Dinosaurs?

I have had several questions since last Sunday’s message about dinosaurs. Did they really exist? Didn’t they supposedly predate man?

Let me give a few brief answers. As I stated in my message, I would be considered a “young earth” guy. In other words, I do not believe the earth to be billions or even millions of years old as evolutionists or even theistic evolutionists believe it to be. I won’t go into detail here. I believe the earth to be somewhere between 6000 and 10,000 years old, based on geneologies found in Genesis 5 and 11. You can hear my comments on this from this past Sunday’s message on the podcast if you would like. But I did not address the issue of dinosaurs.

I will say up front that yes, I do believe there were animals we refer to as dinosaurs that once lived on the earth. And I believe Scripture bears this out. We have some Hebrew terms that are translated as “Behemoth” and “Leviathan”.

The word “behemoth” is found in Job 40:15-24. It is even described in detail to eat grass like an ox, the tail is like a cedar tree, the bones are bronze tubes and his limbs are like iron rods. Some translations will translate this “elephant” or “hippopotamus”. But with the discoveries made today of the various bone structures, we can easily see what was being described in Job 40 as a type of dinosaur.

The Leviathan has the following description in Job 41, Psalm 104:25-26, and Isaiah 27. He is described as a twisting serpent and the monster that is in the sea. This animal has limbs and a double layer of armor, horrific teeth, and scales. You can read more in these passages. It is not a stretch at all to see this to be a sea monster. And this will test your belief in God’s Word … this animal snorts “flashes with light” (flames) and “flaming torches shoot from his mouth”. Sounds a lot like a fire breathing dragon of some type that lived at sea.

I don’t make the news, I just report it .

Well, didn’t they live millions or billions of years ago? Paleontologist Mary Schweitzer has discovered soft blood vessels, proteins, and various blood cells inside fossilized dinosaur bones. It is well established in the scientific community that such biological structures and molecules should not last more than a few tens of thousands of years. And it is not possible for them to last millions of years.

For more on this and other creation questions you might want to visit http://www.icr.org/

I am living my dream ...

Growing up, I can remember only two things I seriously wanted to do the rest of my life. First and foremost, I wanted to coach basketball. John Wooden was my hero (yes, I'm that old). At a young age, I was amazed at how he could take such a variety of personalities and skill sets and blend them into a true team which consistently won championships.

But if I could not be a coach, I wanted to be an attorney. Actually, I didn't want to be an attorney as much as I just wanted to make the closing arguments. I guess I watched too much Perry Mason during my early years, but I just loved to watch how the attorneys would close out the case.

It had not dawned on me until this morning, that I am getting to live out my childhood dreams as a pastor. God did not call me to be a coach or an attorney. But, as a Pastor I have the opportunity to coach a great team of staff and volunteer leadership team ... trying to blend personalities and skill sets. Oh, and did I mention the worship room in which I speak every week is also a gym, with lines on the floor and everything?! How cool is that! And in many ways, I get to make the most significant closing arguments one could make every week. These closing arguments are not to put some criminal behind bars or to gain my client a settlement in a law suit. Rather, there are people seated in that room every Sunday whose life hangs in the balance as I have the privilege of sharing the Gospel with them.

I am living my dream!

Observations after 2 years back ...

As many of you know, I stepped out of the role of being a local church Pastor for 10 years while serving at LifeWay Christian Resources. After growing up as a Pastor's Kid (PK), I had also served as a pastor for 12 years prior to going to LifeWay for a decade. ClearView called me to serve as Pastor beginning May 1, 2007 which means I have been back "in the saddle" for just over 2 years now (and loving it, by the way). In various settings I am asked questions about my observations since returning. Several questions are asked often:

1. What has changed most about Pastoring over the 10 years I was not serving as Pastor?It all has to do with technology. When I left the pastorate in 1997 the internet was in its infancy, email was not widespread, mobile phones were rare and then usually a cumbersome phone in a bag in the car, and social networking was not even a dream.

The result? In a word ... accessibility. With a blog, a facebook page, a twitter profile, a blackberry never further than a few feet away, and a church website with my email listed, I am accessible like never before. Please don't get me wrong, I love it. I enjoy reading twitters on the way to lunch every Sunday with feedback on the message for the morning. By late afternoon on Sundays I am usually checking facebook for those that check in through that channel. Then it's on to my email at pastor@clearview.org (try it now if you would like).

