Monday, December 31, 2012

WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THIS MUCHNESS?

There is just so much muchness!  Everywhere....much muchness!

Much to care for.  Much to operate.  Much to learn.  Much to do.  Much to think upon.  Much to worry over.  Much to clean.  Much to sort.  Much to answer.  Much to seek.  Much to know.  Much to remember.  Much to file.  Much to code. Much to read.  Much to prepare.  Much to hear.  Much to evaluate.  Much to say.

On the muchness list extends!

What's up with that?

First is it a way of life.  And, it must have attentive discipline; else it will seat itself as demanding Ruler.

Second, I bring our awareness to this spreading vine for it is very capable of choking out our time with God.  With all of our clamoring and debating the "rights and wrongs" of religion, the most overlooked factor is our delinquency in honoring God.  He has been driven back by the tactics of the phone, the email,  and the calendar.

May we find great joy in the abundance of muchness all around.  But may all of it be tempered with a firm drive to notice Father and to credit Him for giving us the wonderful life.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

OUR ONLY HOPE

Our only hope is in Jesus; not in church, not in devotion, and not in our works.  Jesus is our only and our "all" hope.

It was Jesus who said that many will say to him in that day, Lord didn't you notice how much I did for you?  Didn't I do church in your name?  Didn't I perform incredible miracles in your name?  Afterward, he will insist we depart from him for he never knew us.

What's the point?

I'm one of many who are guilty of believing in church brands, functioning from church rules, and working for kingdom credits without focusing upon--not just the name, but--the person of Jesus.

How easy it is for churches to fall into this trap.  We worship our worship style rather than the Living God.  No wonder the world rejects us.  If and when we grow to be more Christ-centered, a couple of significant transitions take place. (1) We find ourselves arguing and whining less, while (2) we lean toward assisting the poor of our community.

In other words we grow to walk where Jesus walked and care where Jesus cared.  Remember, it was organized religion that could not find his favor...so they killed him.

I preached way too long about church traits while basically overlooking the walk of Jesus.  I didn't study him as a person.  I didn't know him.  I was focused on being right.  No one is ever right except by Jesus.

When I was not filled with adoration for Jesus, I would not have understood this article.  My perception of Jesus was that his name endorsed our prayers. 

Yet, he is a person to be both seen and known.  He gets us when we don't get ourselves.  Our communities are not rejecting Jesus; they are avoiding our churches when we are trying desperately to save ourselves with our own understanding.

Jesus is our only hope.  We begin with him.  We live with him.  We conclude with him. 

When this is true, religion and church and spiritual matters begin to take truer form than ever before.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

GRACE IS NOT CHURCH FLUFF

Before we start, we all know I don't know enough to define grace.  Therefore, this will simply be an exercise to water the grace-knowledge already within you with hope of growth from God continuing among us.

It is my observation that grace tends to be easily dismissed as sorta the church fluff side of spiritual life.  It isn't.  It's the stamina and the sturdy rock-solid element from which we are to behold confidence.  Grace is all about Him in us, with us, and for us.  Grace is God's holy and righteous arm of bold love to do for all men what none can do for ourselves. 

Until each surrenders the silly notion that we can live independently of God and others if we simply work shrewdly, we will forever whine and complain....for we will always finish in disappointment.  And, if we reach disappointment without awakening to His heart of grace, we will live blaming others for our misfortune...including God.

The task of defining grace is not as simple as looking at a dictionary for it is the very essence and presence of the participating Living Lord. 

May we refrain from believing it to be a church fluff word by realizing it is the beauty of God's elected involvement among us.

1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
2 Corinthians 9:14
while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.
2 Corinthians 12:9
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Ephesians 4:29
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Friday, December 28, 2012

A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION CONCEPT THAT IS A WINNER

I think I have hit upon the secret to successful diet. 

Since on New Year's Day most of us make resolutions we don't keep past four weeks (for some four days), what if we vow to not do something good for us?  When we say we aren't going to drink pop or eat candy or cookies or pie for the whole year, we always, always eventually and quickly cave.  Right? 

Why not reverse the claim so that it would be beneficial to us?

For example, since we can't seem to keep a resolution, what if we said something like, I am not going to eat healthy this year?  What might happen?  If true to past and consistent pattern, wouldn't we break our vows and begin to cheat by eating fruits and vegetables? 

It seems to me that with this approach we would beat ourselves at our own game!  The good news is by losing we would win! 



Thursday, December 27, 2012

CHURCH GROWTH AND HOW TO FIND IT

Life in the church is simply complex and complexically simple.

Yes.

Filled with ambition we are primed to roll up our sleeves and get at it.  Or, loaded with confusion we are ready to throw up our hands to say, I don't know what else to do.

Yes.

Church growth is God's responsibility.  Our job is to sow and water; He alone causes increase.

Yes.

A bottleneck in the church is usually found in elderships who feel inclined to dispense Permission Granted to work requests.  In the name of shepherding the flock, many congregations cannot proceed toward God's handiwork simply because some elder(s)'s most vital need is to control.

This is a trait belonging to God.  And haven't you noticed He operates with one constant surprise after another?  The Restoration Movement has not taken us back to God.  It has taken us back to what the second generation restorationists insisted upon as God's way when much of it wasn't; it was more of man's....again.

The Bible is not a tidy handbook of How-Tos.  It is simple in its call to God's refusal to be trapped by man's authoritative arm.  He will not be cornered by our weak and self-laden understanding.

After these many years in the church, I am increasingly enjoying learning that God still has it about His wits to present believers with the surprise and mystery of beyond-imagination kingdom.

Father didn't run low on creative concepts after He parted a sea and a river and then caused a jailhouse to look like it was constructed with Legos.

Church growth and how to find it is never to be found in man's conclusion for such is Tinker Toyish at best.  Participating in church advancement is found in God's provisional hand.

The surrender of our own efforts is a move in the right direction.  A belief in the Son is the absolute work called for....John 6:29.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

FINDING A LIFE FIT THAT SATISFIES

Do you think it seems that the majority of us, if not all, spend our time trying to get life to fit?  From education, to location, to occupation, to circulation (of friends), we spend exorbitant amounts of time and energy on the hunt for what pleases the self.

It seems as if happiness is a secret buried within the ruins of experience.  Elusively, satisfaction seems to hopefully reside just around the corner or over the next horizon.  Landing such a catch, however, appears to be rare.  Temporary placation doesn't count for we are seeking the permanent sort.

Enter the life vows of Jesus.

The narrow road to satisfaction just happens to be the one few want.  Yet there is no other way to authentic contentment.  We must lose our life in order to find it.  The announcement is clear.  However, the heart balks.  Roads and alleys of momentary satisfaction are sought only to be discovered as yet another temporary map to meaningful life.

Jesus lost his life to save the rest of us.  We are called to imitate him.  We are called to get lost to what we can imagine for ourselves by stepping out on a road of travel God has designed.  This will scare the living daylights out of us. Yet, to decline leaves us on perpetual hunt for meaning and purpose.

We are invited to lose our dreams and our intents in order to find bigger dreams and larger meaning. 

But....we hedge.  We trust the proverbial bird in the hand is better than two in the bush theology that sounds wise to we habitual theorists.  We have yet to understand that if that bird actually lands in the hand, it will soon take flight only to leave us once again empty-handed.

The reason for such massive struggle among these masses is that we want to do life with our toe on the bottom of the pool.  We hold on to our familiarities for comfort is our game.  We refuse to risk because such would involve mystery. 

If any are to find life with deep meaning, personal fear has got to go.  We are destined to lose our life in order to find it.  Willingness to endure failure by dying to fleeting dreams for the moment will prove to be amazing in both adventure and gratification. 

Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it...Lk. 9:24

Monday, December 24, 2012

TO EACH OF MY FRIENDS...

Merry Christmas to each of you. 

Thank you for dropping in on occasion to check out my random quirks or wishful-thinking wise ponderances!

Blessings,
Terry

Saturday, December 22, 2012

HAVE YOU NOTICED THE CONSISTENT HAND OF GOD?

It is a little more than unexplainable to note how God cannot be outdone.  Yes, the flesh might think so; just where have we seen that before?

Remember Jesus dying and bound for the cold tomb?  The unbelievers mocked and the believers wept as they walked away.  Over....it was all over.  This God-thing was a hoax.  Except....

....except believers and unbelievers alike didn't yet know the hand of God; His reach nor His strength.  It as if God was toying with the schemes of enemies to turn their momentary celebration into His grand theater for the well lit stage of all drama.

He emptied the grave and darkness has never recovered.

Every time death goes on a mission, life breaks out; even increases.  Every time.

When our family encountered one of its roughest times, I recall driving numb and stunned to the murder scene and thinking on my way, God, I bet you will use this tragedy in some way to enhance your church. 

That evening of darkness brought about amazing wonder.

