Long Hollow White House Campus Blog

Have you ever sat under the stars, maybe on the hood of your car, and looked out into the fathomless beyond and wondered, “Who am I?”  For me it’s easy.  I’m Ben.  Done.  It took me like a millisecond to answer.  The real, intrinsic truth of who I am is based on faith in Scripture.  Scripture tells me, because of Christ’s finished work, that I am a redeemed son of God left on this earth, enveloped and led by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the work He gives me. I have become a Prince working out the will of my Father, all the while learning and becoming more like Christ, more regal.  In Lion King terms, I’m working on my roar.  For some folks, sadly, it’s not that easy.

Without faith in Scripture, the world is left to make up its own reality or just remain unsure.  We are immersed in culture, seeking to find an identity and a purpose.  Contemporary American culture throws out a trillion answers.  People identify themselves by their job, their hobby, their geography, their family, each producing people who don’t know what they’re doing, why they’re here, why they even exist.

In the South, it seems simpler.  Folks simply join a church and that’s who they are.  They come in, sit down and have the preacher take care of all the big questions.  But that’s not what Christ called us to, and we should thank God that His plan wasn’t so one-dimensional.  The preacher isn’t the only one who has the honor of working for the Lord.

In your mind, you have to decide what you’re going to be. “Am I at LHWH to be a missionary to our city or to be served by Long Hollow closer to home?” Do you burn, with an abiding burn, for the souls of White House people?  When was your cheek last wet with tears as you prayed for the gospel to go forth?  Family, there is coming a judgment, when the sheep will be separated from the goats, the wheat from the tares, and one will receive reward, the other the fire.  I am not content to sit on Sundays, watch a screen, then go home to TV and food.  I will fight.  He has made me a missionary.  If you’re not fighting along with me, whatever your gift may be, then who are you?

Ben

We live in a small town in Tennessee.  We have always had religion and usually by the gobs.  We hear about atheism in the academic elite and recite with pleasure the Psalm, “A fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ “  We’re confident and have really, become pretty complacent.

And yet we live in a culture where our people, our neighbors are living like atheists.  It’s hard to find somebody who would say, “There is no God,” but how many folks really love the Savior and not just church?  How many people wake up wanting to know Him better, not just going through motions?  I’d wager not as many as we think.

Look across the yard or down the street and you’ll see many who walk out to their cars on Sunday morning, content to endure 2 hours of church, but I don’t think they really know why.  I don’t think their churchgoing is an outflow of their love for Jesus, but just what you’re supposed to do.  Why do we celebrate birthdays?  Does anyone really need a poited hat and cake with candles to celebrate moving from 42 to 43?  Can you tell me why there are streamers involved?  We just do it.  It’s the culture.  In the south, Christianity for a lot of people is just the culture.

I am not content with this husk of a faith and neither is our Father.  When you die, God doesn’t care how many hours you logged in a pew or even how many dollars you put into the plate if it isn’t an outflow of your love for Jesus.  Sacrifices like that offend God because they aren’t real.  They don’t represent a passionate love like a man loves his wife, like an artist loves his instrument, like a mother loves her child, they represent lip service to a habit.  You can set that trash on fire. 

Jesus said in Matthew 9:13, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’  For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  In this verse Christ throws our works down.  He has come to call our attention not only to the words we speak or what we drink or how we raise our kids, but to who we love.  He called out saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.”

Do you love Him? 

Are you pursuing Him in prayer, His Word and service?

Or are you just playing a game?

I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t care.

Ben

This past Wednesday I was speaking with Terry Alexander and he asked me a poignant question.  He said, “Why do we still sin?”  Now Terry understands that we saints fall to sin now and again because our sinful flesh lingers.  He gets it.  He was trying to show the audacity of the redeemed returning to sin.  How can we who are given access to the majesty of God return again to the muck and mire of our former lives?  We were dead in our trespasses and sins, why would we return again to death leaving behind the life and joy we found walking with Jesus?

So many times we are tempted and fall.  In the heat of the moment, when the temptation you struggle with hits and your judgement fogs, beliving the lie feels like the most natural thing in the world.   We slip back into sin and it feels like falling into bed or a bath, easy and good.

If only we could understand.  When you bring in the light, when the spell breaks, you find yourself sitting in filth, the bed full of spiders, the bath gone septic.  It is here that so many of us waste our lives.  Nassar preached on freedom because we need to remember we are free.  The curse is broken and sin is dead.

I think because of the influence of the world, because we don’t spend time like we should in scripture, investing into our relationship with God, we think sin makes sense.  Pride is just how guys hang out, lingering eyes are as normal as breathing, gossip is not but juicy conversation.  Just as sinful, it makes sense to sit out when asked to be obedient.  Small groups are hard.  Childcare is difficult.  Service is time consuming, it can’t be that big of a deal. 

Beloved let the light of scripture shine down on our sin.  When scripture shows us truth we will see that lust, pride, laziness, apathy, gossip, jealousy are the walls of a prison.  When we submit to the rules Christ has for us we drop the shackles and walk outside.  We learn to live in His economy, giving to Him and warmed by the bright light of His grace, courage in our hearts, purpose in our minds and wind at our backs.  For His glory and your good live no longer as a slave.

You are free.

Ben

Long awaited and heartily anticipated, the White House Campus Blog is back and ready for action!  Stay tuned in the weeks and months ahead to hear my heart and thoughts as I attempt to steer this ship and lead this family.