Missing God
Thursday, March 4, 2010

                We begin missing God the day we enroll in government schools.  We are taught one plus one equals two, but we miss how and why that principle was put into place – so we miss God.  We are taught Americans fought bravely that we might be free, but we miss how God wove Himself into the spirits of the people and the outcome of the battles – so we miss God.  We are taught about xylem and phloem and how they work together in the life of a plant, but we are not taught about how God makes them grow – so we miss God.  Lesson after lesson is taught about the universe, laws of physics, laws of chemical reactions, but not in one lesson are our children allowed to learn about the infinite wisdom of the One whose Mind, Voice, and Spirit put all that into place.  So we grow up missing God.

                When we see a sunrise, it is an act of the earth’s rotation around the sun, so we fail to see the intricate hand of God arranging the dust particles and moisture is a special way this very morning, painting a unique picture just for His children – so we miss God.  We see a precious baby and the newness of life, and we remember we are taught that this child is created by an act of sex, a random chance, and one of millions more that are introduced into our world each day.  We don’t see the image of our God, intricately woven together in the mother’s womb, chosen by God from the foundation of the world – so we miss God.  We look with horror at the newscasts of Haiti and Chile, we hear reports of heroic actions by men and women, we see looting and food lines, but we don’t see God in the hearts of the rescuers – so we miss God.

                We are taught from an early age to miss God and now we are doing an excellent job of missing Him.  We even miss Him in our churches.  He has been reduced to the margins of our church lives to the point where church has become synonymous with a building or a time slot on Sunday morning – so we miss God.  We come to the morning service, filled with our weekly baggage, our criticisms, our critiques, and our unforgiving spirits – so we miss God on Sunday morning.  You see, we miss God on Sunday morning because we have missed Him all week long.  We don’t look for Him in the midst of our daily routines, the daily miracles of life, the daily rising and setting of the sun, the daily portraits He paints for us, the accidents missed, the illnesses diverted, or the blessings granted.  And we miss Him in those things because we are taught to miss Him in all things.

                But make no mistake about it.  God is in our mathematic formulas, in our biology, in our science, in our physics, in our driving down the road and in every child created.  God is constantly at work in our world.  He paints new sunrises and sunsets every day.   He rumbles in the thunder, and sings over us in the rain.  He touches us when we are sick and comforts us when we are sad.  He never sleeps so that we might.  He never tires, so that we can find a day of rest.  God is in all, Creator of all, and through all, and He holds all things together.  He is Christ, He is the Holy Spirit, and He is the Father over all Creation.  And when we miss this God, we miss life.

                As for me, I miss You God.

Africa
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Dear Friends,

Due to your generosity, I have been able to shiip two computers to our church in Kenya.  This will be a blessing to these dedicated Christians as they try to spread God's Word in Southwest Kenya.  However, I received an email from Sister Rose this morning informing me that they must pay a duty of $856 before they can accept the computers.  In addition, I had to pay an additional shipping cost of $553 last week.  This means I will be out an additional $1400 from what I originally raised and thought was necessary.  Since finances for the trip in May are very tight right now, I am appealing to you for help.

If you would like to donate to help this important mission, please make your checks to First Christian Church, Athens, Texas and ref: Bud Surles African Mission.  Any amount will be greatly appreciated. 

You can send those checks either directly to First Christian or to me at 229 Chester Dr., Canton, Texas 75103.

Thank you for your help and concern.

In Christ,

Bud Surles

Hybrid Christians
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

                Shortly after the attacks of 911 there was a great patriotic explosion in our lands.  Flags appeared in lawns, on vehicles, and even waved in the corner of some TV news casts.  My church in Wyoming was no less affected by this surge.  In the front of the church were two flags, the Christian flag on the left and the American flag on the right.  One night, someone stole a flag – you guessed it, the American flag.  And the congregation was in horror that someone would steal the  American flag.  I was in horror that the Christian flag was not worthy even of a crook to steal.

