Rick Warren on religious liberty

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Warren: There is an even bigger issue at stake right now than who sits in the White House. It is the crumbling of our constitution’s first guaranteed freedom – the freedom of religion. This issue is more significant and has far greater implications for America’s future. People have forgotten that America was founded by people who came here to escape religious persecution. Freedom of religion is America’s FIRST freedom. It’s #1. It is the first freedom mentioned in the Bill of Rights – before freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, and every other freedom! America was the first and probably the only country to be founded in order to give every individual the freedom to practice his religion and follow his conscience without governmental constraint. And yet today, at the city, the state, and the federal levels, government bureaucrats are daily trying to limit that freedom, impose restrictions, and stifle expressions of faith on campuses, in hospitals, and in businesses. There are widespread attempts to redefine the first amendment to simply mean “You are free to believe anything at your place of worship but you are not free to practice your conscience elsewhere.” So now we’ve had the Justice Department suing a religious university for wanting to hire only teachers that share their faith and convictions. Fortunately, the Supreme Court overruled them, but religion is being zoned into a little box. We’ve had the government forcing confessing Catholics to violate their convictions, cities zoning out churches, Muslims forbidden to wear head scarves, and businesses banned because of the religious views of the owners. There are literally hundreds of examples of freedom being squelched. The constitution doesn’t just guarantee your freedom to worship; it guarantees you freedom from government intervention in your daily living out of what you believe. That’s why we’ve chosen to host a Civil Forum on Religious Freedom in September instead of the presidential forum. It’s a fight for the constitution, not a personality.

Interview can be found here.

Prayer Mentoring: Praying through challenging times

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Life in a fallen world means we’ll be facing hard times. Often these hard times are a means God uses to draw us to Himself.

Pray
We say prayer should be a first response not a last result. Prayer is really both. The challenge of hard times comes when all we can do is wait.

Pray Scripture
The Bible gives us many patterns for prayer. Paul particularly records prayer thoughts for our benefit. The Bible says that if we ask according to the will of God we know we have that what we ask. Praying through Scriptures is helpful in this regard.

Psalms
When going through a challenging time the best word of advice I received was to find a Psalm, grab hold of it, and pray through it regularly. So, step one- search the Psalms and find one that speaks to your situation.

Meditate
Biblical meditation is filling our mind with Scripture. It’s an act of focus on God’s Word. This is different from Eastern meditation that focuses on emptying one’s mind. Choosing a Psalm helps in filling our minds with Scripture. So, step two- read and focus on this Psalm regularly.

Journal
This can take on many forms, but one thing you want to do is to record God’s faithfulness. By choosing a Psalm it can guide you about what to write. Step three- write what Gods is doing.

The bottom line:
Prayer is key to navigating hard times. Often we don’t know what to pray as we wait for God to show up. Pick a Psalm and grab hold of it. It will guide and sustain you through challenging times.

Civility, freedom and Christian discourse

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After the ‘feast of chickens’ I’m seeing much discussion on whether the church should have engaged in the activity. One statement I read on the matter said this: “What if all those people took a day to serve in soup kitchens instead.” The statement has merit, but it misses something as well. Silence is not always king.

Civility
There is a grave lack of civility in our culture. It is completely civil to state one’s beliefs in a matter that is humble and gracious. Current rhetoric about most matters in our country lack civility. To express one’s view of marriage being one man with one women for a lifetime does not mean one is automatically homophobic and discriminatory. On the flip side, one being homosexual doesn’t mean God gave up on them and immediately sentenced them to Hell. God saves all people.

Freedom
Baptists in Virginia strongly pushed for freedom of religion. The reason: many Baptist preachers were thrown into prison for preaching without a license. From this the first amendment was born. The founders also viewed the importance of religion to speak to the conscience of a society, while at the same time understanding the state should not run the ‘church.’ This lead the amendment’s specific wording. The intent of the amendment was to prevent exactly what certain mayors did.

Christian discourse
While the Gospel is first and central, we must also faithfully teach and uphold God’s Word. Culture does not decide what is sin or not, the Bible does. Yes, the act of homosexuality is a sin. That does not make the church homophobic. Jesus saves all, desires to redeem all, and will make all things new. Homosexuals are welcome to church. Why? We’re all broken. It’s not if we struggle with sin, rather it’s what sin do we struggle with? Truth and love must be tied together, and in the Gospel they are.

The bottom line:
If I had the opportunity, I’d bought chicken too. Freedom is too precious to let people trample on it. A line was crossed that should have never been crossed. I agree with the statement above, what if we all served in soup kitchens. But, I also believe a stance for freedom is vital. Both are important. So, church, let’s do both. We must keep the Gospel first and central. Standing for a biblical view of marriage doesn’t mean we hate homosexuals. (If because of this you do, you need to repent and have the same attitude as Jesus.) Standing for a biblical view of marriage means we strive to live according to God’s plan. There is a difference.

