Why We Do What We Do

Recently a friend said, "Tom, you've been doing this for more than 43 years. When are you going to hang it up and enjoy life?" The occasion was my 66th birthday. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I haven't thought about it. But will Mary Ann and I ever 'hang it up?' Never.

Here's why. One thousand years from now, the GracePointe Church facilities will be no more. But GracePointe will live on...in heaven. The people we've won to Christ, baptized and discipled will be there along with all of the others from previous churches Mary Ann and I have served.

So why not rest with the knowledge of that in our hearts? Because God has planned for more to cross our paths and He intends to use us for their salvation experiences.

Get weary? Maybe. Faint? I think not.

Our God is Good

At this time of year, we tend put a lot of emphasis on Christmas. That is because merchants are pushing us in that direction, wanting us to believe that Christmas is all about trimming the tree, buying presents, and so on. In the process of all this, we can very easily forget the beautiful holiday called Thanksgiving.

Originally established as a holiday by President George Washington in 1789, Thanksgiving was initially a religious holiday and, more to the point, a Christian holiday. The first Thanksgiving was different than ours today. It lasted three days, during which the pilgrims feasted with their Indian guests.

Of course, our Thanksgiving is also about gathering with friends and family and having a feast. But sometimes at this particular time of year, we can forget about how thankful we ought to be. We need to never forget that God has blessed us to live in the United States of America, which is, in my opinion, the greatest country on the face of this earth. We have so many privileges here.

We have a lot to give thanks for, and certainly the Bible urges us to give thanks to the Lord. We are told in Psalm 106:1, "Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

Sometimes worship and thanksgiving can be a sacrifice, because we are down or depressed or things aren't going all that well for us. Maybe hardship or tragedy has hit our lives in some way and we don't want to thank God. But the Bible doesn't say, "Give thanks to the Lord, because you feel good." It says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!"

Some Thoughts About Easter

Easter is for everyone, but it is not about bunnies or brightly colored eggs. It is about Jesus, and it is specifically about Jesus crucified and risen again from the dead. And, it was...

A hard day for the disciples
There was no question about it. Christ had died. If the crucifixion hadn’t killed him, certainly the spear of the Roman soldier would have. The disciples thought it was over. They thought death had finished it.


If they would have thought back, they would have remembered this was the same Lord who had raised people from the dead. He raised the daughter of Jairus. He raised Lazarus after he already was in the process of decomposition.


And, if they would have thought back, they would have remembered that on the day that Lazarus was raised, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25 NKJV).


But it is hard to see through eyes that have been blinded by tears. So the disciples were shocked to find an angel waiting for them with the good news: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6 NKJV).


They thought He was dead. But He was alive again

Hope for us
Because Jesus has died and has risen again, it means that we as believers do not have to be afraid of death. As 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again” (NLT). Jesus has gone to the other side, He has returned, and He has the keys to death and hell (see Revelation 1:18).

It’s hard for us to accept that our bodies are wearing out. Yet the Bible says we will have new bodies one day: “We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us” (Romans 8:23 NLT).


You see, my body is not the real me. The real me is my soul, my spirit. This body will die. But my soul will live on.


One day, you may open up the newspaper and read that Tom Holland has died. But don’t you believe a word of it, because at the moment you read that I have died, I will be more alive than I have ever been before–in the presence of God. And the same can be said for every believer.
He is the resurrection and the life, and if we believe in Him, though we were dead, yet shall we live.

What's In It for Me?

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

I’ve been using a term recently—Christian consumerism. I’m not using it to describe what Christians buy; rather, it describes the attitude of many 21st century Christians with what they want both from Jesus and His church. To be sure, well-meaning church leaders have contributed to this mindset by championing the cause of a seeker-driven philosophy; say what you need to say, do what you need to do, offer what you need to offer to reach seekers. Along the way, followers of Christ have taken note and decided “I want to get in on that.” One of the results is what I refer to as “church shopping.” Instead of seeking a church on the basis of "Where does God want me to be?" it has become “What can this church do for me?”

What’s more, it doesn’t stop with shopping for a church; the mindset is even applied to God. Jesus said in Matthew 22 that we are to “Love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Every preacher proclaims, “We are to love God!” However, it’s what follows that violates the implied meaning of the Scripture. When a so-called preacher says, “We are to love God AND God wants you to be healthy, God wants you to be wealthy, God wants you to be happy, God’s want you to be successful,” and listeners buy in to this message, the result is someone who does not truly love God—they lust God. When you love God, He is the object of your affection. When you lust God, you are the object of your affection.

When you love God, it doesn’t make any different whether you’re happy, healthy, wealthy, successful--you get the point? All that matters is knowing God’s will for your life and doing it every day. Remember, it’s all about God and not about you and me.

I suspect I’m going to preach on this…a lot. I know it’s countercultural and not at all popular. But I’m right and you know it.

I LOVE THE CHURCH

I love the church. I love to be with the church. I love to talk about the church.

I love to study the history of the church. Get it? I love the church!

We are planting a new church in the west valley of Phoenix called GracePointe. It’s a brand new church free of a lot of the things that cause people to stay away. I suspect GracePointe is a lot like the first Christian church that met in Jerusalem. I’m not saying we’re perfect and everything we do works, but I am saying that God is so visibly involved in this new church that even the new believer can recognize His presence.