                There is nothing wrong (in fact much is right) with patriotism.  However, Christians in American have used our heritage in many ways as a replacement of our faith.  We have made our prosperity part of the gospel; we have made our democratic principles part of our church governance; we have made our lifestyle choices as demands upon the faith; and we have our health care the number one priority for God to manage.  In short, Christianity in America is no longer true Christianity, but a hybrid of our American heritage and the Christian faith.  We are now hybrid Christians.

                A hybrid as you know is a cross of two species.  We have hybrid animals, plants, fuels, and now automobiles.  And the purpose of this hybridization is to enhance the quality of the originals.  Even in Christianity we find in Romans 11 a detailed analysis of how we are Jewish hybrids – grafted into the rootstock of Judaism.    But to believe that there is any way we can enhance the perfect faith of Christianity is to take that which God died for and cheapen it unto worthlessness.  We must never allow our faith to be a hybrid of other religions, philosophies or political ideals.  It must stand alone and the very center and core of our lives.

                The above passage may seem an odd one to launch the thoughts of hybrid Christians, but let me explain.  Peter and John had just been apprehended by the authorities for healing a man in the name of Jesus.  Before being released they were told to no longer preach in His name.  When Peter and John went home to the church they reported all that was told to them.  And the prayer of the church was that God would enable them to speak boldly about Christ in spite of the admonition of the leaders.  Contrast that to our hybrid Christian response.  The government (American government) tells us we can no longer pray in our schools, games, public events, and in the public square.  The response of hybrid Christians is to meekly comply and remove prayer from the core of our lives.  Brite Divinity actually joined hands with the atheists who wished to have prayer removed from the Tarrant County jails.  TCU (remember it used to stand for Texas Christian University, no longer prays before games in the name of God the Father (they use terms such as Holy Essence), the Son, or the Holy Ghost.  We are hybrids.  We suppress Jesus Christ so some principle of government can be sustained.

                We are hybids when it comes to our prayers.  I continuously urge Christians to examine the New Testament prayers – to study their passions and the contents of those prayers.  They did not pray for employment, healing, comfort, and money.  They prayed for obedience, boldness to preach and speak the gospel, the furtherance of the Kingdom, wisdom, knowledge, grace, perseverance in suffering, courage, and power.  I would urge my readers to all look at the prayer lists of your respective churches and see if your church practices true Christianity or hybrid Christianity in what you pray for.

                We are hybrids when it comes to how we worship.  Recently our church had some beautiful tenors singing their hearts out.  They concluded with a powerful rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”  I was so moved I wanted to fall on my face and worship (but I did not because of my hybrid decorum).  After the tenors were exiting from the chancel area, the pastor asked them for an encore to which they responded to a moving version of America the Beautiful.  And to my shock, the entire congregation rose to their feet in respect for their country.  And that was appropriate – but not one person (including me) stood, fell on their faces, or raised their hands during the beautiful hymns of our great God.  We are all hybrid Christians.

                And we are hybrid Christians in the way we live.  We miss church for vacations, football games, family time, recreation, illness, or just plain relaxation.  Yet the same people who do those things would never miss work or school for the same purposes.  We honor our jobs, our education, and our responsibilities far more than we honor our God.  We are hybrids.

                Yesterday’s news was filled with horror – horror of a beautiful young girl missing in California and a sex offender arrested, news of missing young women on the east coast, news of body parts being found in Canada and news of murders all over our land.  There was news of lying politicians, lying school teachers, and lying business leaders.  And if a survey were taken, I will bet that all the liars, all the killers, and all of the victims of them all call themselves  Christians.  And I can tell you that is a direct result of allowing ourselves to become hybrid Christians.

                Let us return to being the Church above all else.  If we want to preserve the values of America it will not be done in halls of legislation where lobbyists, greedy politicians, and fearful wimps make our laws and spend our money; it will not be done in our courtrooms where judges fear the word of God; it will not be done on Fox News or by Katie Curic.  Preserving our values must begin with Jesus Christ and His Word.  We must live first for Christ, speak His name boldly, and in every sense be pure Christians.  And when we do those things, God will give us the America of our forefathers.   Let me conclude by paraphrasing C.S. Lewis,   “Aim at Christ and you will get America thrown in.  Aim for America and you will get neither.”