Prayer Mentoring: Your role in church

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Praying through your ministry at a church is an important aspect of prayer. I read this poem my senior year in college and it always stood out in how I pray over my service at a church. Use it in your own prayer life as you fulfill your ministry.

“This is my church…”
It is composed of people just like me.
It will be friendly if I am.
It will do a great work if I work.
It will make generous gifts to many causes if I am generous.
It will bring others into its fellowship if I bring them.
Its seats will be filled if I fill them.
It will be a church of loyalty and love, of faith and service.
If I who make it what it is, am filled with these.
Therefore, with God’s help,
I dedicate myself to the task of being all these things
I want my church to be.

Prayer Mentoring: God in your day

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The Bottom line:
We need God in our day, not God as a part of our day. Here’s the difference. Paul tells the Thessalonian believers to rejoice, pray without ceasing, and to give thanks- all a part of God’s will.

Rejoice!
A spirit of worship keeps our focus on God. A heart of worship is critical to being in God’s will. In your prayers, how are you worshiping God?

Pray without ceasing
Prayer is life long conversation with God. Some prayers are long, some are like texting, others a quick phone call. The idea here is we consistently talk to God throughout our day. After all, God is with us. How often do you pray?

Give thanks
Thanking God is trusting God. When we thank God in all things it does two things: 1) it focuses us in on God 2) it shows we trust in God’s plan for our life. How are you thanking God?

God’s Will
God wants to grow us and bless us. By fulfilling these three things we’re saying that we trust God to accomplish His will in our life. Don’t fall in the tyranny of God’s blessing where we think if we make the slightest mistake God won’t bless us. That’s not Gospel. Jesus died for all sins. All challenges we face are to conform and sharpen us more and more into the image of Jesus.

One more time:
Rejoicing, praying and thanking are three critical things to our prayer life. Doing these three things puts God in our day and not just a part of it.

For peace?

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People often ask for peace. I spoke with young men this morning about for keys to having peace. A good reminder for us all.

1) Work through conflict Phil 4:2-3
Work through or help others work through conflict. Avoiding conflict will result in a lack of peace. Choose courage and work through conflict.

2) Worshipful spirit Phil 4:4-7
When we rejoice and thank God for all situations we have peace. A worshipful spirit means we trust in God’s plan. Choose joy, it demonstrates faith.

3) Make disciples Phil 4:8-9
What we focus on we’ll see in others. By focusing on good things we’ll see it others, and then take the next step to apply to our own lives. This is the discipleship process. Making disciples leads to peace. Choose to focus on Nobel things and live them out.

4) Be content Phil 4:10-14
Possessions can distract us or they can propel us. We can accomplish God’s will with what we have. We can bless others and help others accomplish God’s will when we have an abundance. Choose to be content with what you have, it will maximize your ministry.

The bottom line:
If you’re lacking peace from God, check these areas as a start. They’ll take you a long way on the road of peace.

Prayer Mentoring: Big picture

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In the past few weeks we’ve look at what prayer means, how to pray, our country, attitude, motivation… In learning to pray we must never forget what is critical to the process… We need to pray.

So, right now, stop what you’re doing, and just talk to God.

In learning about something we can easily get lost in the details. Prayer is talking to God. Like any relationship, consistent and constant communication is important. Talk to God. He loves hearing from you!

Thoughts on the recent tragedy

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I’ve seen a few of these tragedies now. They’re becoming a sad reflection on our society. What these tragedies reveal about us is sad. It’s not as dire as loss of life, but it’s sad enough we should stop and reflect.

First, evil exists. Plain and simple. We can try to hide it all we want, but it’s a reality. We don’t know when it will show itself. Each time it’s sad.

Second, the last few tragedies became political mudslinging diatribes. Doesn’t matter one’s political viewpoint. People need to be patient, listen and shut up with the politics-left or right.

Third, life does not happen on TV time. It takes time to get the facts and investigate. This doesn’t always happen as fast as we or the people doing the investigation would like. Be patient and wait for the facts. Few things in life are truly instant. For sure trying to figure out the motive for an evil act won’t become apparent immediately. Wait for the facts.

Fourth, the politicized, impatient society of ours rushes to judgement too fast (without all the facts) and then reverts to judging others for their politicized comments. This doesn’t help anyone and only adds torment to an already horrid situation. Further, it produces little learning and change. Reserve judgement for later.

Pray. Listen. Appreciate moments of heroism. Seek how you can help & bless others. Yes evil exists and when it comes out in full force it’s ugly. Let’s not add to the situation by adding to it foolishness.