I wish all churches were like GracePointe. Most are not. Unfortunately, a high proportion of people who "go to church" have forgotten what it is all for. Week by week they attend services in a special building and go through their particular, time-honored routines, but give little thought to the purpose of what they are doing. The Bible talks about the "the bride of Christ" but the many churches today seems like a ragged Cinderella. There needs to be a reaffirmation to the nonnegotiable, essential elements for which God designed the church.

I love the church. I am an incurable lover of the church. It thrills me beyond measure to think that I get to serve God through pastoring His church. Although I am also involved in some other ministry activities, I wouldn't trade my ministry in the church for all of them combined. The church takes first place in my ministry priorities, and everything else grows out of my commitment to the church.

Jesus and Political Correctness

This past week, I was reading Luke's Gospel in preparation for Palm Sunday. An episode especially impressed me: "Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple'" (Luke 14:25-27). I wrote in the margin of my Bible, "Jesus was not user-friendly."

A little later in his journey to Jerusalem, he met "a certain ruler" who asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 18:18). We know this man as the "rich young ruler." Jesus reminded him of several commandments, to which he replied, "All of these I have kept since I was a boy" (v. 21). If a person of such means, influence and spiritual zeal were to approach most ministers, we would be delighted to welcome them into our church or organization. In Jesus' day, wealth was equated with God's favor. Surprisingly, Jesus told him to "sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (v. 22). When the man heard this, "he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth" (v. 23).

Soon our Lord would enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-38), where refusal to be politically correct would lead to his crucifixion. Our risen Lord is just as honest and omniscient today as he was then. As David said to God, "You perceive my thoughts from afar" (Psalm 139:2). Yet our all-honest God is also our all-loving Father. He knows all about our past failures and even sees the future sins we don't yet know we'll commit. And yet he loves us unconditionally and likes us as we are.

When last did you thank him for such grace?

EASTER 2013

Some thoughts on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Easter is for everyone, but it is not about bunnies or brightly colored eggs. It is about Jesus, and it is specifically about Jesus crucified and risen again from the dead. And, it was...

A hard day for the disciples
There was no question about it. Christ had died. If the crucifixion hadn’t killed him, certainly the spear of the Roman soldier would have. The disciples thought it was over. They thought death had finished it.

If they would have thought back, they would have remembered this was the same Lord who had raised people from the dead. He raised the daughter of Jairus. He raised Lazarus after he already was in the process of decomposition.

And, if they would have thought back, they would have remembered that on the day that Lazarus was raised, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25 NKJV).

But it is hard to see through eyes that have been blinded by tears. So the disciples were shocked to find an angel waiting for them with the good news: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6 NKJV).

They thought He was dead. But He was alive again

Hope for us
Because Jesus has died and has risen again, it means that we as believers do not have to be afraid of death. As 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again” (NLT). Jesus has gone to the other side, He has returned, and He has the keys to death and hell (see Revelation 1:18).

It’s hard for us to accept that our bodies are wearing out. Yet the Bible says we will have new bodies one day: “We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us” (Romans 8:23 NLT).

You see, my body is not the real me. The real me is my soul, my spirit. This body will die. But my soul will live on.

One day, you may open up the newspaper and read that Tom Holland has died. But don’t you believe a word of it, because at the moment you read that I have died, I will be more alive than I have ever been before–in the presence of God. And the same can be said for every believer.

He is the resurrection and the life, and if we believe in Him, though we were dead, yet shall we live.

Post Hoc Ergo Proptor Hoc

There is a Latin phrase “Post Hoc Ergo Proptor Hoc” that means “after this, because of this,” or “what is happening is the result of what has happened.” That pretty much sums up why there is sin in the world and why people get hurt.

The answer lies in both our greatest blessing and our worst curse: our capacity to make choices. God has given us a free will. Made in God's image, He has given us the freedom to decide how we will act and the ability to make moral choices. This is one asset that sets us apart from animals, but it also is the source of so much pain in our world. People, and that includes all of us, often make selfish, self-centered and evil choices. Whenever that happens, people get hurt.

Sin is ultimately selfishness. I want to do what I want, not what God tells me to do. Unfortunately, sin always hurts others, not just ourselves.

God could have eliminated all evil from our world by simply removing our ability to choose it. He could have made us puppets on strings that He pulls. By taking away our ability to choose it, evil would vanish. But God doesn't want us to be puppets. He wants to be loved and obeyed by creatures who voluntarily choose to do so. Love is not genuine if there is no other option.

The Bible explains the root of evil: "This is the crisis we're in: God's light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness ... because they were not really interested in pleasing God" (John 3:19, Message Translation). We're far more interested in pleasing ourselves.

In a world of free choices, God's will is rarely done! Doing our own will is much more common. Instead of blaming God when hurts come into your life, blame the real source—this world and the evil one who rules it.

In heaven, God's will is done perfectly. That's why there is no sorrow, pain or evil there. But this is earth, a fallen, imperfect place. We must choose to do God's will every day. It isn't automatic. This is why Jesus told us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

There are many other questions that race through our minds during dark days. But the answers will not come from economists, politicians, or anyone else for that matter. We must look to God and His Word.

We were made for a relationship with God, but He waits for us to choose Him. He is ready to comfort, guide and direct us through our grief. But it's your choice.