Here’s to You Ms. Diller & Dr. Miller

Calvin Miller, educator, preacher and writer, recently died. Dr. Miller was a unique writer who knew few equals. He led two of our Spiritual Renewal Sundays and brought his own brand of insight, humor and theological reality to our church. I read one of his first books in the early 1980’s and was hooked on his style. He was sort of a poor man’s J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.

Phyllis Diller also recently passed away. Ms. Diller, comedienne extraordinaire, was 95 when she died. She was a fixture on the clean by today’s standards television variety shows of the sixties and seventies. She was self-deprecating as a form of comedy and certainly dressed the part. In reality she was an award winning actress, concert pianist and gourmet cook. To say you can’t judge a book by its cover is complete understatement in the case of Phyllis Diller.

Who left the biggest footprint? It’s probably not a fair question but there’s little doubt Ms. Diller would win that competition. For people in my generation she was the first superstar comedian who held her own against the Bob Hope’s of the world. She paved the way for all female comedians who followed. Dr. Miller? In my book he wins due to the way he was able to write, articulate and live his faith. I am a better and stronger believer due to his work. In my life at least, he leaves the biggest mark.

This isn’t to say Phyllis Diller wasn’t a great person, maybe even a great person of faith. I don’t know about her faith. She made me laugh and for that I’m grateful. She helped me find humor as a way to navigate life. I’m appreciative for that too. But her jokes never challenged my faith, nor did her books cause me to consider following God at a deeper level. Calvin Miller led me to want to become a writer way back when. He encouraged me with these words a few years ago: Remember Michael, we don’t do this for the fame or the money, neither will come our way, we do this for God’s Kingdom. He actually said we. I had just admitted to him I was ready to give up and stop writing. I told him I had literally tens of readers and wondered why I was working so hard at it for so seemingly little gain. He put it all into perspective for me. Impact one person and its worth the effort.

I’m not a better writer for getting to know Calvin Miller. He was not a miracle worker. I am simply a better person and believer due to his life. He leaves a massive footprint. And at the end, isn’t that what life is all about?

Michael McCullar

Kaleidoscope People

It’s much harder to be shocked than it used to be. Just when you think life isn’t becoming one giant reality television program someone does something to remind you just how ridiculous humans can be. Recently there was a pastors’ conference in a neighboring state that advertised that only white people could attend. Thankfully the group wasn’t Baptist in any shape or form; it was the Church of God Chosen, a non-affiliated church of Pentecostal persuasion. The leader of the conference is under fire from his entire town over his whites-only stance. His rationale: white people are God’s chosen people. His proof: the Bible. His diagnosis: Nuts! O.K., that’s my diagnosis of him and his theology.

I’ve read the entire Bible…the whole book…went to school to study it in more depth…even read the hard parts more than once…and it’s clear that white people were not God’s Chosen people. Do you think he realizes Jesus was Jewish? Has he been to the Middle East where people are all shades of brown and darker? The New Testament story was not centered in Sweden or Finland where the whitest white people live. Does he not realize God is color blind? God loves the Finns and Swedes and Jews all the same. What about the multi-hued peoples of America. Yep, even us, but not exclusively us, and certainly not just the melanin-impaired Americans.

Thank God today for His unconditional love and grace for all people groups. That’s really the story of the New Testament. Resist all temptation to look down at other people groups or individuals who are living life differently than we are. I’ve studied my genealogy…my family tree is like a grove of different trees…there’s red people, black people, brown people and all kinds of white people, even some crazy ones thrown in to spice up the mix. I’m a mutt. Most of us are. And God loves us anyway. That’s why they call it the Good News!

Michael McCullar

How to Imitate Jesus Without Getting Crucified

Have you ever been told that if you would imitate Jesus all would be well in your life? From pulpits to podiums to books we are told to imitate Jesus. WWJD bracelets were all the rage a decade ago. Put one on your wrist, look at it every once in a while, and viola, better life. It’s no doubt true that to seek to live as Jesus lived and to react as Jesus reacted would result in a better spiritual life. Despite the facts that Jesus lived two thousand years ago in a country far removed from our own doesn’t lessen the value of his examples. When you speak of Jesus you are speaking of God; so, emulating Jesus is to emulate supreme Godliness. Jesus was God Incarnate, which is Bible-speak for God in human form. Jesus is to be our life-example.