All of these channels help me as a pastor. In a church the size of ClearView there is great value in having the opportunity to follow the twitters of those in ClearView who use it, thus getting to know them in a way I could not otherwise. Through facebook I feel like I get to put faces with names and keep informed on activities members of ClearView. [More on the use of technology in ministry in a later blog]

Of course with the advantages comes danger ... the danger of never being unplugged. I try hard to stay completely unplugged on Thursdays during my most intense study time ... and on most Fridays (my day off).

2. What has not changed? People's need for Christ and the part Christ followers must play if more people are to be introduced to Him. I suppose it could be argued it is more difficult than ever to spread the Good News. I don't really think so. It's always been a challenge.

3. What has surprised me? Because of the position I served at LifeWay I don't think you could say I have been surprised by much. But one thing that has been so encouraging is the hunger the people of God seem to have for the Word of God ... at least at ClearView. I will call it a surprise ... and a pleasant one!

Maybe you have questions you would ask of someone returning to Pastor after a decade in another type ministry. You have the email address above or the comment section below. Fire away.

Fifty Year Anniversary - Honoring My Parents

No, it's not my fifty year wedding anniversary. It is my parents'. This past weekend we celebrated my parents' 50 year anniversary as well as 49 years in ministry. This was obviously a time of reflection for all of us. Given the task of "saying a few words" Sunday afternoon at the reception I tried to narrow it down to one meaningful word for each of them. So the question I asked myself was what one word best described each of them. Since you could not all be there, I thought I would share a bit of what I shared with the group gathered.

For my mom I chose the word "wise". If you don't know my mom, she is the quiet one in the family. She has always been most comfortable behind the scenes and out of the spotlight. I almost chose the word "servant" because she never stops doing just that ... serving. But the word that came to mind most was "wise". Mom is one of the wisest people I know when it comes to relationships, which is the toughest area for most people to deal with in a wise manner. Mom always seem to have something wise to share with me growing up whenever I found myself struggling with a relationship.

For my dad I chose "faith". As I told the crowd Sunday afternoon, I have at times referred to it as "crazy faith". Dad's level of faith would cause some surrounding him over the years to think it to be irrational. When I was in junior high school (7-9 grades) Dad "resigned" his salary saying we were going to believe God to meet our needs. I could not understand how we were going to eat or buy clothes, but God did just as dad believed He would. We never missed a meal and we certainly never went without clothes :-). We lived "by faith" as a family for months, led by the faith of dad. Oh yeah, the whole time, the guy in charge of looking after the "gifts" given to our family during that time by faithful and caring church members was stealing from the account!! And God still provided.

Funny thing, when I take spiritual gift inventories, to this day two of the gifts that tend to rise to the top consistently are: wisdom and faith. I don't know this to be a fact and I don't find it in Scripture, but I have to wonder if somehow the spiritual gifts of the parents are somehow embedded into the children.

Congratulations again to my mom and dad (Sally and Carl Marshall) on this milestone.

A word about mentors

I know. It's been too long since I have posted. May was a month that got away.

Anyway, I traveled to Chicago with a good friend of mine (David Landrith)Sunday and Monday. The purpose of the meeting was to meet with another good friend (James MacDonald). If you know me personally or read this blog very much, you know that James has had a profound impact on my life. It was through a series of conversations with James that I felt the Lord leading me back to local church pastoring after being in a parachurch ministry for a decade.

Funny thing is, we talked very little about the specific subject of me making that change. But God used conversations with a man so passionate about the church and so passionate about doing it right by building it on the Word that I could feel something begin to burn inside me that had not burned in quite some time. I never want that flame to burn low again. So, I made the journey to spend a few hours with the instrument God had used to re-ignite my passion for preaching and people.

I know we all have people we learn from and some we might even put on the level of "mentor" as I do James in my own life. Let me suggest a few things to think about before you assign someone the role of mentor in your life.

1. Do they point you to Christ? At the end of the day, it's all about becoming more like Christ. If that person makes you want to become more like them than they do about Christ, something is missing in you (the one being mentored) or in them (the mentor).

2. Do they stretch you? If you come away from time with that person, or if it is a distant mentor (author, etc.), is your thinking challenged? Do they force you to look at yourself and ask some really tough questions? I don't want to stay as I am. I want to grow and change as needed for God to use me in ways that will bring Him maximum glory.

I thank God for bringing the right mentor at the right time in my life.