Backsliding hearts returned immediately to God...much more in number than the two murdered. The lingering effects of light that came from that experience are still productive.  That cold December night was not a victory for Darkness.  It inspired even more Light.

Recall the Twin Towers of 9/11? 

What broke out immediately?  Renewed and resurrected faith!  Ashes were strewn in New York while renewed faith was ignited from Tallahassee to Tacoma.  Prayer groups sprouted in office complexes, coffee houses, and churches...unrehearsed, unplanned.  It was like some sort of God-ordained revival that we would never have organized on our own.

Death can't find victory; but rather, to its own embarrassment, causes life to break out!  It actually re-lit the wickes of fading hearts!

And look at the present pain in Newtown?  Twenty-six deaths and yet multitudes times multitudes of hearts have been quickened and stirred by the true Spirit.  Initially, it may seem that God may not get as much world media attention as the calamity itself. 

He's getting significant mention there, though, as well as breaking out in other aggressive and far-reaching connections.  Yet, that's not His only avenue.  God will arise (raise up) to become new life from books given, and small group assemblies, and inspiring messages aroused by this momentary affliction.

We should take note.  Death takes its best shot at us and loses even when it believes it has won.  We will not give darkness the credit it wishes.  We will turn it toward Father.  He alone dispels the darkness. 

Jehovah is at the other end of every grave.  He...our Living God...is consistent.  Victory is always His; never a defeat...not one...not ever.

God....He knows darkness and has the perfect response....every time.

Friday, December 21, 2012

PRAYERS FOR PHILIP AND JANET

I believe what I am about to share will encourage you about the arm of God and how far He reaches with, to, and through each of us.

I have this friend that writes stuff.  He's always writing...or lecturing...or listening...in some formation which would lead others to deeper spiritual understanding.  I speak of Philip Yancey.

Yesterday's eVolleys noted once again why I love and admire this brother so much.  He lives to see that societies are permeated with the hopeful touch of Jesus.  His words yesterday proved consistent.

He and wife Janet are invited to work with the devastated in Newtown, CT. in a few days.  He will speak to community groups and then field questions throughout the weekend after Christmas. 

From Germantown to Germany, readers of this blog wonder what we can do to assist the heartbroken of the Northeast.  I ask that you pray...really...for Philip's words and Janet's counsel to carry Holy Spirit backing and impact. 

Philip is a plain, common man with desperate need for God to flow from him for he is far too small left on his own.  Consider his request...and then thank God in prayer for His supreme presence and guidance over this troubling time.  May the abundant tears be transformed into telescopes to see the reality of kingdom life just a bit clearer.  Hearts are wide-open for help.  Let us be a part of a team that gives it.

See a portion of his humble note below. 

We've arranged two community-wide meetings, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 28-29, on the theme, "Where Is God When It Hurts?" and then two church services on Sunday.  Churches in the region will come together, and many who attend will be unchurched.  I've had some tough assignments (Virginia Tech, Mumbai, Sarajevo), but this one is horribly unique.  I would truly appreciate your prayers this week as I prepare--not exactly what I had planned for Christmas week--and then New Year's weekend as we travel to Connecticut........I'm not sure why I get picked for these assignments (God doesn't ask my permission in advance), and I feel unworthy, especially in this case because I am not a parent.  It helps mightily that we go not alone, rather buoyed by your support and prayers.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES

Being an intensely conscientious group, we strive for the ultimate; to please God.  Yet, such determination has backfired.  We have replaced His efforts with our own.  We work laboriously to save ourselves.  This move isn't made from ego as much as assumed responsibility.

But it is all wrong.

When we work to be in the saved mode, two warped manners develop: (1) we become lenient and understanding of ourselves with great grace to overlook our sins, and (2) we simultaneously become highly critical of others regarding even their slightest detraction from God's Word. 

Strangely, both oppose the call of God.

We cannot save ourselves.  This is up to God through Jesus.  We are not God.  Our job is to submit to His call and let Him provide salvation.  We want this; yet, somehow in the name of responsibility, we take on the role of judge for self and for brother.

It's weird, really, that the apostle Paul could see himself as sin-failured (Romans) and the very essence of chief sinner (Timothy); yet any who live in the church self-saved don't identify.  Those of us who do identify get the picture that the need for salvation is bigger than once assumed.

Some of the Jews regarded Jesus as prophet and good man; nothing more.  When one works for self-salvation Jesus has just been relabeled similarly...a prophet, a good man, but not a Savior.

When we realize we cannot possibly save ourselves via steps or service, we will then enter into the glorious reign of Jesus as King.  Salvation then means something for we realize how far he brought us.  Church shifts from obligation to gratitude.  And, fellowship is filled with over-joy rather than endurance.

We cannot save ourselves.  Thank you, God.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

ARE WE THE BIG "C" OR THE LITTLE "c" CHURCH OF CHRIST?

The churches of Christ salute you.

During my conversion process in 1970, great pride swelled within to find my new church actually spelled out in the Bible.  We were listed!  The news (to me) that we were not a denomination, but were the true Bible church, was deeply meaningful and impressive.

I loved the simplicity.

However, it wasn't long until I learned that such a name represented some in a movement that had gradually become the very thing they had stood against; a denomination.  Church of Christ has become a brand name while the church of Christ is the one he continues to build.

The church owned by Jesus strives to live in tenderness willing to absorb God's unfolding truth.  The Church of Christ denomination knows all of the answers while being blinded to our own denominational practices. 

The church that Jesus builds remains flexible in the Holy Spirit in movement and heart.  The Church of Christ, however, is riddled with the very traditions we have long mocked other groups for possessing.

The Christ's church wants to advance in spiritual depth as well as meaning.  The capital C church wants to preserve what thirty-eight things we have rightfully concluded.

It isn't that we Church of Christers have no grip for Truth.  It is that we have been a people far too long heavy on Church and light on Christ.  Furthermore, I never experienced any persecution from our brotherhood to the level I did when shifting that very emphasis. 

The capital C church is enamoured with rules and forms.  The small c church is refreshingly dependent upon God for instruction and guidance day by day.  The former doesn't like the word new while the latter is new.

Finally, the capital C-ists believe that the true church has to have the name Church of Christ.  Biblical names like church of God or church of the firstborn are dismissed mainly because we are capital C-ists.

Small c-ists believe the church is Jesus'.  Its label for the street sign or listing in the yellow pages may be Battle Creek, Cornerstone, Brooklyn Tabernacle; on the list goes in great abundance.

To believe one to be a member of the true church is a very right concept.  To believe it has to have a capital C in order to be the only right one is subject to possible transference into the very denominational realm we bemoaned.

The churches of Christ still salute you.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

THE RAT RACE: TO SHED OR NOT TO SHED?

We have choices.  Life circumstances can happen to us; yet we get to choose every response. 

We can choose to shed the Rat Race. 

Jesus did it. Others do it.  We can do it.

Friend Keith Roberts points to wisdom by saying, Spiritual apathy, the waste by-product of prayerlessness, creeps up on you because of this simple mistake: when the schedule gets crowded, prayer is the first thing left in the dust.  Let that happen and you lose perspective. Back to the Rat Race, running and circling but accomplishing little of real value.

Prayer calms an otherwise bossy, demanding, pushy, and hurried world.

When we aren't in prayer for God's provision and when we are forgetful to live immersed in thanksgiving toward Him, we take charge by two things; worry and control.  Neither help.  Each calls for more of the same.  And still, neither satisfies.

We find life running at us from too many directions because we put the cycle on speeding spin.

Prayer leans upon God.  If He responds immediately; very well.  But should He wait, we learn to wait with Him and for Him.  God runs the show.  We don't.  Prayer helps us to trust during the wait.  He will be there.

Fear moves in if prayer moves out.  We fear we will miss the bargain, will not be keeping up with the world's expectancies, or that we will fail to gain certain accolades if we should fail to be assertive.  Prayer, however, moves fear out.

Prayer believes God; believes He is functionally aware and perfectly capable to handle our little piece of space on earth.  He knows how.

The Rat Race can be shed.  It takes discipline to say "No" to the many things one feels pressed for engagement.  Prayer threads life's dailiness together for peaceful production.

This may be the 21st Century; but it is not the boss.

Monday, December 17, 2012

WHERE IS GOD WHEN TRAGEDY STRIKES?

 Following the shooting at the Portland mall and then the massacre in the New Town elementary school, an age-old question comes from a few, “Where was God?”  This isn’t an unfair inquiry for there is a reply.

Yet, some seem to ask as if He didn’t care or didn’t have the ability to do anything….or He just doesn’t exist.  None of these three possibilities offer the correct answer.

The question of Where was God? is a valid one.  And, there is a solution.

First of all, God isn’t a theoretical Police Officer with a gigantic badge and whistle to match.  He isn’t God in order to direct human traffic by shouting out detailed moves and calculated orders.  Nor is He a control freak forcing men and women to do only what He wants.

