THE BATON OF RESCUE

Behind the scenes gets substantial credit for getting major things accomplished.  Every success one individual experiences is surely backed by hundreds of others whose participation was vital; yet receive little recognition.  Thus, it is with the Kingdom of God.  Great things.  Clueless as to who exactly were the causers....except to yield credit to God.

Ours, you realize, is to receive the batons of rescue.  Such is our assignment; our purpose.  To live to reach and to rescue is paramount in both importance as well as power.  There is no one exempt from the need of eternal rescue.

The baton is central in understanding.  Jesus hit earth with the intention of rescue. That's why he entered.  No person could survive life without this valiant effort from Heaven above.  The hope sustained is sheerly mind boggling.  The heart can't contain such a thrill; it can only believe it.

But have you thought about Jesus?  In his process of soberly reaching to us, he died. Jesus succumbed to the pressures of sin; even death.  He took everything warped about us--past, present, and future--and admitted before Father that it was he who was guilty as charged; not one of us.

But there is a problem....he died.  When that happened his close disciples assumed the game was over.  They gathered their toys and went home...in devastating defeat.  Not only was their day ruined, so were their dreams for what they had believed would become.  Although Jesus did die, the baton was not to be cast aside for the Holy Spirit resurfaced and brought Jesus to a new kind of living.

For you--for me--we live from day to day making firm efforts to rescue.  Often we hit repeated days of collapse.  We don't have what it takes.  We can't cut it.  Nothing works.  Hope dissipates.  We are left to feel about ourselves precisely how the disciples felt about Jesus; we are dead to life and feel that we are going nowhere.

But then...  But then the same thing that happened to Jesus must be remembered has happened to us.  It isn't a new determination; but rather a new life we possess due to the identical source that kept the baton going with Jesus...the Holy Spirit.

We are too tempted to operate from our own plausible system of try this and avoid that.  We must recall the baton of the Holy Spirit is given to believers for specific reason.  He is the understander and the director of those who feel sorely lost.  We are the vessels as was Jesus.  What brought him back to life brings us back to life.

It is this fascinating process from Heaven that we find ourselves engaged.  We are in over our heads.  Our calling is one of big question; Do we believe God could use us to extend the baton to our neighbor?  And when we die trying just remember....Jesus did, too.

THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD THAT BRINGS LIFE!

There is this facet of ordinaryistic living which is surely genius straight out of Heaven. The reason I credit God is because that's precisely where the invention and provision began.

There is a burden known to all men.  It has no bias as to whom it shall chose to target. Everyone experiences this struggle in significant degrees.  Devastation to the heart and mind result.  I speak of the enormous quagmire of living upon earth with the perpetual nagging of sin...their sin and our own.  This Villain is everywhere we turn and goes everywhere we go affecting everything we do.

So what is the cure?  It has been issued and is to be experienced.  It is called forgiveness.  Releasing one another from offenses is double-edged because it accomplishes two dramatic wonders.  First it sets our offenders free from guilt and shame...all done by a decision that is very possible on our part.  The other side of this sword is what it does for us when we forgive; we, in turn, enter into forgiveness from Him.

This is a serious matter.  We are to be merciful to others that we receive mercy from God.  This is a life-changer in attitude, in disposition, and in walking throughout our days in marvelous gratitude.  The double-edged sword for all lives is simply that we choose to forgive and to be forgiven.

The constant replaying in our minds of offenses received or caused is a drain on the human heart.  A mere, but potent, decision to drop the angst thrusts us into the works of Heaven as we walk upon earth.  Jesus is the Master of this.  Look at the Cross.  Note the torture.  Observe the refusal to lash out in harsh words but to receive their sins upon himself.  This mark remains foreign to too much of Christianity.  The result is we consume each other in anger and spite...and the Villain wins while we feel rather firm about our own holiness which is, itself, a sham if based upon our selfie goodness.

Thus, Jesus introduced an entirely new standard; die for the idiots who wield pain and spite.  Love them deeply.  Overlook their rudeness and then...and then...pay the price which would satisfy Father so that they won't lose their souls.  That, my friend, is a much different approach than going to church and determining whether we like the hour and half presentation.

Now do you possibly see why each of us is handed a cross to bear?  Do we really believe these crosses have nothing to do with reality; the actuality of facing sarcasm, silliness, and sin?  Have we neutered one of the greatest powers ever handed to mankind by making the cross a wasted symbol for we have no intentions of radically forgiving those who have hurt us?