Pains of Childbirth
Monday, September 28, 2009

“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” Gal 4:19 Note:  Many of these thoughts are borrowed from a letter I wrote to a dear friend this morning.               

 If you have never been a pastor or church leader, I doubt you can relate to the passion Paul felt as he addressed a legalistic church in Galatia.  His heart was ripping apart with almost every word of the very passionate letter to the leadership there.  For purposes of understanding Paul’s letter we must understand the definition of legalism.  Legalism is where the laws, traditions, and rules of men are more important than the Word of God and these same rules are substituted for Christ Himself.     

           I, like Paul, have a passion for the Body of Christ – the Church. And it is indeed like pains of childbirth yearning to see Christ transforming His Body.  And because of that passion, I have found myself in battle with organized religion (legalism) since the day I entered ministry.  Organized religion is destroying God’s church in America.  Sixty churches close their doors every month.  Attendance at worship has declined by over 40 percent in the last 50 years.  Mega churches, where people can go and get entertained but not discipled, fed coffee during worship but not spiritual meat and potatoes, hear rock music but not the uncompromising word of God, and where interpersonal relationships are lost in a sea of uncommitted faces, these spring up and die with the same frequency as do other churches, leaving the landscape of America littered with edifices of the failure of the Body of Christ.  The influence of the Church in America has been stripped and people are only allowed to do their “God-thing” as long as it does not interfere with the rights of the culture to destroy itself.  Seminaries have become academic icons of secularism and in them the God of the universe is relegated to a smallness of position so minute that He could not transform anything, including the poor unsuspecting pastors who attend there.

                The question has to come:  how did this happen?  Well, I believe it happened in the same way that 6 million Jews were killed in WWII without much protest from them, the Church, or the world in general.  The Jews refused to believe it was happening and were in denial all the way into the gas chamber, the Church acquiesced to Hitler rather than lose their positions and prestige and their right to exist, and the world hid its head in the sand.  So the church in compromise, led the people in denial into their own destruction – while the world paid no attention.  Therein lies the problem in the modern church, we are being led like sheep in denial by compromised leadership to our unsuspecting slaughter, and crucifying the shepherds who try to turn us away.                The modern church is led by politicians not men and women dedicated to prayer, fasting, and spiritual discipline, waiting on the Lord for instruction and direction.  We are led by politics and money instead of the word of God.  (I have said many times that in most churches in America today, if the constitution or a tradition clashes with the Word of God, you can bet the word will lose.) And we hire (instead of call) CEO’s who are more skilled in programs that in being in tune to God’s Holy Spirit.  And so the churches are run more like businesses than the Body of Christ.  A person’s right to vote becomes more important than their commitment to serve, so even the most uncommitted Christian can influence the direction of the church and have equal say with the saints who spend tearful hours in prayer and fasting.   

             These are the hard realities of the modern church.  I have spent so much time in battling this organized religion that I have wasted my ministry, destroyed the gentleness of my wife, and left my own tolerance for politics as usual on the wayside.  I have fought all the church battles I want to fight.  I dreams of a church where Christ is Lord, where disciplines are part of the joyous order of the saints, where lives are being transformed, where the word of God is the only constitution, and where elders meet the biblical requirements set out for them.  I want to be able to worship without hearing old people complain about the music or expressions of worship and young people complain about the traditional hymns that have sustained the church for ages.  I want a multigenerational church where the generations have learned to love each other as Christ loved the Church – loving, understanding, mentoring, learning, growing, transforming all for the Glory of God.  I would be content to be in a messy church which is committed to that but has not attained it; but one which does not put stumbling blocks in the pathway of making it happen.  My life and my ministry are drawing to a close and I want to spend what years I have left for God’s glory and purposes, not fighting religion.  My daily prayer is from Psalm 71, “My life is an example to many, because You have been my strength and protection.  That is why I can never stop praising You; I declare Your glory all day long.  And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside.  Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing.  O God, You have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things You do.  Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God.  Let me proclaim Your power to this new generation, Your mighty miracles to all who come after me.” (Ps. 71:5-9;14-18)