Now for the hard part: exactly how do we emulate and imitate Jesus? We can’t heal the sick, nor can we drive demons out of people. We can’t turn a few fish and loaves of bread into a massive fish sandwich meal for thousands of people. We can’t turn water into wine. We can’t calm gale force winds on a body of water and we certainly can't walk on water. Enough of the cant’s, let’s look at what we can do: we can see our power coming from God the Father and keep up a regular stream of communication. We can go around doing good for people in God’s name. We can love the hard-to-love and provide care for the needy. We can place the needs of those we haven’t yet reached ahead of our own.


Now for the really hard part: Jesus died. To emulate Jesus is to be willing to die for God. Losing one’s life due to being a Christian actually happens in many places in the world; but let’s face it, it doesn’t happen here. Losing one’s actual life is not required to be a dedicated follower of Jesus. This is a good thing. All that is required is to symbolically give up our hold on our life and give it to God. We symbolically die to our carnal, sinful, natural, dead-end selves and allow God to gift the Holy Spirit into our lives. So death is involved, just not the as a doornail type. After we have the Holy Spirit in our lives it is easier to seek to imitate Jesus in all the other ways…just don’t get your hopes up for walking on water or tossing out demons.


Crucifixion is not required, but a form of death is before we have a prayer of imitating Jesus. It’s so very counter intuitive but death precedes life in God’s equation. It is only in dying that we can live in the manner God wishes for us to live. Sign me up for that whole WWJD thing!

Most Overused Words & Phrases

Recently a small college in Michigan determined the most overused words and phrases in the English language. Their idea was to have these words banished from the Queen’s English, although it seems unlikely the Queen of England will pay a great deal of attention to Lake Superior State University (the Lakers, of course). Google, Yahoo and a few other internet groups picked up the list and it’s presently making its way around the web. It’s hard to disagree with the choices, which will be examined below, but the list is simply too short. Words should be examined annually by some trustworthy group and if found to be overly trite, rude, insensitive or ubiquitous (O.K., or too long), they should be officially banished. The Queen of England should be part of the ceremony, along with the National Spelling Bee Champion of the United States, and seven randomly picked English teachers from the English speaking world. If the words are deemed losers…BOOM, gone, banished, vanquished, non-ubiquitous (or long).

The Lakers chose:

Occupy: For obvious reasons and yes, it is getting a bit ubiq…uh, overused.

Baby Bump: Totally insensitive but actually better than the British preggers.

 24/7: Yes, thank you for this one. All the time worked so well for so long.

Ginormous: Did we really need to combine giant and enormous? No. Pick one.

Thank you in advance: I actually use this one a lot so let’s skip it.

Amazing: Huh? They are actually dissing amazing? That ranks with cool. Nope.

As Christians we have to be especially careful with our language choices. People are always listening and many are taking cues from us. If we use a certain type of language  they may feel better about using it. For this reason we too should do a review of words and phrases that might shed a negative light on our faith. We may have a ginormous problem and it may be on-going, even 24/7. Possibly negativity occupies our minds and souls. Remember, our faith is amazing and so is God’s grace. We can speak and sound like the positive, edifying people God created us to be.

Oh, and thank you in advance for reading this article!

Michael McCullar

My Heroes Have Always Been Persians

Well, not really. My first heroes were of the classic Western type; then they became the type who could leap tall buildings in a single bound; and, then they were private investigators. At a point around the turn of the century my adulations shifted east and Persian Christians became my heroes. Over the past twelve years I’ve spent time with many Iranian Christians who have endured incredible hardships and persecution for their faith. Persecution is something we Americans talk about but is not something to which we can easily relate. I do not personally know any Anglo-Americans who have been jailed, beaten or killed for being a Christian.

Just last week I was privileged to lead a team to a foreign country where Iranian believers have taken refuge in order to train and prepare to take the Gospel into Iran. Many of these courageous men and women will start house churches and risk their lives to reach Muslims with the true story of God’s salvation. As a team we spent several hours each day with these people and the sad reality is that we will likely never see them again. They will wrap up their training and follow God’s leadership in what can only described as a true New Testament lifestyle. Much like Paul some will be jailed and some could even be killed. But they will all make a life-altering difference in Iran. Iranians will receive the Gospel story and find true faith in Jesus Christ. And it will all be worth it.