God is God.  So….where was He? 

God was well ahead of the shooting in Oregon and the devastation in Connecticut.  Where He was is profoundly important.  He was found hanging His Son on the cross to wipe out impending death.  God was standing by while rulers and military leaders framed Jesus for being guilty when he was truly innocent. 

God never broke out in rescue as His Son was forced upon the cross.  Yet, Jesus raised the identical question from the cross, “My God!  My God!  Why have you forsaken me?”  Even then, God remained silent.

Father walked away from Son upon the cross.  It was such a horrible day that darkness filled the earth for three hours in mid-afternoon.  Jesus became terribly dark with guilt….our guilt. 

So where was God during these recent tragedies?  He was covering for the innocent and the guilty some 2000 years back for precisely such times as these.  Where was God?  He was spending His ideal and perfect Jesus in payment for both heartache and break of all mankind for all time.

Our nation has experienced gruesome tragedy; and such isn’t over.  More will come.  But the question is not “Where was God?”  The question is “Where do we put our faith to eventually and personally rise from the dead?”  Our response is to be that we put our faith in the God who emptied the grave.
Death will continue to happen for awhile.  Yet, it will only be temporary in terms of time.  Eternity is to be our experience.

Sacrificial provision and heartbreaking preparation in giving up Jesus for all of us is where God has been all along.  Believe it. 

THE UNMENTIONED DOCTRINE OF DISRUPTION

We seem to believe we have enough hassle.  What we are looking for is peace on earth, goodwill toward men.  Times of peace and goodwill are surely not negative nor are they illegal.  They are necessary.  Yet, a constant diet of this is hardly reality in the kingdom.

In our search for peace and quiet the truth and necessity of disruption have been shelved.  Not meaning to sound radical here, I simply wish to draw about awareness that living in the church is not all a walk in the garden.

Recall those who couldn't get to Jesus so they lowered their crippled friend from homemade opening in the roof?  And then there was the woman who elbowed her way through the mob just to touch the hem of Jesus' garment.  The Canaanite woman of Matthew 15 would not cease to call out for benefit of her daughter.  The disciples tried to hush her.  So did Jesus. 

But she rudely persisted.

Tommy Tenney wrote, The Bible says of the Kingdom of Heaven, "...the violent take it by force" (Mt. 11:12).  For some reason that doesn't sound like us, does it?  We've become so "churchified" that we have our own form of "political correctness" and polite etiquette.  Since we don't want to be too radical, we line all the chairs up in nice rows and expect our services to conform to equally straight and regimented lines as well.  We need to get so desperately hungry for Him that we literally forget our manners!

The kingdom of God is not as easy nor as squeaky clean as we might prefer.  From my experience, the more we get into the ditches with the down and dirty the more we find the church getting to be what God destined it to be.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

WHAT IS OUR MESSAGE TO THE WORLD?

We live among those who suffer.  Neighbors suffer from cancer.  Bosses suffer from discouragment.  Mommas suffer from worry.  Agony--sheer agony--hold all of us at times as if at gunpoint.  No one seems exempt.

So, since we are all alike, do Christians really have a message?  Or, do we live in some sort of pretentious denial as to how awful things are with news of it worsening?

No.  We have a message.

Hope!

Those without God are stuck with their own ingenuity and manipulative efforts which ultimately fade.  Those with Him remember the cross and then the subsequent filled grave and then the subsequent subsequent EMPTY ONE!

Because of the resurrection of Jesus--the impossible becoming possible--we are called to ALWAYS HOPE!

Therefore, those of you who are in Christ, don't go through life as one without God.  You are with Him. 

Hope like it!

And our message to the world?  Regardless of how dark the grave, explosive new life is just hours away!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

HOW TO DEAL WITH OPPOSITION

We are different due to the life-reversing approach exemplified by Jesus.  No one enters the kingdom with Shade Tree formulas and equations.  Nor will Doctrinal Discourses hold.  The very nature of Jesus is to defy earth's gravitational wisdom.  This is why the babes were the only ones to grasp it.

Tullian Tchividjian, in his wonderful book Jesus + Nothing = Everything, recalls the incredible stress he encountered when he and others engaged in blending his five year old New City church with the long-established Coral Ridge church of Dr. James Kennedy fame.  More than 90% of the Coral Ridge family voted for the blending.  But then...there was that remaining less than 10%.

With the merger and the leadership transition, a small but vocal group of long-time Coral Ridge members immediately began voicing opposition to practically any and every change we initiated or even considered at the church.  Blogs were posted, notes and letters were circulated--some anonymously--with false accusations about me.  Just three months after I arrived, a vigorous petition drive was started to get me removed, and it gained steam.  Some people began lamenting the huge mistake they'd made in agreeing to the merger, and they grumbled that the whole thing had turned into a "hostile takeover."  Their tone was frequently heated and vicious.  Battle lines were drawn, rumors raced, and the spirits of those who supported me sagged.  There was a crescendo of misunderstandings, frustrations, and pain.

Each time I read this account I think of the time when a large group exited a neighboring Church of Christ, placed membership at Memorial, and then soon formed a meeting to fire me.  It was a confusing, and yet important, part of my ministry.

And, Tchividjian learned something in this moment of upheaval that I began to note as well. 

I was learning the hard way that the gospel alone can free us from our addiction to being liked--that Jesus measured up for us so that we wouldn't have to live under the enslaving pressure of measuring up for others...

...When that difficult year was over, I'd be able to look back and realize that God seemed bigger to me than ever, while I'd never been so small.

He had stripped me down--wrecked me afresh!  And when he does that to a person--when you actually feel like you have nothing--Jesus becomes more to you than you ever could have hoped or imagined....

....Rediscovering the gospel enabled me to see that:
  • because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak;
  • because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose;
  • because Jesus was someone, I was free to be no one;
  • because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary;
  • because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail.
I write this not to rehearse sour grapes; but rather to point to the necessary vineyard of riches found in the very center of the things most of us ministers wish to avoid.  True life in the true kingdom will insist we be whittled to nothing so that He can become everything.

Never give up.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

WEARERS OF THE GARDEN GOGGLES

When the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened, depression broke loose to the extent both ran to hide.  They were immediately fitted with goggles which allowed them to see into a perspective God had not intended.  Havoc of the mind was unleashed.

Ever since, mankind has suffered multiple atrocities due to the wearing of Garden Goggles which were not intended by God to be a part of our attire.  Strong cataracts form from these lenses which distort personal vision of self; usually in the negative.

This is the secret we need to continue to learn about every person we know.  Unless really, really, really, bent on seeing with the eyes of Jesus, we are engaging with family and friends who suffer from wearing Garden Goggles.  We see the negative about ourselves when the negative isn't really there.

This blurred vision plays perfectly into Satan's intent.  Bring mankind down by causing them to become distracted via their flaws.

When we look in the mirror--whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually--the first thing most do is to reach for the Garden Goggles to take a gander.  And what is seen?

The beautiful don't see beauty; but they see a small blemish magnified.  The personalities don't see outgoing personality; but they see profound inadequacy.  The sensitive don't see their valuable tenderness; but they see insecurity and goofiness.

When Adam and Eve's eyes were opened in the Garden of Eden they set blindness into motion for all mankind....and we still suffer the consequences.

Therefore, I urge you to open the eyes of your heart that you may know what are the hopes and the riches and the power for you and me according to the strength of His might...Eph. 1:18-19.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

LEADERSHIP FASCINATION !!!!!

Living in leadership is a most fascinating adventure.  The element that makes it so is God.  That's it.  And, that's everything.

Don't we get it by now?  From Bible's cover to cover is one repetitious story: man isn't, man can't, and God can, does, and will.

Leaders don't pretend we can be effective; we believe in the God who can and does.  We aren't dependent upon our own talent and skill.  We are dependent upon His talent and skill.

Ritual and tradition and rote make us fearful and weary.

Spirit and promise and hope make us His valiant and vibrant children who have inherited, not a movement but, a faith that been handed down since....well, since Abraham fathered it.

For any preacher who sits as I once did for a couple of decades wondering if and how anything will ever turn for the good, wait on Him.  He will be there.  Too many of us give up too soon.  Wait.  And if nothing changes, wait some more.

God has never met a mountain He couldn't handle nor a death He couldn't conquer.  From the cross of gasping sacrifice to the sheer loneliness of one empty tomb, God has sent a message, I can do anything and you have inherited My resurrection power.

For church leaders, the question is not whether He can deliver; but whether we will wait upon Him.  We will. 

Rejection?  Frustration?  Abandonment?  Self-inflicted failure?  All are merely confidence boosters to depend on God.  We are zeroes.  It took me a bit--like two decades--to begin to begin to catch it.  But it is true.  And once crushed of personal talent, it is not odd to note it is then that He begins to take over.

