Chip Shots

All right, brothers and sisters, it’s time for some straight talk. If you are serious about following Jesus, you will be active in a local church. Otherwise, you are only playing pretend. Period. The idea that you can follow Jesus without being part of a local fellowship of believers? Forget it. It’s not in the Bible. I’m not saying you’re not a Christian. I’m not questioning your faith. I am saying you ought to be in a church. What we self-absorbed, Lone Ranger-type, pick yourself up from the bootstraps, individualistic, consumer-driven Americans often forget is this: Jesus didn’t just die to rescue individuals; he died to create a new community. Whether you like it or nor, when you committed your life to following Jesus, you became part of a family. Other than that famous thief who died on a cross – and he had a pretty good excuse – there is no hint, not even a whisper, of anyone who followed Jesus without being part of a local gathering of Christ-followers. “Love one another. Admon...

James had a problem, and it was about to split the church. The good news was that hundreds of new people were beginning to follow Jesus. The bad news was that they were not the right kind of people. No one doubted their sincerity. No one questioned their devotion. However, their habits were disgusting. Their hygiene was despicable. Their respect for the traditions which had birthed their faith? Deplorable. Most people wanted them to clean up their act before being welcomed as bona fide church members. After all, for generations a definite separation had existed between them, affirmed and perpetuated by both sides. It was hard enough to accept them at all – couldn’t they at least clean up a little? A church meeting was called to resolve their differences. Respected leaders from around the country arrived to state their case. For several hours, James carefully listened to both sides. “The same God who sent Jesus gave us the rules of our behavior. God is not inconsistent. These new belie...

Watching Cleveland in the playoffs is a huge memory jolt. In a story I’ve recorded here previously, my ten year old son and me had the privilege of attending a World Series game there in 1997. It was a gift from Major League Baseball – a prize I won when my wife entered me into a contest while we attended an Arizona Fall League game in Scottsdale. All I had to do was throw a strike between innings of a game. It took me two tries, but I did it, and three days later we boarded a plane for Cleveland. As you might imagine, it was the experience of a lifetime. Die-hard fans may recall that it was the coldest World Series game in history, even boasting a light skiff of snow. Despite the last-minute purchase of a blanket in Cleveland, we were embarrassingly unprepared for the cold weather. The kind gentleman next to us bought my son a cup of hot chocolate. Cleveland fans went home happy with a convincing victory. Bryan Anderson and Matt Williams, soon to join the fledgling Diamondbacks franch...

Writing during a period of philosophical and spiritual upheaval in Russia in the latter nineteenth century, Fyodor Dostoevsky brilliantly depicted the futility of a world view which marginalized God. I first read him as a young college student. Wading through “The Brothers Karamazov,” my primary motivation was to complete the weekly reading requirement as painlessly as possible. Only later did I realize the brilliance of his portrayal of the three brothers, the spiritual Alyosha, the sensual Dmitri, and the intellectual Ivan. Each one, in his own way, was responsible for their father’s murder. A Christian himself (admittedly, not a perfect one, like you!), Dostoevsky was once challenged to write a novel expressing the results of Christian worldview in contemporary culture. His classic novel, “The Idiot,” is the result. The protagonist’s name is Prince Myshkin, an epileptic who represents the ways of Jesus in the world. In many ways, Prince is too good for the world. Unerringly loving, ...