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.

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!

A FIRM IDEA

Never give up.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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.

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.



 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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?

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.

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.

 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

THE MANKIND DILEMMA

I weigh our dilemma constantly.

All of mankind possesses the same hurt, longs for the same need, and has the interest from God to provide the most unimaginable cure.  The equation of life is ultra-simple: 

          Born - eventual dead in sin + born over in Jesus = eternal life now and forevermore.

What every person wants every person can have; abundant life!  Yet, we fight one another constantly for the temporary which ultimately disappoints as it does not satisfy.  It always fades.

So why can't we get there?  Why can't more of mankind  land upon God's proposal for relief?

It seems we can't get there because Satan has meticulously divided us into continents of unbelievers and believers.  Each of these groups were then dismantled yet again into wicked unbelievers, indifferent unbelievers.  To top this fragmentation the believing are split into denominations which split again and again among ourselves; each claiming either to be the one true pathway to heaven or rolling our eyes at those who make such claims. 

This causes the dark world to mock as they may not know what is right; but they know this isn't.

Mankind's dilemma is the religious every much as the irreligious.

This affirms that when the Lifegiver (being only Jesus) is not in the equation....there is simply entangled turbulence.  Such unrest prolongs frustration as the inner person yearns for something to fill the hole in our hearts.

Jesus is our all.  Many don't believe this too-good-to-be-true gospel because they look at us instead of him. 

May we make assertive strides to draw more in to the solution.  And may the solution be in the Person of Jesus and not in our organizational modes nor our doctrinal distractions.  When we get to Jesus, he will help us with both organization and doctrine.  We first must grow in him.

ESSENTIAL ELDER QUALITY NEEDED

Elders can make or break a church. 

They can set a place free or put the clamps of slow death on it.

What causes this chasm?

One thing.

There is an ingredient understood in shepherd qualities spelled out in Timothy and Titus.  The assumption that such a man is to be led by the Holy Spirit is a given.  The Holy Spirit is assumed to be active within any elder because he has been baptized.

However, much of the church refrains from such a faith.  Thus, the qualifications without the presence of the Spirit leave the church with merely the business oriented leaders reaching for the best minds of human reason. 

And this simply will not do.

Why won't it do?

All Christians, and especially elders, are to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  This fruit always shows up only when one is under stress and strain.  Anyone can fake the various elements of the fruit when matters are going to his liking.  But, only under the burden of stressful negativity can the fruit of the Spirit show up in a leader.

Those without the Holy Spirit cannot help but live agitated, domineering, and controlling.  Their smiles may be broad until...until they don't like a proposal or a move or a concept of another.  When found opposed, such a one will not be able to bear good fruit unless the Holy Spirit resides within.

Therefore, any time a congregation is in search of new elders, this one trait must be prominent for this reason; one led by the Spirit will offer life.  One who will not yield to the Spirit will lead all into death; either immediate or eventual. 

Jesus came that we might have life abundant.

From experience I can testify that when the shepherds are led by the Spirit of God incredible harmony and fruit follows.  Joy abounds.  Faith grows.  Second chances rule.

ON OUR KINGDOM TOES

I contend that The Story has opened me to a zone of possibility that I thought I already knew; yet am proven once again to be a mere novice....and even that level could be exaggerated as too high.

I have never had trouble accepting the Bible as the true Word for God.  However, it appears my flesh-bossiness and controlling nature has smothered much of it.  My desperation to know my Bible has landed me in the very center of Jesus' admonition that I could know my Bible and not know God....Jn. 5:39-42.

My initiation into this brand new kingdom style back in the early 70s appears to have taken a strange turn.  In the name of Truth I am found guilty of padding my ego for those future moments when the world would call on me to provide the right answers.  I was all about answers and none about knowing God.  None.

