Chip Shots

The irony is this: John the Baptist called the people to “Prepare the way for the Lord,” but he was totally unprepared himself when Jesus showed up. “I should be baptized by you,” John said, “not you by me!” He only consented when Jesus insisted that it was the right thing to do. We can’t blame John for being confused. After all, like everyone else, he expected a conquering Messiah who would defeat the Romans and restore Israel to its former glory. Instead, Jesus came as a suffering Messiah who would defeat evil and restore creation to its future glory. John could not have known this at the time. Indeed, much about Jesus’ Advent was only cryptically revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures. It took his death and resurrection to convince people that Jesus was, in fact, God’s Anointed Deliverer. In the meantime, like most everyone else, John found Jesus’ ministry surprising and confusing. To his credit, however, he was willing to do what Jesus said despite his questions. He baptized ...

Ouch! My back hurts. I just finished installing 220 luminarias on our roof and around the perimeter our home. It’s been a family Christmas tradition since 1991. It began as a tribute to childhood memories of placing luminarias around my uncle’s house in Moon Valley every Christmas Eve. Besides, I thought luminarias were more beautiful and serene than the garish flashing lights I saw elsewhere. I still think so. We began with twenty bags placed on either side of our driveway. Every year afterward we added ten bags, extending our collection until today, when it virtually covers our home. A neighbor walked by while I was on the roof, saying, “It always feels like Christmas is here when I see the luminarias on your house.” I feel the same way, although sometimes I wonder if it is worth it. After all, my back is really sore! But I know that time spent in preparation for Christmas enhances the joy of its celebration. You probably have similar holiday traditions. As I write...

News Flash: Christendom is dead. American culture no longer sits comfortably with Christian values. In times past, Christianity assumed a privileged position in our country; but this is no longer the case. In fact, for a lot of Christians, it feels like the opposite is true: the powers that be in government, in entertainment, in education, and employment, are particularly antagonistic toward Christianity. What shall we do about this? Do we circle the wagons and isolate from secular society? Many take this route. As much as possible, they avoid the outside world and its influence. They attend their own schools, read their own books, watch their own movies, listen to their own music, and cultivate their own like-minded friends. Is this the best response to culture? Or should we embrace contemporary standards and assimilate into secular society? This is also a popular approach. After all, in America at least, most Christians believe and behave like the rest of society when it come...

What was Moses thinking when he made his last speech to the people of Israel just before they entered the Promised Land?  Many years had passed since he first led them out of Egyptian slavery, through the Red Sea, up to Mt. Sinai, and into the wilderness where, because of their disobedience, they wandered for forty years. It was quite an adventure! Now they are standing on the brink of the Promised Land. They will enter it, but he will not. His job is done, and he must entrust his life’s work to the next generation of leaders. What will he say to them? With apologies to the famous Broadway musical, what Moses gave them was this: Old Deuteronomy, a book filled with laws as obscure to us as the plot line to "Cats."  If we focus on these, we will be mystified. But if we pay attention to its fundamental message, we will find wisdom to help us as we navigate our way forward into the future God has for us. The central theme of Deuteronomy is found in these famous words -- wo...

You'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I'm not. Every so often we are contacted by people who want to do a story about that crazy church which meets in a saloon -- or perhaps it's the other way around: that crazy saloon which turns into a church on Sunday mornings! Whichever it is, I occasionally find myself telling the story about the strange partnership we have with the Buffalo Chip Saloon here in Cave Creek. This time, I had the honor of sitting alongside Larry Wendt, who owns the saloon, while Jerry Rose, of Total Living Network , asked us to tell our story. Here it is. Maybe you'll get a kick out of it!