Our leadership problem is basically one; we think we can manage an unmanageable kingdom they same way one would manage a sales force or a football team.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.

Jesus splinters carnal approach with back-door slam dunks of whodathunkit?  His masterful specialty is to pick the loser, the loser formula, or the losing concept and amaze the whole lot of us who lead from our meager brain-power.  His resurrection power defies human logic as well as organization.

To believe God can do for us and will do for us what we can't manipulate on our own is the path for leadership fascination.  We get to see Him work.  And His talent looks so much better than all of ours combined.  Fascinating!!!!!!



WHAT QUENCHES THE SPIRIT?

Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.  In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  Do not quench the Spirit.....I Thes. 5:18

There is desperate need for the Spirit to function among and within the churches.  We are of nothing more than organization with no power blessing if we have not the Holy God in Spirit form residing within.  We are nothing; we go nowhere and see nothing but decline.

The key to opening to the Holy Spirit is the simplicity of a thankful heart.  Gratitude sees God.  Selfishness sees ourselves as god; we are the providers, the suppliers, the producers.

Rejoice always means something when always is factored.  Selective gratitude matches the emotional whirl of unbelievers.  They, too, have their moments of rejoicing.  The difference is only found in the always.

Pray without ceasing is not a reprimand for neglecting time of prayer.  It is harmonious with both previous and post-admonitions; rejoice always coupled with in everything give thanks.

My prayer time has moved from prayer-burden to prayer-life because of learning the soaring route of thanksgiving when I pray.  Because God is God and I am not my own god, I am free to declare every situation as valid blessing.  I can be thankful for all things because even in ruin one will ultimately find blessings of God buried.  He wastes not one crumb of hardship.

Thankful hearts signal the Holy Spirit that we give Him permission to roam.  We open our own flood gates and let the marvel of God sweep through both our treasures as well as our train wrecks.  Our confidence is linked directly to Him....II Cor. 3:4-5.

Open your life to the Spirit of God for you'll be nothing but a negative vendor pushing your sour grapes without Him.  Thankfulness cures what ails us for the Living God thrives in such an atmosphere of heart.

Monday, December 10, 2012

THE BROKEN PLACES

Ernest Hemingway said, The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong in the broken places.

A thing I love about watching Jesus is his obsession and commitment to those who were so very broken.  The lame, the blind, the imprisoned; he was devoted to bringing new life to each.

We must not be surprised at the constant struggle in our midst.  Rather, we must transform the very things we would have once resisted as unbelievers into opportunities for kingdom life since we are believers.  God loves the broken and offers healing of some nature.

Shatterizations do not stop the servant of God.  We maximize their value.

Twenty years ago my daughter's fiance and his brother were brutally murdered.  It was a numbing experience to walk through the next weeks and months.  Yet, a strange sensation overcame me even at the murder scene.  I knew for certain the church at Memorial would be blessed.

I can't tell you how nor can I explain why.  But I knew.  I knew God would not take the back seat to darkness.

I was right.  This congregation had just experienced in a matter of weeks before a deeply wounding split.  What God did to draw those remaining was of incredible and inseparable measure.  Even when things go all wrong, His nature is to cause things to go all right...Romans 8:28.

He--not we--knows how to deal with our painful terrain.  Let Him.  We will then be strong...even in the broken places.

Sunday, December 09, 2012

AND THEN I GOT THIS NOTE FROM A PAST POST

Daniel Bray has left a new comment on your post "CHURCH OF CHRIST OR CHURCH OF PHARISEES?":

I cant believe you hummed along to a Christian Music song, c you in Hell!!
In Australia I m told by those with direct phone lines to God himself that there are only 2000 saved people in the whole country.
Thats 2000 out of 20 milliion. That 2000 people represents the number of people who attend non instrumental COC in Australia.
Church of Christ is top heavy on doctrine and law but rather light on mercy, compassion and LOVE.
In JUDE 1 verse 8-9 we are given an example on judging people in a damning sense, even Michael the acrhangel didnt condemn the devil to hell but rather said the Lord rebuke you. All these COC preachers seem to know the who and who not of heaven, are they greater then the ArchAngel Michael?
I don't know if I've ever met Daniel Bray.  Most likely not.


His note says many things; things about me, things about him, and things about us.  Mainly, since he made it for public use as a comment to another blog, I wish to point to Daniel's apparent irritation with me/us.

We must continue to grow in the gracious Spirit of Jesus that we not inadvertently lose souls by our arrogance or our ignorance.  Daniel makes a significant move pointing me to be careful in my judgment of others.  Such insight is always correct. 

Saturday, December 08, 2012

HOW TO WIN OVER DEPRESSION

On this topic, I know what I'm talking about.  I lived terribly depressed during my 20s, 30s, and 40s.  The work it took to look upbeat in front of both church gatherings and individual friends was, for me, nearly unaccomplishable.  I did it; yet I was often dying on the inside.  No one knew the depths of my agonizing depression.  It would not give me a break.

Without going into great detail, I could tell when depression was coming on.  What made it worse, since such is a mind issue, is that I would exploit it by embellishing my troubles through exaggerated negative self-talk. 

Self-talk is where I would take a true injury and develop the whys and the wherefores of it.  I am rejected because _____ _____ __ ____.  I would both create the blanks and them fill them in.  A strange thing about all of this is that I truly did and still do experience rejection; especially from our brotherhood.  Yet, I would habitually turn an injury into a tragedy via self-inflicting-talk.

The good news is that I learned from the Word that I could beat it.  There are instructions from the Bible for guys like me.  And let it be no surprise, God is right.  He pulls us from this life-hampering ditch to set us free to imagine, to dream.  Should we fail, we are free to try once again.

The key to unlock the wonder of life is found in our mind.  What we think about is a choice.  What people or circumstances do to us isn't.  But what we do toward thinking about each is.  This is where God comes in.  He tells us how to use proper Mind Management.

Philippians 4:4-9 is The Great Escape from the Mind Prison text. 
  1. :4  Twice He says rejoice; and we can if we want.  It is our decision.  No one is exempt.
  2. :5  We can hold up under stress because the Lord is engaged in our dilemma.
  3. :6  Be nervous about nothing.  If you want you can; but realize it is your choice.  And when you pray be sure to include a ton of reasons why you are thankful....during this very hurtful disturbance.
  4. :7  Peace of God will arise without your management nor manipulation...and this will guard your "mind".
  5. :8  Transfer your thinking processes from rehearsal of the depressing to the wonder of everything that is still going right.  Can you still see?  Can you still walk?  Do you still have one friend?  Two?  Are you breathing?  Do your tear ducts still work?  Place your mind upon the altar of rehearsing repeatedly the thousands of things in your life going right.
  6. :9 Practice.  Don't retreat to the pit-thinking when you don't at first succeed.  Practice.  Practice thinking about the abundant things going right. 
Never will it be what others do for us that will defeat depression.  Of course, a phone call, a card, or $1000 would help.  But the key to victory over personal depression is found in the retraining of our minds to think on the 10,000 things going right rather than the two things going wrong. 

It isn't that we are to live in denial that bad things happen.  It is possible, however, that we have been living in denial that great wonder is intricately and presently woven into our lives.

Once we dare practice life-thinking, a weird and wonderful thing begins to happen as if the light comes on.  We will begin to go through our days on auto-pilot.  Eventually, due to practice, we will automatically see the hope of any situation.  And just as God promised, we will experience His most faithful peace.

Do I ever get discouraged?  Yes.  Yet, I've learned to use these painful moments as practice gyms where I train my mind to see value rather than loss.  I still cry over people and circumstances.  I fold into tears at devastating news from (or about) a brother or a sister.  I am so tempted to lose it when I fail God or others.  God's peace, though, reigns when we train our thinking to ponder His beauty rather than our temporary loss.

This training has helped me adapt from insecurity to a very new and strange concept to me; relax.  I once nervously believed all in my world was up to me.  It isn't.  It is up to God (Romans 9:16).  If it is to be, it is up to Him.  I couldn't even be god of my own meager world; let alone another's.  But God is God.  Learn to relax and let Him be Him.

Finally, everything is a yes.  Issues aren't a yes and a no; but are always a yes....II Cor. 1:18-20.  Argue this if you want...and remain depressed.  Have at it.

But if you would like to beat depression, practice refraining from blaming others or circumstances or yourself and take responsibility for the one thing you can and should control; they way you choose to think.

Winning isn't for the lottery winners of life who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  It is for the man and the woman who have the courage to address their personal weakness of stinkin' thinkin'.

Life and peace and joy are available for every person who would like to ponder the riches of such at each and every moment...for it is available in abundance.