From that perspective Bible study was selective, not conducting a Bible-study with an unbeliever was a guilt trip, giving was a burden, and prayer was ashamedly non-existent.  There was no need to be on my toes for I formed personal security by carefully engaging in the old paths that would help me come out looking good....I had hoped.

Today I find, as a follower of Christ, I must stay on my toes because God will not fit any of my predetermined orders of how I expect Him to respond and to behave.  God is both fluid and flexible.  That's why many in the brotherhood (which included me at one point) mistakenly reject the Holy Spirit's activity.  We can't make that error stick in the Word; but we do so try because we believe we can run the show without Him.

God is mobile and mysterious.  Guys like me have not presented such a God.  We have rather offered news of One which would not keep us on our toes; but hopefully would draw more to our pews.  It won't work.  And if it did....it would be really wrong.

Before I hit publish this post is already antiquated compared to the newness of God moment by moment.  Keep on your toes.  Anticipate God-surprises.  Let Him give us life....life unmanipulated by man.

EVANGELISM: WHAT IS IT AND HOW WOULD IT LOOK?

One of the more stinging criticisms I receive year after year is that I am not evangelistic.  In my beginning years at Memorial it came from within as well as critics outside of our congregation.  Still in 2012 I receive the snubs from some church leaders around the nation for the same reason.

As usual, such accusation really hurts my heart.

I constantly think about winning souls.  Really.

So what's missing about me?  I don't know.

What made me think about this is that I have prayed for over a year for the vacant house two doors down; that someone would move in needing God.  This morning a sold sign stands in the yard!  I began to wonder if it will be a couple, a family with children, or two gay men? 

What will be their story?  The bigger question will be what will God need from me to connect with them for His cause?

And then I thought about how long God and I have spoken about those eventually inhabiting this house.  I am guessing this would not count as evangelism to some; but it is one area where I love to work.

Yes, I once believed evangelism was a Tuesday night event where we would study with the lost.  Over time, however, I see it as a 24/7 kind of teamwork among the seed sowing, watering, and harvesting body of Christ.  I believe we children of God (as a partnership body) converted souls in New Jersey and Singapore over night while the most of us slept.

To me evangelism is a big deal and we are to be so engaged.  For me?  I direct the Tulsa Workshop.  The fact that we updated the title by eliminating Soul Winning (as in Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop) gives proof to my critics that their accusations are correct.  That I would produce a film titled 100% Natural Evangelism, again, irritates those frustrated with me for this seems lazy and sloppy to them.

For some, evangelism is an attentive and personal advancement of campaigns, studies, and baptisms.  I get it.  I was it. 

All I can say is that today I feel no less enthused about reaching the entire world with the good news of Jesus.  Whether to be criticized is of no significance.  We are to be about the Lord's business of spreading the good news. 

For those who have a knack of aggressive evangelism, I say awesome. 

For those who don't sit at a kitchen table to study the book of Acts with a neighbor, but stand in your kitchen to bake cookies for VBS so that a child can be filled with VBS joy and eventually bring her parents to Sunday morning class that they might be invited to a Class BBQ which would discuss a film being shown next quarter regarding raising children which would mean they would stay over for the assembly and hear the singing by the shy lady with a microphone only to conclude that maybe they two should be baptized because the youth minister baptized three of his teens at the conclusion of the morning and then they were handed a loaf of bread baked by another sweet and shy lady for the sole purpose of blessing a family who might happen to be encouraged by their attendance simply to find that the gentle secretary sorted the visitors cards put in the pews by a widow woman that no one noticed during her kingdom labor which caused a deacon to take their card and give them a call during week and then to find the Tuesday morning Ladies Class sent them a card which really touched the couple that they should study with an Elder in the church and be baptized....well I say to these forty-eight people who won this couple....awesome.

Evangelism: it isn't a one-way for all.  It is all-ways to win one.