Listen, we have been hurt deeply.  No one would deny this.  Do not assume, however, that we have not also hurt others deeply.  It is here we would prefer to deny.  The double-edged sword of forgiveness cleans up their acts....as well as our own.

The Cross of Christ is not only the most brilliant move ever; it has been assigned to each of us to carry responsibly for it is the only true way to win the world.  The double-edged sword of forgiving others and them forgiving us and God forgiving all....truly brings life beyond one's imagination.

WHY CHURCH COMPETITION IS LOSING THE GAME

We churches have great work to do.  A blanket of darkness hovers over a large percentage of our people.  A great misleading concept that began in the Bible days of the church continues its aggressive march through ours and foreign lands.  This movement is slick, powerful, and deadly.  I speak of church competition as to which is biggest, better, and most right.

It doesn't matter the brand that any of us claim.  There remains a hole empty of hope in the hearts of friends, neighbors, and even enemies while churches and their people dot earth's landscape.  The community populace is in big trouble and our voices just must make some adjustments ourselves in order to be heard.

Devastating pride and arrogance rules many Christian hearts.  It did mine for years and I have no idea how strongly it remains.  Nonetheless, such framework opposes the very gentle and generous nature of Jesus.  It is in our discrepancy we can also find His solution.  For the most part, we churchies have become more addicted to promoting our name brand than we are in advancing the name; Jesus.  We can talk church here and there; yet to discuss Jesus seems to find we have some sort of mute button.

My concern is spoken in a spirit of tenderness and care; but I can tell you that as a preacher I thought my calling for years was to promote the Church of Christ (my preferred brand) which was to carry a message of dos and don'ts, rights and wrongs, blacks and whites, without our people ever having confidence in the One whose righteousness trumps ours.  This is tragedy as well as neglect of Scriptures.

The good news is that Jesus is becoming the greater Light among us as we wade from our own hangups all the while striving to learn at his feet.  As it turns out we can only convert others when we have been converted ourselves to a style far beyond our own imaginations.  The entire birth-through-death experience of Jesus is based upon an exact threat to man's spiritual enterprise.  Knowing him is a challenge.

Jesus is different than any leader anywhere at any time including the church one.  He changed the rules of knowing God so dramatically that opponents tried to kill him; not just in the garden, but at his birth.  Opponents went nuts destroying newborn males in the hunt for the biggest Threat to man's religion....ever!

Therefore I wish to speak in tenderness from the seat of extreme personal guilt.  If we don't do more of Jesus and less of our church is right, we will continue to groom a people who go to church; but do not pray, do not search the scriptures in honesty, and fearfully hope that they are saved when at death's door....but aren't really confident.  This is religion in regulation; but it is not life.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly.  This we shall experience in greater measure when we quit trying to out-debate others church doctrines and humbly submit to the One who died on the Cross because we were so very lost ourselves.

People want to know God more than why we are right and others got the church stuff wrong.  This does not mean that there are not vastly important truths to be known as well as followed.  But it does say that standing for Truth while being silent about the one named Jesus is the poorest of doctrines.

May we win the world by presenting the Winner rather than what we perceive to be winning arguments.

UNAGE: IT MAY NOT BE A WORD. BUT, IT IS A NEW WAY OF LIFE.

An element to the Kingdom of God that I just love is the newness of which we are given and expected to live.

From the world clock, we age.  From the Kingdom clock we un-age.  Churchism has played a part in aborting the Kingdom clock.  We have traded adventure for tradition, risk for routine, and impossibilities for calculated effort.  We have taken a grand wonder and dumbed it down to be nothing more than another place of endurance when it has always been intended to be a movement of mysterious glory.

Only in the Kingdom does one grow young.  Born again does not put us simply into a new start.  No, it thrusts us into a, You've not experienced anything like this before...yet!  Our first life gained momentum only to ultimately wind down with time.  Robust energy eventually evolved into wrinkles.  Yet, this path is only restricted to the flesh side of us.

There is another life for us; the wonderful spirit side.  It is here where we thrive with heart and hope.  It isn't Pretendville.  Rather it is Truth City.  Regardless of the count in body years, the inner person is actually new day by day.  This is why one will say something like, Well, I'm 72, but honestly I feel like I'm 50.  This is the verification that the body and the spirit are not in sync...and that the spirit portion of life truly is valid as it is perpetually inclined to be young...like in new right now.

Unage....it may not be a real word.  But who cares as long as it is authentic truth?