For any who struggle with depression, I have lived across my mattress which was a rack of torture.  No more.  I'm not saying depression is minor; for it is most rugged.  Therefore, due to it hampering so many of us for so long, it is good news to know we can break its grip. A-N-D  W-E  C-A-N.

I encourage you, once again, about a great book which will help.  Sharon Hersh's The Last Addiction is one of those revolutionary works.  I know this book to be a great support to the Philippians text.

Merry Christmas as you learn how to win over depression!


Friday, December 07, 2012

LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE

The kingdom of God is rich, powerful, and aggressive.  We are born anew. We are new everyday. 

Now a trap that I can easily fall into is that when a new idea comes along and I favor it, I can justify my possibly unwarranted whim on the basis of I like the new and shiny.  Yet, how do we as leaders sort through the maze that stands before us. 

Shall we put out fires or catch fire?

From a leadership perspective, therefore, let's ponder this concept a bit.

At both my age and tenure, I could be suspect as to whether I can adapt well to innovation.  This is important because we live in what I am going to label as Innovation Generation.  (Ah, someone started Postmodern and another GenX, etc.  How about GenI?)

Leadership perspective will always be challenged to stay true to the Word of God which means we must be flexible in Spirit (Jn. 3:8) in order to follow Jesus well.  He was not only true to the Word, he was the Word....and he drove the religious leaders and their perspective to the pinnacle of eventual murder.

Few farmers today spend their time discussing, planning, and pulling stumps in order to farm the land.  Yet, in my day on the farm as a kid there was still a lot of stump pulling going on back in the Missouri hills.  Few farmers today have such concern.  Theirs are new with concern over land banks, computerized machinery, and soil nutrient additives that my grandpa gave little thought.

I wonder how much unnecessary or irrelevant time I spend in the church discussing the pulling of legalistic stumps when the land has been cleared.  Does my preaching reflect the work of Jesus in this age or that of 28 years ago when it was a different church culture?

It would seem that leadership perspective will be currently effective when the simple standard of following the Word is....well....followed.  I know this sounds simple.  It should be.  Yet, as we mature in the Spirit, that stable Word will inherently lead us into new and challenging zones.  It surely must for none of us have arrived; few of us including myself have even left the station.

Time will always find conservative and liberal warfare.  This is good for us if it drives us to gain momentum in looking to the cross; fixing our eyes on Jesus.  If, however, such challenges only thrust us into more bias and mood and touchiness then the same old lifestyle of church frustration will continue. 

When all is said and done regarding many of our doctrinal and methodical stumps in the church past, all congregations with all of our shepherds and all of our preachers still have extreme need to grow up.  Churches remain loaded with the selfish who will not serve another, the older who will not subject themselves to being trained to reach out, and the younger who lack the patience and understanding to endure things we don't like.

Leadership perspective has never been about anything as much as it is to know Jesus the Lamb.  The good news is we have work to do.  The good news is we are invited to do it.  The good news is that regardless of how frustrating we are to each other or even to self, there is ample (even eternal) reason to hope.

Leadership perspective: it will require a lot of personal attention.  So may we give personal attention to the uncomfortable things about Jesus that truly matter rather than the lazy things that charge our usual business meetings.



Wednesday, December 05, 2012

CHANGE: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE THE NECESSARY

Change is a mysterious sort. 

It can be a gift of blessing.  How many are highly encouraged because they obtain a building permit, get a raise, or find the room of new furniture has satisfactory appeal?

On the other hand, change can seem to be a curse.  When a doctor has retired, eyesight diminishes, or the popular factory goes out of business, we can surely feel the sting of such loss.

Whether good or bad, change is a central part of reality.  We favor some; but reject parts. 

Change in the church is consistent with adjustments elsewhere; some are welcomed while others are tough to accept.  One thing is certain, we will either make the faithful changes needed within the church or else the church itself will change (will die out) because we refused to make them.

That truth should motivate us to be open to His call.

At age 65 I find myself challenged to sort through growth opportunity in the Spirit versus selfish inclination to live in comfort of what I know....and what I like.  When is change necessary?  When is it a directive of God?  And when am I merely reluctant for I know it will cause trouble for some?

Basically, we are a well-meaning sort who very much continue to wish to do what God has in mind.  However, this God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever has a reputation from Day One of being magnificently and wonderfully creative.

It seems to be true that any who take the Word at its word will be led to make significant and contributionary changes because the Spirit will unfold life within us.  The Word will not surrender consistency that the god-head is the Three. 

Yet, patterns and teachings will often be found to be fluid as with the Spirit leading us.  Even the Bible calls for us to grow up...which is change.  Immaturity is the refusal of it.

How do we move forward?  The same way we have done; remain fascinated with the Living Word.  It will give the directions of whether to change.  Some things should.  Some shouldn't.  It will take a courageous heart to honestly sort between the two.



 



Tuesday, December 04, 2012

GOD

Whatever is said about God should be in the form of credit, praise, and complete awe!

It took me too long to begin to build a relationship with Him for I was focused on doing everything right.  Odd, isn't it, when the biblical message is that Jesus will make us right because we can't get there on our own?

Our present culture is loaded multi-faceted fascinations.  These could be used by dark forces to distract us from giving attention to God.  Diligence must be given to seek Him continually.

In the old days---meaning in my younger years---when I was not serious about God or faith or church, I didn't understand the deep desire of God for us to lean upon Him.  My oblivion regarded church the same as local cafes; find the one with the best menu to your liking.  I had no drive to  search for a faith and what little effort that came from me had very little to do with giving God attention.

And then, when I later became really interested in Him, my main understanding was to not go to hell.  Salvation was presented in such a way that warning of eternal damnation was issued as stern threat. 


Heaven, on the other hand, was mainly a gray fog or mist where we would sit around without bodies and floatatiously sing dull church songs for 10,000 years.  In those days I gave attention to thoughts of heaven merely as the hell-escape.

Of course, being a people-person, I quickly caught on to Church of Christ-ness as I so immediately enjoyed meeting new folks.  Strangers were not a test for me.  I liked 'em.

But God still was not in the picture other than hoping to keep Him happy. 

One reason I learned to adjust my God concept was to gradually learn to watch Jesus.  Oh, I'd memorized a couple of sayings---Jesus wept---I am the way, the truth, and the life---but I had not yet truly watched him move down crowded streets or deal with selfish disciples.

Jesus showed(s) me God.

He showed me that he was a plain man as I and that he had to receive the Spirit of God at baptism in order to be able to pull off the work Father intended.  Jesus showed me to follow suit.

God.  In time He seems to grow larger as we grow smaller. 

May we be a people adamant about giving Him outlandish praise.  He deserves this from us.  Forever.

Monday, December 03, 2012

LIFE IN A CHURCH WITH NO CROSS

I'm learning day by day.  With incredible gratitude to the Spirit of Bible revelation, I am still being developed by His riches and His power and His glory.  The more I learn, the more nothing I discover myself to be.  This no longer discourages me. God is good.

I'm noticing with great appreciation those before us and among us who have suffered in the church.  I speak of preachers and elder-teachers and any others who have taken their calling to include the war of the cross.

Our brotherhood isn't easy.  As a matter of fact it is brutal to all who are willing to disobey what I call the loud voices of Church of Christ standardization.

No longer do I speak from the impulsiveness of my earlier years. I would hope my once youthful brashness has subsided considerably.  Such was offensive; rightfully so.  However, the dare to go against some in the church was of necessity and will continue to be so.

The church in general does baptism and moderate believing.  Extremes are rejected except in the matters of rigidity where safety, shelter, and the old paths are sought. 

Thus, the perpetual need for believers big enough, strong enough, and committed enough to balk at the tides of tradition which never came from God.  Admittedly, we have our fair share.

Baptism we stress.  Compassion in theory is a winner.  Yet, the cross comes in the peculiar zone of persecution.  Few there are who dare buck the patternistic system of the 40s and 50s.  I no longer speak from faulty brashness; but from firm biblical perspective.  Life in the church basically avoids the cross because that would mean persecution.

Many are willing to persecute while the most are simply unaware of such action.  Few there are that voluntarily suffer the fretful and mean-spirited anger of those so willing to slander and slay a brother or sister.

The path to church mediocrity is paved with cowardly men-pleasers.  An irrational temper isn't what is needed. Courageous, bold, and brave believers are.

To take up the cross and follow is to walk into a hornets nest of biting and beating.  The Word is clear about this while Jesus' actual walk pictures it.  Again, the church-at-large is clueless to such behavior. Rejection is a monster that causes some to wither and others to quit.

Life in the church with no cross can be masked with abundant activity.  However, each individual is called to take up the cross and begin to follow.  We are to believe in such a way that a few in society (including the religious among us) will get significantly testy. This means clear rejection; a matter most avoid with the consequences of losing our life in order to spare it.

There are a great many heroes and heroettes among us; past and present.  Thank you for leading out when you knew you would take several hits.  Thank you for crying over us when you wondered if we would eventually catch on.