WHY THE JESUS-MODEL OF LEADERSHIP IS REJECTED

In Denny Gunderson's book, Through the Dust, of twenty years ago, three points appear to be important to effective leadership in God's kingdom:

1. The natural mind of western man is obsessed with formula and technique.  Jesus simply won't fit into our comfortable equations for success.  About the time we think we have God nailed down, He shifts and this bugs those of us who work from both categories and comfort.
2. Jesus' servant-style leadership goes against the grain of human ego.  I believe I will always be grateful for what Memorial's elders have done to mentor the staff and then the church to stay out of the way.  Church isn't about us.  It is all about Him.  Kingdom isn't about how we are producing.  It is about His timing, His impact, and His glory....never ours.
3. Our utter concentration upon "success" fuels us with a tainted incentive to look good.  I am all about looking good....except I can't keep it up.  Gunderson nailed me when he wrote, The problem is that servant leadership cannot fit into the straitjacket of immediate results, as its environment is the rarefied realm of the long range.  Eighteen straight years of my basic failed attempts to make things click at Memorial were indeed necessary and valuable.  I learned by enduring, but not leaving, that I could not make a church tick....fact and final.  Simultaneously, I learned He knew how if I would get out of the way.

So permit me to quote from Mr. Gunderson one more time to drive home this very needed theme. 

One's destiny also becomes one's test, however.  The person driven to act out and prove that he is God's specially called man (or woman) can easily forfeit his anointing to lead.  The initial calling may well be from God, but when stained by human ego, destiny degenerates into the fetid stench of empire-building, and empire builders have the unfortunate tendency of ending up as false prophets! 

The leader who wishes to emulate Jesus resists the great temptation to build ministry around himself.  He chooses to abandon himself to the will and the pleasure of God on a moment by moment basis.

One of my downfalls also turned out to be one of my best classrooms.  I wanted to please AND TO IMPRESS the loud voices of the brotherhood.  Yet, as I noted patience rather than fleeting numbers and the kindness of Jesus over my own bold clarionship, it became clear to me that my understanding of church motivation and leadership was both Christless and ego-centric.  I hungered for immediate approval of my peers over long range waiting for God to move.

Only by His grace did enough good friends surround me, that I could hang on to get to see merely a glimpse of the Jesus-style which is ever freeing and always right.

THE PARTING OF THE RELIGIOUS SEA

Many don't care.  Many do.  Some are energized while others are annoyed. 

I speak of religion.

Questions abound.  Answers are equally abundant.  True, however, we who are bent toward some label of faith can be presumptous and quite contentious.

Mankind is flooded by a religious sea overflowing and out of its banks.  From the East or from the West, from prophets to popes, and from writings, to cards, to stars, all cultures are drowning in a perpetual flood of tugging and straining concepts.

Everyone has an opinion; even if it is that they have no opinion.

Striving for truth can sound efficient...and could be most resourceful.  In many cases, like in my own, we the public can be guilty of blurring the simplicity and beauty of God with personal bias.  Political has become a mark of religion every bit as much as authentic faith.  There is God...and then there are agendas.  The best of us strain to keep the two separate.

I am learning that only one thing parts the religious sea effectively as well as accurately.  It is the name Jesus.  It is not the names of branded churches.  Neither is it the parade of noble and good works.  It is the name of Jesus.

Yes, I might even be biased in this conclusion.  Well, I am biased and I'll tell you why.  No other name lived among men, died, and rose again.  None.  Jesus defeated death while delivering life.

Jesus parts the religious sea of arrogance, favoritism, and ignorance.  We followers may blur the scenery; but Jesus can hold his own without us.  If he would be the one lifted up it just could be that all men would be drawn to him.  He would and could part the religious sea...if we will let him.

"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." Jn. 12:32

WHAT IF THE PRODIGAL SON REPRODIGALLED?

I know of no other more fascinating story than the Prodigal Son.  Of course, you have your favorites.