Until this morning, I had never been to a Unicorn Pool Party. But it was a hit with our granddaughter and her friends as they celebrated her fifth birthday here in California. Grandparent duties completed, we are on our way back to Arizona, and look forward to worshiping with you tomorrow morning. It’s been a busy few days. Maddie’s actual birthday was Thursday. The original plan was a family day down at the beach. Instead, at her request, we enjoyed pancakes with her other grandparents at our usual breakfast place, a short walk to downtown Glendora. Her daddy was able to take the day off, which was a special treat for both of them. There is something beautiful about simple family traditions. On the one hand, there’s nothing special about our breakfast spot: we’ve been going to the same place on every visit for the past five years. At first, the stroller carried only her; now it carries her brother and baby sister. In spite of its “ordinariness” (or because of it?), this bir...

Happy Ascension Day! What? You didn’t know today was Ascension Day? Well, you’re in good company, for the vast majority of people in churches like ours missed it, too. Ascension Day is the annual Christian holiday (“holy-day”) commemorating the time when, forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into the heavens. For many Christians this merely suggests that Jesus went back to heaven, and that someday he will return to take us there. Ho-hum. What's on TV tonight? Boy, are we mistaken! In the first place, Jesus didn’t just “go back to heaven.” He “ascended” to the throne at the right hand of his Father, having completed his task of re-uniting heaven and earth via his Incarnation (Christmas), his Crucifixion (Good Friday), and his Resurrection (Easter). Jesus didn’t just “go away.” He didn’t say, in a voice eerily similar to the Terminator, “I’ll be back.” He ascended to his throne. He took his rightful place as ruler of heaven and earth. As Stephen, the firs...

I often introduce myself this way: "Hi. I'm Steve, the Preacher at the Buffalo Chip Saloon in Cave Creek." People smile, but it's true. A few years ago, some friends and I decided it was time to have a church that fit right into our western community. So we began to meet at the Buffalo Chip Saloon. We meet outdoors. Some of us dress western-style. A few of us bring dogs. It's as casual and comfortable as sitting on your back porch. We like it that way. Our music is a mix of old and new, often with a bluegrass flavor, always with guitars and harmonica. We pitch it low enough for a guy to sing along without hitching up his pants, and simple enough to join in the first time you visit. We teach from the Bible. We believe that it tells the true story of God's loving rescue plan for the beautiful world he made. (It centers on Jesus, of course.) Oh, and because we meet at the Buffalo Chip Saloon, most people just call us "Church at the Chip." We...

We just returned home from a week with our daughter and her husband as they awaited the birth of their third child. Because of the baby’s due date, Donna and I had the rare privilege of worshiping with our children on Mother’s Day. (Aside: Thanks to all those who manned the ship here in Cave Creek so we could spend this time with our kids!) Walking to church, I noticed that Momma, Daddy, and Maddie were all toting Bibles, with little brother Lincoln in Daddy’s arms. Maddie’s is a storybook Bible we gave to her on her first Christmas. The cover is long gone by now, but she carried it to church proudly. As I watched her, I thought of C.S. Spurgeon’s famous line: “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” When we entered our daughter’s church, she was greeted with a lot of, “I thought for sure you’d have that baby by now!” But she didn’t, and we were grateful, for as a result, we were able to spend this Mother’s Day with her. As often happens when I ...

We tend to glamorize the early church. Back then, we muse, they got it right. They loved one another, they welcomed the stranger, they spread the Good News, they studied the scripture, they gave freely of their time and treasure, they worshiped in spirit and truth. The church was a living, growing, world-transforming community of faith, love and hope. In large part, of course, that is true. But it does not tell the whole truth. A quick look at Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians will convince us otherwise. Consider the litany of problems they had: They didn’t get along with one another like they should. They were overly impressed by status and position. They were suspicious of their leaders. Their sexual standards and habits were out of control. They needlessly took one another to court. They disrespected marriage. They were insensitive to one another’s conscience. They were proud of their spiritual giftedness. They doubted the resurrection. They were prideful and selfish, chi...