The church is a beautiful entity.  The church faces many fronts of contest; so many that truly matter.  I find this one area to be where our soldiers first drop their Bibles and run.  We would rather have peace among ourselves than be estranged from the body by developing a belief system found to be closer to Jesus than that of the looking-over-our-shoulder-at-what-the-brotherhood-thinks church.

May we grow...together...to be a church with a living cross.  For surely this is included in His call.

Sunday, December 02, 2012

AS JESUS BUILDS HIS CHURCH

Regardless of what some would assume, I still believe Jesus is building his church.  I just don't happen to think it is restricted to nor inclusive of only Churches of Christ.

The church continues to be built by the Founder.  I so enjoy the thought of being a part of it.  But my time is surely still one of apprenticeship. 

One of the many mistakes I have made in this training is my failure to recognize what it is Jesus is about.  I started off a house o' fire in slamming the lost and labeling the liberal.  I knew my Bible...so I thought.

True, I did know parts of my Bible; but was soon found to be guilty of its accusation that some knew their Bible but did not know Jesus.  That would also be me.

I have grown to love being a part of his church construction.  He has really surprised me in an area I simply didn't see coming.  I thought the right church had to do with right beliefs based upon the right Bible interpretation.

In later years I  have noticed something life changing and church changing.  Right beliefs are more accurate when one watches where Jesus walked....among the needy.  It wasn't biblical enough according to Jesus' example to merely theorize outreach.  Rather, it is more Christlike to touch the poor.

Christians extending to the poor transform churches from static to sturdy, from whining to winning, and from judgmental to justice.  Odd, don't you think, that a walk down the Gospels Path finds Jesus in trouble at turn upon turn because he was dealing with the poor rather than focusing on the rules.  His walk was his belief system.

Yes, as Jesus builds his church I believe we come closer to the Truth by actually wading into the streets among the poor rather than discussing again in class on Sunday morning why other churches aren't doing church the right way.

Saturday, December 01, 2012

A CHURCH LIKE EAGLES WITH NO WINGS

Can you imagine an eagle without wings?  It would eat, sleep, and walk.  It could communicate.  It could interact with any and all grounded eagles.  Eagle would be its true name.  Yet, it could not do what it was designed by God to do best; that is to soar.  The name would be accurate; but the behavior would be quite reduced.

So it is with the named Church of Christ.  Some vocal and influential someones of our past taught in such a way that our people were born again with out wings....without the wings of the Holy Spirit.  Such a church talks the talk and walks the walk; yet has no way of soaring as was His intended design for us.

Those with the name are desperate to be given back their wings.  There is proper and biblical rebellion taking place that will not be stopped.  The study of the Holy Spirit and the belief in His activity within and among us is gaining momentum.

Those church eagles without Spirit wings have one basic call in life.  They sit in birdhouses and chirp against those who wonder if possibly they could fly.  Brows are raised in smugness of knowing all about the Holy Spirit when, in truth, we are just entering (but very free to enter) into the slightest of understanding of Him.

What I really like about the subject of the Spirit of God is that He is of the Truth.  Those in the church-nest who have no wings--I speak from experience of my own wing-lessness at early point--have been told to reach Truth and then guard it as if it might escape.  These nesters are bent on one thing....preserving the Truth.

However, Truth is always truth when it expands.  Truth can never be Truth if it isn't expanding.  William Barclay penned over a  half of a century ago, To the Christian thinker there is open the glorious adventure of following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  All life is an unfolding.  Love is not the same thing to the infant in his mother's arms, the young child, the teen-ager, the newly married couple, those who have gone down the road of the years past many milestones together, the one who is left when the other has gone from this earth.  No truth is static, least of all God's truth.  If we believe in the Holy Spirit, we shall be saved from intolerance, from arrogance, and from servitude to the dogmas of men.

We are to desire to soar with wings like eagles.  We are called to a level of life which operates from newness of the Spirit and not static fear of the demanding Letter.  The good news is that it is the Word of God which verifies these things; not dogmas of eagles with no wings.



Friday, November 30, 2012

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

Sometimes I just like to talk life.  Usually the topic is regarding a faith element.  But today it isn't.

I want to tell you about one of my latest adventures which began last night.

First, I must admit that I am a glutton for new health ideas.  Remember the time I heard that crushed garlic in shampoo would rejuvenate hair loss?  Well....count me in.

After about a week there was no sign of improvement.  Quite the opposite really.  I began to smell really badly.  My hair took on bad breath.  Nasty!

So yesterday I was at the As Seen On TV store at the mall.  I love that store!  Ah...the stuff...the really good...creative...and handy....stuff!  I was there for the purpose of picking up a couple of gifts for a Christmas exchange when I happened across something I had forgotten all about.

Do you remember the 1-800 commercials for a detox foot patch that pulls toxins from your body and through your feet?  Yes!!!!  I got me some!!!!

So I followed the three instructions; adhered the slim packet to the bottom of each foot and then secured with socks for sleep.  I was to leave them on through the night for the best results.

When I awakened...I'm not joking...I could smell trash burning.  It took me awhile to become clear headed.  As I walked down the hall to check I noticed that where ever I went the odor was consistent....and then I remembered. 

I can't say that these detox patches really work for I've got three more nights to follow.  But I can tell you that the pads were black with body soot of some substance.  Oh...gross, gross, gross! 

All I can say for now is that either I am less toxic today or else my socks discolored the detox patches!  For $12.99 I'm figuring there will be great health advantages.  Don't you think?

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

JESUS AND HIS SHOPPING SPREE

Shopping is surely the major emphasis of our days.  After all it IS December!

And...I love it.  I've always been enthralled with Christmas.

I begin October 1st.  We draw names at our office at that time.  I love it!

I love the crowds.  I love buying.  Aren't full parking lots encouraging?  I love giving and receiving.  Our office party is at noon Monday and I'll have my gift for Daniel in tow.

Something struck me this morning while studying something entirely of a different subject.  I began to wonder about Jesus and his shopping spree.

I thumbed to Isaiah 53 to read it again.

From the cross Jesus swept through villages, harbors, and countrysides buying up sinful garments of every color and size of every decade and century of every land and continent.  He bought angers, adulteries, persecutions, and laws.  He bought up all of the abusive words as well as matching detrimental actions. 

Jesus bought up supplies of hatred and bias and neglect and snobbery and robbery.  He purchased arguments, brokenness, mistakes, and heartaches.  He especially loved to buy up as many heartaches as he could find.

Jesus paid for it all only to wear our garments of sin on the cross.  He went out in our style; clothed in our sin, hoping that one day we would determine to be clothed in him through baptism. 

Jesus placed the Master Card on the public hill that we might one day understand we are free to realize that our sins have been purchased by his blood.  Nobody has ever gone on such a shopping spree.  It isn't yet over!  Such an extravagant spending spree lives on having bought up the ills of mankind....that mankind can receive the gift of salvation.

Thank you, Jesus, for being an obsessive shopper!

COULD THIS BE A MESSAGE FROM GOD?

To the highly committed and hyper-active bunch among us, I pull alongside of you to breathlessly say, Good morning!  I would assume all are reading this article on your way to somewhere or just getting back so you can enter back into the gotta get moving syndrome.

Ours is a hurried culture with a shrinking planet due to massive communicational tools at our immediate disposal.  We are in a perfect storm in great need of Jesus; the perfect storm calmer.

Humanity is on a pace of frantic self-explosion.  Frankly, it would seem we are too busy to die.

I believe the church is under attack due to the hurried pace.  It isn't that our people aren't willing to work and sacrifice.  It is that so many have so much going on is seems as if fatigue is on a very strong creep.  We are in deep need of what I thought once to be a dirty four-letter word, R-E-S-T. 

R-E-S-T is not a first cousin to L-A-Z-Y, so get over it.

I want to be a voice in your world that says you need to rest.  Of course, I'm not addressing the slothful.  You are the ant-farm laborers in the kingdom vineyard.

I have had to practice rest.  I'm fearful of learning Facebook for it seems yet another phone to ring or email to bing-bong.  How do you do it? 

So my word to elders and preachers and teachers and accountants and secretaries and bus drivers and mommas and doctors and......write this word of advice down somewhere and practice it before a mirror.  Learn to say, No.

Storms could be a swirl and Jesus would be found asleep only to awaken to tell the wind to bug off.  Calm down! seemed to suffice when he spoke.

When presented opportunities via request of your engagement, I believe we have a partner within (the Holy Spirit of God) that gives us a nudge which speaks clearly, Yes, I would like to be a part of that or No, I couldn't possibly work in another event on my calendar.  Then, my friend, say so.

Psalm 46:10 calls us to be still.  Jesus endorses relief from whirlwind paces by inviting us to come to him and R-E-S-T.