I was wondering about this prodigal.  I was wondering how the Father would have felt if once the robe had been draped upon the son's shoulders, the sandals slipped upon his feet, and the privileged ring bestowed upon his hand....what if the prodigal retreated to the corn husks of the swine?

I don't speak of repeating the activities of his sinfulness.  Rather I speak of his return to the hog pens because he felt both unworthy and unacclimated to the lifestyle of lavishness along with forgiveness.

What if the prodigal reprodigalled because he could not get it into his heart and mind that he was to live a higher life?  A richer life?  A more Father-blessed life?

And this caused me to think about us.

Is is feasible that Father has rescued us from the pig pen of earth-boundness, placed us in the citizenry of heaven, only to watch us return to the poverty of restricted and visionless flesh life?  Is it conceivable that we trash our robes and sandals...not out of rebellion, but....out of perpetual unawareness and recall that we have been lifted to greater heights of living?  To a far more advanced life that operates out of heaven's corridors and not from here?

Have we given ourselves to the great organization known as the church only to live a dumb-downed scenario of barely getting by and hoping to make it through the day?

Have we reprodigalled?  Have we forgotten to let our voices pronounce confidence in His Spirit?  Have we assumed that frowny faces in the church system are simply the way life goes?  Have we diverted the powerful God experience for a numbing routine of repeated appointed times to gather?

I think not!

I think we are a people who have been called home; not to roost in safety, but to advance the daring cause of the Living God.  I think His people respond to excitement and awe and glory and challenge and opportunity and Presence....His.

If the Prodigal Son had chosen to reprodigal, it would be a tragic ending to a most uplifting start.  We must be conscious of His presence in us and us in Him.  We are each in the other.  May our tempo and our disposition communicate such to a world which strives to know Something more than the routinely known.

THE STORY

Memorial continues our trek through The Story.  God's ability clearly rises above people's best shot.

I'm glad we are moving through this study today and not ten years back.

If I had entered into its study a ways back, I believe I would have been critical because the story-line doesn't seem to emphasize the matters I controlled.  I would have missed its marvel by sheer blindness to my own lack.

Today, though, God has helped me to open to the truth that I am unspeakably shallow.  From that pit I find myself wowed by the over-arching provision, supply, and strength of God.  By this time in my life a few of my legalistic scales are beginning to peel away.

In other words, God has broken me from being a professional answer man to become an amateur seeker of His glory and handiwork.

The Story: an encouragement to seekers and probably a stumbling block to defenders of our small percentage of faith.

OUR GLARING OBSESSION WITH TRUTH

I know.  The title of this post could seem profane to a few.  Rather what we have done in the name of Truth has been the truer profanity.

Our Church of Christ tribe is equal in bias mistakenism to many others by our insistence that we do things the Bible ways.  This has been addressed, has it not, with great attention.  However, we remain guilty of that which we have been repeatedly informed.

The Truth is we do many things well from Bible authority.  Great blessings flow.

From my personal and useful struggle through the delightful maze of learning, however, I have been found to approach the Word from defense rather than eagerness to absorb.  By my intent to be faithful to the Bible, I found myself abusing it.  I would not let it speak to me except through the Restoration Movement's eyes.

Bad mistake.  Tragic mistake.

Among us---and many other tribes---too many carry Bibles as proof texts only.  Proof is surely a Bible concept; yet it turns our faces beet red when calling us to a relationship with God through the Spirit in the name of Jesus.  Many are not sure we should go that far.

Jesus is the train wreck that must happen to any tribe.  He will not let us continue to do church our smug and small ways.  Yes, narrow is the way; but narrow isn't that we don't allow much.  Rather, narrow is defined by one singular Son of God named Jesus....as the author of salvation....and no one else.

Many do many things biblically well.  I have grave concern, though, for any who sit in Church of Christ houses believing where they roost is proof of their destiny.  Again, I speak from what I was taught when converted and believed well into my preaching ministry.

Could it be that the truth is we miss the truth by being obsessed with it?

