Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it? (more…)

Its the first of the month. Another post from the archive.

My Idolatry of Evangelism
I have a confession to make. I have made an Idol out of Evangelism. Sin is a two-sided coin with unrighteousness on one side and self righteousness on the other. Idolatry is unrighteous and idolizing evangelism is self righteous. I have taken something good and substituted it for the best. I now see in my life the “fruit” of self righteousness. (more…)

"Success is a poor teacher." My dad must have repeated this maxim a hundred times as I grew up. There are some lessons that only failure can teach. If you want to mature, you need to fail. Jesus failed. So should we. (more…)

Here is another post from the archive.

I talked with a good friend the other day about what a Godly man looks like. We have both been reading Wild at Heart and we decided to compile this list. (more…)

Today we visited a Ecuadorian Baptist church. We missed the regular service and only got to visit the Sunday School which didn’t make a lot of sense since it was in Spanish.

Yes. This is Popcorn and dried banana slices. Its an appetizer and not that bad

(more…)

Why do you go to church? If you are like me you go for the wrong reasons.

I used to go to church to learn the word, fellowship with other believers and to minister to them. I picked a church that I would get a lot out of.

But something has happened in the last two weeks that has changed all that. I have spent the service in the Boiler Room the last two weeks and it has changed my life. (more…)

From the archive…

In recent years religion has become the whipping boy of society. The left says that organized religion is the root of all evil. The right considers religion a bad word insisting that “being a Christian is all about a relationship and not about religion.” Some Christians even go so far as to pray against the “spirit of religion.”

The Bible disagrees with both of these views.

“If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:26-27)

God has given us a model for what true religion is and yet we de-emphasize it to the point of near extinction. This can allow us to avoid those things that religious people must do. Religion will not get us to heaven but it should govern our earthly actions.

The Biblically religious man must control his tongue. We live in a world spoken into existence and we must be able to control language in order to change the world. Controlling the tongue is not just keeping one’s foot away from one’s mouth. It means that we must learn how to wield the tongue for the kingdom and not against it. If the tongue, like a rudder, can direct a large ship, we must plot a good course for our words or suffer the consequences.

We also must learn to visit and care for widows and orphans. The church in America does this less than almost any other nation. We vote in leaders who take our money away and then give it to widows and orphans in the name of the government, not in the name of Jesus, who they most desperately need. You see, we can feed someone straight into hell. Only Christ can truly save. Virtue cannot exist in the absence of free will.

Good works can be either a bushel hiding the light of the Gospel or a mirror reflecting it far into the distance. The choice comes in how we wield the tongue. When we allow others to visit widows and orphans we silence our tongue and darken our light.

In past when a king became angry he would beat his whipping buy until he felt better. The king that is, the whipping boy rarely felt better after a visit with the king. This abuse didn’t solve any problems, but only made them feel more distant.

As we beat religion we alleviate the felt need of direct service to widows and orphans. We don’t feel that we need to care for our needy because the government does it for us by taking 10-15% of our paycheck before we ever get to see it and before we pay the income tax.

Finally, religious people must keep themselves unspotted from the world. I contend that this means there are things the world does from which we should abstain. This does not just include avoiding sin but also avoiding folly such as debt and short term romantic relationships. We should not walk as fools but as wise.

Remaining unspotted does not mean we should avoid interaction with the world. We must go into the world in order to reach it. But, we must not sprinkle the holy water of evangelism on the dung pile of sin in order to justify our disobedience.

Jesus never went into a prostitute in order to reach her with the Gospel. In that same way we should not err in order to do good. Going to an inappropriate movie just to spend time with a lost friend is not the path of righteousness. The end is only as just as the means to achieve it.

We must stop beating the whipping boy of religion. Instead of praying against the “spirit of religion” we should ask God to raise up religious people once again. We must live in such away so that the definition cannot become tainted with dead works and empty rituals that find no precedent in the scriptures.

As we live religious lives by wisely wielding the tongue, helping widows and orphans and staying unspotted from the world we will see the world around us change for the better.

Today is the 3 year anniversary of my run in with an Big Rig truck on I-35. I thought this would be a good time to repost some of my thoughts after that wreck. There are more photos on Facebook.

The van after the wreck.

Why did God spare me and Mark when He did not spare Kristi in her car wreck last week?I pondered this question as I read my Bible this morning. I read a character overview of the Apostle James. Not the James that wrote the book of James, but James the member of the inner circle with Peter and John. We don’t talk about James much because He died only 12 chapters after Jesus rose to heaven.

I’m sure the disciples wondered why James died so soon as well. James has fewer mistakes and blunders recorded than Peter. Why did God send an angel to get Peter out of jail (Acts 12) and not James (Acts 12)? Jesus spent just as much time investing in James as he did with Peter and John, more than all the other apostles. James saw Jesus transfigured. I bet many of the believers would have much rather had James alive than Peter. Peter was brash and often spoke first and thought second. What a waste of James’ life!

Its hard to understand that the Chess Master rarely consults His pieces on where to move them. Those who play chess know that sacrificing a piece can sometimes set up a great move. We don’t know why God let James live so short and the other Apostles so much longer. Paul does go out to the gentiles a chapter later, maybe there is a connection.

It would be easy to be angry at God if we had His perspective and could see His mistakes. But, if we could see as He does, we wouldn’t find any errors. We would only see how His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts. I am sure a queen would think it a mistake to be sacrificed for a pawn. But the Chess Master knows what he is doing.

