidence for the resurrection. My prayer is that people will read that sign in New York, question their beliefs, and set out to understand why they believe what they believe (1 Peter 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:15; et al.). That is, if they claim Christianity, why do they believe? And if they are atheists, why do they see the facts of history differently than over 90% of the world? The simple truth is one side is right, while the other is wrong, and there is no middle ground.

One thing is certain; atheists have already proven a man named Jesus lived, died, his body disappeared within three days of His burial and is still missing, and He was so impactful on society that the known world changed due to Him and Him alone. How do we know this? Atheists, agnostics, and many brilliant lovers of knowledge have spent 2,000 years trying to prove where His body went after His burial. Implicit in their study is the foregone conclusion that a man named Jesus lived, died, was buried, His body is gone, and He changed some of the world’s most ardent religious followers as well as pagans, thus why they spend their time, money, and talent on one point: where did His body go? Intriguing to me is that without even opening the bible, only listening to the naysayers, I can already firmly know that Jesus lived, died, and His body is missing. So again, the only remaining question is, “Where did He go?”

Please, my atheistic friends, I sincerely beg you to continue to put billboards up, go on news channels and argue your point, and enter the halls of learning. God wants His people to get ready for the coming years of trouble with an unshakable faith, and the only way to remain strong is to know that you know that you know. Christians need a good dare to motivate their lazy minds, and apparently, the best way to strengthen the gospel is via a good challenge/persecution.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” Genesis 50:20

 

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