CAN YOU SAY "AH"?

You have noticed an eventual shift in the spelling of Abram and Sarai.  Both names were adjusted to "AH"; AbrAHam and SarAH.  This is significant to yAHway which from the Hebrew simply had the four letter YHWH.

God inserted the AH into both Abram and Sarai's name.

James Garlow makes a strong case regarding such an insertion, I think, when he points to God, When He made covenant with Abram, He put the "H" from His name into Abraham's name and changed Sara's name to "Sarah".  The Hebrew letter "H" is the sound of breath, generally signifying the breath or presence of God.

And then he continues to draw our attention, What made Adam live?  The breath of God.  We see the same concept in the New Testament.  The Holy Spirit is called the "Holy Pneuma" in Greek.  Pneuma means wind.  Literally it means the Holy puff of breath of God.

The way that we try to get a campfire to ignite by blowing onto an ember, God puffed life into the very center of Abram's name....and of Abraham himself.

This is what God's covenant with us does.  He gives us life because God breathes life into us.

His Spirit in us.  Abram learned to say "AH".  We, too, possess the Holy Pneuma....and we really live....
I Thes. 3:8.

WE LIVE IN MUCH DIFFERENT TIMES...OR...WE ARE NOW OFF TO THE RACES

I speak as if I am 65 years old.  Well, I speak that way because I am.

Things are different these days and I take some of them as challenges to the church.  We live in much different times.  Are churches offering a sensitive kingdom which is ahead of the current culture (or at least up with it) or are we operating from the 80s when the church in the 80s was stuck in the 50s?

I'm not saying that we are not current in any zone.  However, one of the challenges to these times is that the new is nearly old before it is introduced....as in the mini-iPad that just came out on the market.  Trying to text on my ten-key phone pad is....well....trying.  But that phone was upscale when I bought it...I thought.

This morning I unlocked the office door; but the motion detector would not take my code.  With noises beeping, I'm trying to beat the clock....using the code to my home system instead.  Uh huh. 

I'm now at the point that when someone or something needs to know my code, I freeze.  Which code goes where?  The one to my home security, my office security, the balcony security, my blog security, my computer security, or my car security.  I have one for the latter...and can't recall where I put it...really.

We live in a So-Much So-Fast highway that we can hardly take the time to evaluate.

I wonder...maybe I'm just having a senior moment....but I am concerned about the state of these times.  I wonder if the need among us will continue to be the opposite; quiet in the Spirit, rest in Christ, trust in His pace, and wholeness of the mind, body, and spirit.

Communication is so fast and so much that we are behind before we begin.  These times, to me, are bound to take their toll on our minds for there is too much to take in as we shop in these media warehouses for the latest and greatest.

I would think we are tapping many of those avenues.  Surely we are.  Yet, a message of slow-down-and-smell-the-roses is going to become a needed trend...if it isn't here already. 

One more time we may discover that mission trips and study guides beg for the question of Who is this Jesus that the church rumors?  He will always be our life...singularly and only.

We live in much different times.  Yet, as in all centuries, this one pleads for sanity of life.  The response is always consistent....For God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son....

THE SUN IS ALWAYS SHINING....ALWAYS

Creation was one of God's best weeks!

I was thinking about Him and His system driving to work in the dark. 

Soon the sun will be shining.  Even when overcast, we know by faith the sun is shining.  More, even at midnight we are sure by faith the sun is not dimmed.  For our eyes?  Yes, momentarily.  For our understanding?  The sun is always.

So it is for our perspective of the Son.  He is always shining.  Our dim eyes and dark days could be used against us to invite the guest of doubt.  But why should we ever?  Just as we definitely know the sun is shining from the very center of any midnight hour, we can be just as certain the Son is shining...every moment.

May we never flinch in doubt.  Regardless of dark discouragement, wait for the Son to rise.  All darkness is destined to evaporate.

The Son shines.

That is what our hearts need to know.