Could this be a much needed message from God just for you this morning?  I'm confident it is written specifically for some.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

WHEN THE SUN WON'T STAND STILL

In the heat of battle, Joshua whipped up unheard-before courage to command the sun to stand still. 

Hold it!  Hold it right.....there! 

It did!

This story remains one of the great hallmarks of simple faith by a follower of God.

Where was that bold faith, though, during all those forty years of wandering around lost?  Why didn't Joshua speak with clear abruption of significance a decade or two earlier?

This is the mystery for all of us walking with God through the kingdom maze that only God holds the GPS.  We can't explain how nor why nor when nor where.  Remember it was our Father of Faith (Abraham) that went out not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11)?

It took forty years of going nowhere for Joshua & Co. to get anywhere.

Preacher man.....hear these words.  Refrain from following the god of productivity via numbers.  Watch.  Believe.  Wait.  If it takes a forty-year-like-span while people and ministries die off, this is no sign that God isn't in shocking and stunning preparation for your---Joshua & Co's---Promised Land.

Your sun will one day stand still.  Be ready to believe it.

When the sun won't stand still, we still have reason to believe it can on God's timing.

Monday, November 26, 2012

WHY OUR SUFFERING IS OF KINGDOM VALUE

I guess Isaiah 53, of the Suffering Servant, is one of the Bible's more powerful revelations. 

Suffering is one thing that all humans have in common; we don't like it and don't want it.  However, it is central to life in the church via the message of the cross.

Pain blesses.  Few there are who dare walk such a narrow road with the joy of it in mind.

Suffering opens the heart to God and to others.  If viewed improperly, though, the reverse will happen and bitterness will override.  A reason the Holy Spirit is within us is to bear the fruit which would counter such festering anger.  We can't do battle over suffering moments on our own for their size seems to mount.  But the Spirit of God can flow this victory right through the center of our hearts via His size of love, joy, peace, patience, etc.

Laurens van der Post was held captive by the Japanese during World War II and almost died as a result.  After the war he discovered that War Crimes officers who had not suffered in the conflict were more revengeful and bitter about our treatment and our suffering in prison than we were ourselves.

When one only judges suffering, while having not lived in it, a critical and desperately angered nature will evolve.  All of this is surprisingly strange to me.  Yet, it is ultra important to experience.

I would sit in on meeting after church meeting where decisions would be made that I knew would discourage the congregation.  And, it proved true.  But in these repeated meetings, puzzled and inadequate as I was, I would wonder how God was going to deliver us.

I still don't know how.  I just know He did.  He taught me not to give up; on Him, on others, and on myself.  Struggle is a gift of God.  We tend to trash it when, rather, we should treasure it.

Jesus suffered agony for us.  He lived with such a goal in mind...and in heart.  He understands us because he suffered.  We understand him for the same reason.

Even in parenting I see advantages offered to children when allowed to remain in their suffering to learn rather than constantly provide way of immediate escape.  Children who do not hurt over matters in life--whether being bullied or suffering bias and neglect from other circumstances or people--will likely live at the shallow end of the pool. 

Such comments will go against the grain of the protectionary individual whose goal in their children's life is one thing above all others; safety.  I know it seems strange, certainly in our culture, but misery and struggle are key elements to finishing the course set before us.

Safety is not a church concept.  The kingdom is a suffering system.  It will not fly under any other mode.  Endurance is not a Sunday School topic; but rather a way of life for the true disciple. 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

IT'S TODAY ALREADY!

Finally....Sunday is here!

What will He give us?  What will we give Him?

How much praise has God already received as the East is now moving toward evening and we are just cranking it up in the West?

Shane and I met at 7:30 this morning....a traditional weekly meeting with a few to pray for an hour to get our day going.

It is exciting to me to have never wanted nor intended to be a part of a church when I was a kid...and now to get to be a part of one that is growing in love for God and for one another.

From one hallway to the next to the next, I will live on mission this morning.  My eyes will search for the stranger; for the one who seems to be alone.  I will draw to them for they have secrets of God buried within of which we may not know anything about....yet truly need among us.

Have a super day.  Let it be a new normal. 

It's today already. 

Notice it!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

THE WONDER OF CHURCH AS IS

Don't you love right now?

I shake my head in gratitude for God's immeasurable patience toward me.  How could this be?  Getting to be in the church, work with the church, and see His touch from so many directions?

How do I get to be a part of this?

I live a complete paradox.  I can't wait to get to preach; but am fearful of stepping up.  I can't wait to hear God's final verdict for my delivery; but wish I would have a better grip on how things will flow.  I can't imagine someone getting to be me....and I get to!  I mean that from humility over what He lets me do and not ego of what I've figured out.

Two...no three...things have changed my church involvement drastically:
  1. The awareness of the Holy Spirit's direct activity has shifted the ministry sands.
  2. Adhering to the two great commandments rather than giving them lip service changes motives, goals, and directions.
  3. Looking right at Jesus for word, for example, for wisdom continually rearranges my fleshed-out-pattern of regulations for pure Christianity.
I will step up tomorrow, Lord willing, fighting off reluctance and brimming with anticipation of what will He say and how will it go.  I tell others weekly that when it comes to Sunday I can't wait to hear what I've got to say.  I don't mean that in any way except thoroughly depending on Father to speak Spirit power through my English words.

For the longest time I wished the church would be more than it is.  Such will always be an inner yearn, I assume, for all leaders.  Yet, I just so enjoy being a part of the church right now...today....with all her flaws, and scars, and huge disappointments. 

Because of the great and tangible glory of God, we will have incredible reason to celebrate Who found us....and keeps us!

Don't you love right now?

Friday, November 23, 2012

I STILL HAVE A DREAM

I still want to reach the world...the whole world...the dyed-in-the wool and the new-generation world.

We must never let up on pondering, praying, probing, and pursuing ways to persuade others to follow Jesus.  We must never become satisfied with the church twins Status or Quo. 

Everywhere we turn we see people; variation upon variation upon even greater variation.  All are in desperate need.  Sin has each cornered with no self-skill to escape; none.

Jesus is all hope.  Tall. Wide.  Deep.  Far.  His is the hope for everyone.

All brands of churches are to be a part of the great evangelistic drive.  None will effectively participate until a true and deep love for Jesus is prominent.

May we be a people enamoured with the style and path of the Son of God.

This is a dream that is worth Christian pursuit.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

THE COURAGE IT TAKES TO GET TO BE WHO YOU ARE

I assume some of you are brave souls who have no difficulty in being the very one God groomed you to be.  However, others of us don't find such ease.  Rather we are exhausted while trying to live in a maze of men-pleasing pressure.  We are weak from jumping many and eventual impossible hoops. 

I saw something in study recently regarding young David; eventual King David.

Boy David was pressed from two strong and influential threats.  Goliath is the obvious giant of intimidation.  Yet, a second person is equally menacing.

David's older brother, Eliab, is thoroughly disgusted with his sibling.  Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, "Why have you come down?"  Now we see David in that religious Rock and a Hard Place.  Huge need in front of him and an angered brotherhood beside him.  From experience, I can tell you that Eliab's anger was intentional to do one thing; shut David down.

Always and ever always will it be true that many Eliabs stand by in their own cowardice of facing the tackling of giant causes only to harp and nip and complain in anger at the brothers and sisters who dare to take on impossible tasks in the church.  This has gone on for years.

Our hope is found in the Davids among us.  Ignore the whiners totally.  They are not to enjoy our compromise.  Neither are they to have any voice which would sap our courage; none.  David wasn't harsh nor retributional toward Eliab.  He simply gave him no audience.

Did not Jesus save the world by identical standards.  Weren't constant voices around him declaring Wrong!  Liar!  False! Deceitful!  Yet, forward in courage he moved.

It takes considerable courage to be who you are in God's call.  His style for each of us will surely run into the Eliab assessment and opinion.  Never are we to be of ego nor obnoxious.  We are, though, going to necessarily learn to live as and with who we are in Christ because many in the brotherhood will do their best to intimidate. 

Take courage.  We will all need it.

 

Monday, November 19, 2012

WHAT ABOUT THE WAY AND THE LIFE PART?

I have come to realize that life is streaming into focus on many fronts.  I have focused on so many avenues of kingdom efforts and fought valiantly against my fierce failures.  Yet, one thing has caught me off guard that I gave no attention.

Jesus was a religious entity of importance to me.  Yes, in reality he was Truth; but he was not the Way and the Life in my faith....just the Truth....me offering loud, bold, egotistical Truth.

Sure.  Jesus is the Truth.  The church hammered into me with profound intimidation and threat if I should ever vary.  Even much of that Truth was not the truth we had been firmly declared.

The Way?  The Life?  Mattered not to me.  I (and we) were about Truth and I was not about to balk at our ingrained church code and lingo.

But what about those Way and Life parts?

The first transports the Truth and the latter expresses it. 