It is appropriate that we conclude our weekly meditation on the Lord’s Prayer just a few days following Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead. For the events of Easter provide a poignant witness to the revolutionary power of Jesus’ prayer, and to its uniquely Christian approach to kingdom, power and glory. “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever,” Jesus said. What audacious words these are! At the time Jesus prayed this words, who was it that represented the kingdom, the power and the glory? The Romans, of course. Their empire covered most of the known world, and the Jewish people in particular. Jews hated the Romans, and a variety of political movements erupted both before and after Jesus’ time seeking to free them from Roman oppression. All of them were violently squelched. Rome did not take kindly to other kingdoms claiming their subjects' allegiance. Clearly then, when Jesus closed his prayer with this stirring affirmation about God’s kingdom, he was n...

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." When Jesus taught us to pray this, he knew what he was talking about. His ministry began with a direct encounter with the tempter in the wilderness. His ministry ended with a gut-wrenching prayer in the Garden. In each case, he was tempted to step outside the Father’s loving care and direction, and to take his future into his own hands. In many ways, this is at the root of all temptation. Whatever the specific temptation, the thing beneath the thing is the continual battle to live in humble trust and obedience to the Father. Will we surrender our appetites, our aspirations, and our identity to him? Or will allow these good things to become our master rather than our servant? Jesus faced all these temptations in the desert and the garden. After forty days of prayer and fasting at the beginning of his ministry, the enemy attacked him in all three of these vulnerable areas: appetites, aspiration, and identity. Woul...

Years ago someone taught me this important prayer principle: “When you pray, Gaze on God and Glance on your Request.” All too often, I realized, we reverse this order when we pray. We gaze on our needs and barely glance at God. Consequently, we shrink God to the size of our needs. Our prayers become little more than worrying out loud. Instead, as we learn to fix our gaze on God, our needs do not seem quite so overwhelming after all. When we focus on God’s greatness, God’s love, God’s faithfulness, and God’s power, our needs shrink to the size of our God. We can bring them to him with confidence and faith. This is why the first half of the Lord’s Prayer is so important. Its words of adoration and worship are not merely preamble to petition and confession. No. By gazing on God in this way, our needs assume their proper place in relation to his majesty. For example …. We say, “Our Father,” and we realize that we belong to him not because of our performance but by his gracious...

When the rescuers themselves are in need of rescue, we know we are in are in a precarious position. That is exactly what we see as the Genesis account unfolds. If you are joining us in our Community Bible Project , you are no doubt feeling a bit confused and dismayed by these so-called “fathers” of our faith: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. After all, didn’t Abraham give his wife away – twice! – in order to save his own skin (chs. 12 and 20)? And didn’t he have a baby with his slave (at his wife’s request) in order to “help” God fulfill his promise (ch. 16)? What is more, Isaac following in his father’s footsteps, pawned off his wife for his own protection (ch. 26). And Jacob, whose story you read today (ch. 27) has just stolen his brother’s blessing, fulfilling his name: “Cheater/Deceiver.” The story does not get any better, as seasoned Bible readers will know. There is everything from cheating, lying, hatred, murder, adultery and incest in the holy family tree. What are we to ...

Elijah had had enough. He was ready to quit. After all, what more could he do? The nation was going down the tubes, and no one, not even God, seemed to care. Exhausted, he sat in the shade of a broom tree. It’s probably not like our own Desert Broom (I call it a weed – it’s an extremely objectionable thing), but I associate them both just the same. The broom tree was merely a desert shrub, sometimes large enough to provide a bit of shade. It’s a pathetic place to find rest. But rest was what he needed, and the broom tree would have to do. For a full day, he’d been running away from Queen Jezebel. It was a desert a lot like ours. He was hot. He was tired. He was hungry. Out of gas, out of ideas, and out of sorts. “I have had enough,” he said, and he went to sleep in what little shade he could find. Ever felt like Elijah? You have, you do, or you will. Sometimes, we’ve just had enough. We thought our plan was good, but nothing turned out right. We thought we’d have a reasona...