Interestingly, Peter wondered these same things. In John 21 Jesus told Peter how he would die. Peter looked over at John and asked “What about him Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain until I return what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

If you are reading this you have been spared from death just like me and just like Mark. It’s ok to ask questions. But, I think God’s answer to us would the same as his answer to Peter, “As for you, follow me.” We must follow Jesus! When the Bible says to preach the Word in season and out of season we need to do it! When it says to love our neighbor as ourself and to think of others as more important than ourselves, we must do it! Kristi gave her life to making disciples as Christ commanded. WE MUST DO THE SAME! We can’t depend on Peter, James and Kristi to do the work of the Kingdom for us. They have finished their race and have passed the baton to us.

Have you given your life to making disciples? Are you getting close enough to God that you have part of Him to give away? Are you reaching out of your comfort zone to the lost and feeding the lambs that Jesus has brought to you? Watching and paying others to make disciples is like paying someone else to go to the bathroom. It looks the same and makes the same sounds but it has no effect.

Here is an easy way to answer those questions. What do you spend money on? What do you spend your time at? If the majority of our money and time go to pursue our own pleasure then we have made gods of ourselves. Kristi and James both spent their money and time investing in others, in making disciples. We must follow Christ by doing the same. The torch of God’s work shined brightly in the hands of Christians like Peter, James and Kristi. Now the course is set, the blocks are down the contestants are ready. The official is raising his gun. It’s our turn to run. Bang.

The front of the van

When did we start expecting our missionaries to come back alive and unharmed?

If you look back through church history you see this is a new expectation. Back in the day, the Christians who went out to preach the Gospel had already died (to themselves). They saw their lives as nothing.

The Moravians packed their luggage in coffins as they went out to the nations of the earth. Sometimes they even sold themselves into slavery to reach "unreachable" slaves. They didnt expect to come back. They expected to change lives.

Do we as modern Christians not trust our King to keep us safe, until He sees fit to bring glory to His name through our passing?

Or do we bow to a different throne?

Both the early church and the modern Chinese church pray not for safety when they send their missionaries out. They pray instead for boldness. This prayer represents a different value system. The early church considered the martyrs crown a badge of honor. Why do we try to avoid it at all costs?

Living a dangerous life does not make you more righteous. Danger and risk are foolish goals. But, making safety a goal is idolatry. The only goal for Christians is Christ and His Kingdom.

Those who change the world for Christ take risks. They act in ways the world and the lukewarm church may consider reckless. But they change lives while those watching from the sidelines wonder why God isn’t moving.

There is an old word for this idolatry we don’t use much any more. The word is cowardice. Cowards idolize safety. Heroes are those who do what is dangerous despite their fear to help others.

I have been taking teams to the bar district in Austin for nearly four years. When I invite people to come they almost always ask, “Is it safe?” Normally, I explain how no one I have taken has ever been hurt or robbed. But inside I want to shout, “Why does it matter? Is the point of Christianity not to bring glory to God by shining His light in the darkness? We must go to dark places to shine His Light there. These people are dying! Do you only care about your own safety?"

Of course I don’t say that. I just bottle up my frustration and smile hoping they will come anyway. Sometimes they do. But only because I convince them it’s safe.

What are we living for? Which Kingdom are we trying to build? Our bodies will pass away. The Kingdom lasts forever. Why not pour out our lives for the Kingdom?

I know not what course others may take. But as for me, I would rather live a short life devoted to my King than a long one filled with the lukewarm pursuit of safety.

What do you think? Do you make safety an idol? Have I gone to far? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

I once saw a sign that read, “Texas proud.” This got me thinking. Can pride ever be a virtue?

Am I proud of our nation? The fact is there are a lot of things about this nation I am not proud of. I don’t like how we have one of the most permissive abortion laws in the world. Even European nations place limitations on second and third term abortions.We are not a perfect nation, we never have been. But, the past centuries have seen their own evils just as vile as the ones we face today.

I have done little to make our nation better. I have no right to be proud nor should I be even if I had contributed even in some small way. The apostle Paul once asked the Corinthians this question, “who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) I think we Americans can ask ourselves that same question.

Everything we do have has been given to us be God. When I saw that sign I realized that my American pride was a sin. I was robbing God of something that belonged to Him alone. Pride is not a virtue but a sin - a sin that oozes the slime of hatred for God. We need to repent of our American pride and how we look down on those born abroad .

But what about the feelings I have towards this country?

I do feel something. I get goose bumps when I hear Rick Green and David Barton talk about our founding fathers and our godly heritage. I like how free we are (no thanks to the Bush administration or John McCain though). I enjoy our freedom of religion and I savor the fading mist of our freedom of speech even as it fades into memory.

What I feel about this nation and the state of Texas is not pride, not any more. What I feel is thankfulness. What I have as an American I have been given. God endowed us with certain inalienable rights and He rose up men who understood that the just powers of government are not derived through the sword but through the consent of the governed. I thank God for His sovereign intervention to allow our nation to survive these last many years.

I am also thankful to the millions of men who have given their lives to protect our constitution and our lives from enemies abroad. I am thankful for the statesmen who have stood on principle throughout the years to preserve our constitution from her domestic foes. I thank God for sending periodic revivals and great awakenings to keep us following Him. God has blessed us. We have nothing that we have not been given.

No I can’t be proud that I am an American and neither should you. But I thank God that he placed me in this place at this time. I wouldn’t want to be from anywhere else.