I really didn't know my Way.  It was a shock as to how foreign it finally was for me to simply watch Jesus move about.  Whether countryside or lakeside or city street, I learned to study his social moves.  His tender heart for the underdog went unmatched.

Too, I really didn't know true Life.  It was a religious order that I knew which included many noble concepts.  Yet I was filled with pouting, with jealousy, with anger, and with neurosis.  I was trying to cause programs and the church that backed them to live.  And I couldn't get it done.

I was a failure for all to see.

By His grace I learned to calm down, enter into His peace, and watch Jesus.  Watch him think.  Watch him weigh concerns.  Watch him respond.  Watch him never get rattled.  Watch him clearly stand without being nervously defensive.  Watch.

I still watch Jesus for he is more than the name that endorses prayers.  He is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  The church would be a new sort of entity if it would loosen its prideful grip on what little Truth we know and begin to rush headlong into all three. 

As we increase in our experience of the Way the Truth and the Life, we seem to notice God is right there with us.....just as He had promised.  There is every reason to believe that today is actually newer than any day yet....II Cor. 4:16-18



Sunday, November 18, 2012

SAVING SOULS IS MORE THAN COUNTING BAPTISMS

By the time I got out of preaching school, which was soon after my conversion, I had come to understand that soul winning was directly tied with how many one baptized.  I followed that pledge for a good number of years.  And, God has allowed me to stand with many in the baptistery waters.

However, soul winning is not a counting of trophies to be reported in the brotherhood journal.  Lest I sound excusive, I'm not.  We baptized a young man near 40 this morning as we did also a woman a bit younger.  I believe in leading all to be buried in Jesus.

Yet, saving souls is more than immersion in water.  It is saving souls; souls that are lost in the quagmire of humanity.  Everywhere we turn there are good people and less good people whose souls have slipped away into rutualistic....ruts.

People are lost!

The handsome, the educated, the common laborer, the struggling single parent, the beauty and the beast....all are lost in that they no longer see themselves as of any value or worth.  Rude society coupled with poor parenting has caused a multitude of men and women to assume they are useless.  These souls are lost, lost, lost.

We can retrieve them.  We can bring them back to life.  We can speak newness into them; and hope, and confidence, and wonder.

Be about soul winning this week.  If any should be at the waters of baptism, praise God.  But, too, if any happen to be over a cup of coffee or in a waiting room and you seek to inspire someone back to greatness....this too would be winning of the soul.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

ORTHODOX WITHOUT PRAYER

Orthodox without prayer....would be me in my first two decades of ministry.  Oh sure, I dabbled in prayer; especially in public.  But I didn't believe in it.  To me, prayer opened and closed church services and endorsed meals.  Very childish of me, I know.  Yet, when one is taught that God is done doing all the big stuff and doesn't operate directly in our walk anymore, it is tough to get up enough steam to pray.

Why should I bother?  Just because I should go through dead end and meaningless motions?

That mindset is precisely why I think the Church of Christ at large is bent on Church of Christ orthodoxy but cold on prayer. 

Though many would brand me as no longer caring for Truth, I've just written introductory paragraphs on it.  I've had to learn in the church to like and want to pray. 

What changed me?

When I learned to praise God and to walk in brokenness (my own and with others), I cannot help but spend time with Father in prayer.  It is a natural must.  When I wasn't devoted to praising God while being highly critical of all who weren't like me, there was huge struggle on my part to pray for I was the one trying to run the show.

Just so wrong.

For any who continue being critical of all who don't hold your orthodox views, yet do not pray, think.  Think a minute.  How can your view of right beliefs stand if you are so faithless that you don't pray?  How can that be?

Prayer is a vital part of our relationship with God.  Praise Him.  Tell Him what you like about Him.  Note your brokenness and that of others....and pray.  That would be a right thing to do.

Friday, November 16, 2012

LIFE ISN'T EASY. IT IS ETERNAL.

So there are things in life you don't like and would rather not go through?  Well, me to. 

Get over it.

One of the traits God puts in His children is resilience. 

We will not quit. 

We will both injure and get injured; but we will not quit.

We will try and fail as well as try and succeed....but we will not quit.

We will like church when it's rolling and we will like it just as much when it seems stale. 

We will not quit.

We will hope.  We will hope when matters are whole and even when they are rotten....but we will not quit.

How?  Why?  We will not quit because the Holy God in Spirit form lives within that we might have the strength to move forward. 

Life isn't easy.  Of course it isn't.  This should be no surprise.  But we do it.  We hang in there.  We use all for His glory because life with Him is eternal...and we are most grateful that He did not give up.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

HOPE STARTS WALKING WITHOUT BEING SURE WHERE IT'S GOING

The title of this post is a direct quote from Sharon Hersh's The Last Addiction.  What a  great book!

Hope starts walking without being sure of where we're going is a commentary to freedom.  We need it.

One of the things I notice about us as trying to be believing people is that we are afraid of faith.  It is willing to take us into the wonderful and weird places; yet we seem resistant because such might force me to step away from the controls.

Referencing the lame man who kept returning to the healing pool in Bethesda, Ms. Hersh stated earlier in her book, There is only one Source of hope, and that is Jesus.  What makes this sign of healing so hard to find is that we can't control it.  Jesus doesn't use conventional methods.  He does one thing for one person and doesn't do it for us.  He shows up after thirty-eight years.  That's why we so often return to the last addiction.  It seems safer and more predictable to take matters into our own hands.

I propose that my life can be divided between the unique acts of God in my walk compared to some significant moves of faith which I personally tried to manipulate into existence.  I hunger for the former while learning the latter is both shallow with temporary fruit.

Hope starts walking without being sure of where we're going.

Do we not tend to only begin a work for God if we can guestimate beginning, middle, and end?  And do we not also believe in general that beginning something without knowing where it is going is poor planning and failed leadership?  Of course we do.

Yet Bible story after Bible story has common people being used by God for His glory without explanation as to how this is going to work out.  Abraham and Sarah being childless would be one.  Abraham went out not knowing where he was going (Hebr. 11:8) is another.  And then the willingness to stab his son to death is yet another.

God calls us to walk in mystery.  Mystery does not possess calculation nor equation of success rate.  I believe we are a fearful people of the mystery of faith because "if" we are going to go anywhere in the kingdom, we want to know where we are going.

Thus the basic glory of going never happens because the believer(s) would prefer to play it safe by being in control.  This is costing the kingdom of God.  We must possess a hope that starts walking without being sure of where it we're going.

The amazing works among and around us are verification.  Those who walk forward without guarantee of where efforts will lead are those who give testimonies that thrill our hearts.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

THE STRONG REASON TO HOPE

It remains a paradox to me that so much of God's work among us is paradoxical.

We are strong when we are weak.  We are alive when we die to ourselves.  The way to gain is to give away.  The longest tenure of permanent remembering is to consume weekly...the bread.

God refuses to fit into our equational pattern of rules and regulations.

So what would you guess to be a strong reason to hope among us on this day?

Sin.

Sheer and deep awareness of our own sin is reason to have profound hope.

Of course one asks, Why?

Until we are aware of our indecent and wretched sin, we operate in the kingdom full of judgment toward others and full of pseudo-grace toward ourselves.  Until we hit raw wretchedness about self, we will operate upon sundry self-control and will-power means; but not with Jesus.    Until we hit ruined we will behave as children arguing in the sandbox.

When we become aware of our own personal sin, we are so God-informed of our devastation we become desperate for a Savior....the one Jesus.  Until then, we will get by on our own, thank you.

The strong reason to hope is found when the flesh would assume there is no more hope.  It is then that we are forced to look away from independence to the One who took our sin and guilt upon himself and handed us the keys to renewed mobility.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

MOOD STRUGGLES

Urgggh!!!!

Will I ever grow up from being down?

I get to do the most meaningful work with a most marvelous group; yet I hit those spells where I feel like the present moment is nothing but stale air.  I get so tired of me being so tired of me.

I dare tell you this because I really believe I am writing the story of many who read this post.

But maybe we aren't alone as this mood struggle would press upon our hearts to believe. 

Consider Elijah; a man who whooped up on 450 false prophets only in the next breath to be hiding in a cave from Jezebel.  I Kings 18:19 declares that he knew full-well these were her guys.  So he defeated them in mockery and then spinelessly ran for cover in fear of her.

Up. Down. Yo and Yo.  Yo-yo life in the kingdom.

That would be me.

So what do I do with these mood struggles.  Oh, maybe lift my eyes?  Maybe think on things (and people) excellent and lovely and worthy of praise?  Maybe begin to THANK God for all things including the mood interruptions?

Ah, I think so.

Believe, my friend, that you are not alone in your disappointments and wrestlements.  The Holy Spirit of God sets us free to soar; even when the ceiling feels imposing...Romans 5:1-5.