 

These people are my heroes. They know a lot more about picking up a cross and following Jesus than I ever will. They believe risking one’s life is what loving God is all about. And you know what? They are right. My heroes really are Persian Christians after all!

Michael McCullar

Lent Is More than the Stuff on the Brush

I lived in New Orleans for eight years and I’ll never be the same because of my time there. The food was phenomenal, the sights were fantastic and the history was awe-inspiring. To be honest, New Orleans is unique to the South. Yes there’s Spanish Moss and mosquitoes you can ride, but most similarities stop there. All one would have to do is visit during Mardi Gras season to understand the truth of the last statement. New Orleans parties hard, heavy and fast during February’s lead up to Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is the day before the Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday features rowdy behavior by many due to days on end of drinking all forms of alcohol. People do amazingly stupid things on Fat Tuesday, often regretting the acts the following day (and if it ends up on Facebook, for many days and weeks to follow).

Ash Wednesday is a somber and sober day in New Orleans as people flock to the cathedrals and churches to have the sign of the cross placed on their foreheads by a priest or minister. The ashes used are from palm branches used on Palm Sunday of the previous year. They are burned, mixed with holy (blessed) water into a paste and applied to the foreheads or hands of those who seek to become more spiritual over a span of six and one half weeks culminating with Easter Sunday. In New Orleans the population is overwhelmingly Catholic and Ash Wednesday is a regular part of the Catholic liturgy and practice. Baptists in the city do not celebrate Ash Wednesday as a rule but a few churches hold special services that coincide with the beginning of Lent.

I didn’t grow up in a high service/high liturgy church so to me lent was something we used a sticky brush to remove from our clothes. It wasn’t until I moved to New Orleans that I grew to appreciate the spiritual possibilities of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season. Lent is a 43-day season where we can reorder our lives, confess and move away from problem sins and place more dependence upon God than we do on ourselves. Many people will fast during Lent and others will give up something over the six weeks. The key is to place something distinctly spiritual into the void left by the object being avoided. Lent can be a true life-changer.

I disagree with the New Orleans model of drinking one’s self silly on Fat Tuesday so Ash Wednesday will be more effective. Paul had a lot to say on that view of forgiveness of sin and he would not have been a fan of Mardi Gras. I’m guessing he’d have sent the churches a letter or two. But let’s face it…we all sin, no matter where we live or what we do on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. So let’s forget Tuesday and embrace Wednesday. Ash Wednesday. A new start for all of us!

Michael McCullar

Finding Your Inner-Salt

I finally succumbed and purchased the best-selling book The History of Salt by Mark Kurlansky. I’d talked myself out of buying it for a couple of years but I found a discounted paperback copy and quickly began reading it. I’m fascinated by how a writer can take a seemingly mundane subject and turn it into a million-seller book. If George Clooney could play a pile of salt the movie rights would be up for grabs right now. The actual book, setting aside all professional jealousy, is a masterpiece. Salt was gold for more years than gold has been gold, if you get my drift. Salt literally ran the world for thousands and thousands of years.


Did you know that Egyptians used salt to make mummies (I think they used bodies primarily but salted them down really well)? Or, that salt was to the ancient Hebrews, and still is to modern Jews, the symbol of the eternal nature of God’s covenant with Israel? Did you know that for eon’s loyalties and friendships were sealed with salt because its essence does not change? (Even dissolved into liquid salt can be evaporated back into crystals). Roman soldiers were often paid in salt, which was the origin of the word salary and the expression being worth your salt. The Latin word sal (salt) became the French word solde, meaning pay, which is the origin of the word, soldier. This is one literary lesson you should take with more than a grain of salt!

 The New Testament instructs us to be salt and light to our world. One of salts greatest early values was to preserve food. Another value was as a seasoning, something we continue to use today. It is the seasoning aspect we should translate into our daily faith lives to be true to scripture. We are told to live lives that demonstrate and provide an example that is different from the norm around us. We are to season life with holiness and positives that other people will want to have in their own lives. Something as mundane as salt can still transform the world.
 
Michael McCullar