TRICKED INTO TRYING TO BE SOMETHING WE ARE NOT

Tell me, just how many short straws are there to be had?  They drive me nuts.  Always drawing that villainous thief bugs me.  Why am I never enough?

I've been thinking about the time that I was in a golf tournament back home in Memphis, Missouri.  That quaint little nine-hole course is still one of my favorites. When in High School, I entered a tournament and worked my way up the charts to play for the Consolation Prize.  My opponent was our family doctor; Earl Gilfillan.  He was an elderly man in his 50s and me a very eager teen.

I was pretty certain that I could take this man nearly three and half times my age. After all, he was old and brittle and I was young...and young.  He reinforced my confidence in my ability to take him on by bragging to me about how hard I swung the club.  I sure wish I could swing that hard, he repeated...and then repeated some more.

I wasn't exactly hitting the ball very well; but he continually pointed out how he wished he could swing with such might (him being old and me being much stronger, I guess). It became my wish, then, to be even more impressive with the speed of my swing.

Well, the round didn't unfold as I had planned.  I would actually make occasional long drives; but then there were those many errant shots.  The entire round I knew one thing; I surely could swing hard because doc just kept pointing to my strength (me being young and him being old and envious).

Doc beat me.  Yeah, he won.  I should have claimed the victory because I ordinarily shot better golf than he did.  But for some reason, I just wasn't on my game that day.  It occurred to me later that doc beat me in my mind.  Swinging hard does not make for good golf.  It does make for beating a young kid.

I didn't get a trophy.  I lost.  Bummer.  But in the long-run I gained for I learned a tough lesson that warm Sunday afternoon.  Trying to impress others will eventually backfire.

Be who you are because of who God makes you.  Everyone matters...everyone.  At times we lose during the day because we are trying our best to be who others say we are.  It might be more efficient to proceed with confidence as the one person God would form.  Pleasing Him would be enough, don't you think?  The more we can be confident in His call the more we will experience ultimate victory.

May we make great strides in being who we are and not what others press us to be.

FAITH: THE STRANGE AND ABSURD DYNAMIC

Faith is nearly a word of habit.  Tossed here and bantered there; often a discussion can easily shift to the fundamental concept of believing.  Certainly faith is designed for the human culture.  And just as certainly it carries within enormous challenges to actually walk by it.

Faith believes.  It believes what isn't yet can become.  It promotes hope when reasonable calculation would declare doubt.  Faith sees from the eyes of one's heart; not one's head.  Therefore, you can see why this factor is not a shrug-of-the-shoulders unthoughtful whim.  This spiritual characteristic is most challenging for the outer man will too often opt to operate from fear of the unknown while the inner person delights in confidence of what can be.

I know of no other force as magnificent as faith.  One of faith can focus upon information which declares there is absolutely no hope and still disregard such.  Faith sees where eyes can't.  The Bible is stunning when it insists that we are to walk by faith and not by sight.

Why is that?  What's wrong with sight?  When we measure by the visible we are calculating via the flesh rather than the spirit.  The story of the Bible is one of moment after moment what couldn't possibly happen...did.  The parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the 5000, the resurrection from the dead and a ton of other historical matters happened...when they just couldn't have done so.

And this is the system--this Kingdom action--from which we are to serve.  Words may discourage.  Reports might deflate.  Actions may disturb.  Yet in the Kingdom, nothing reverses threats like believing full-force into the possibility-realm.  God does what can't be done through ordinary believers who can't do it.

This.  Is.  Our.  Story.

I see the church as rolling with the tide; the church tide.  If things go well; they go well. If things don't work; look for what will.  However, I am challenged personally to read God more than I read the tea leaves of circumstance.  Are matters challenging? Seriously so.  Can God reverse decline, raise nothing to become something, or empower the weakest?  Yes...at any given moment.

Faith is a strange and absurd dynamic because it can be possessed and dispensed by humans who, if not careful, tend to worry more about who does and doesn't like them than ambitiously striving to reverse negative trends that would bless entire communities.  Faith isn't a catalog of dos and don'ts.  It isn't a rule book.  Rather it is a transformative way of life that blows the cover of the fear-lords.

TWO THINGS I WISH EVERY PERSON UNDERSTOOD

WON:  Each is more valuable than can be imagined so don't live depressed.
TO:  Each is capable of operating from the falsehood of inflated ego and this makes the rest of us depressed.

Furthermore, you know that I meant to spell them ONE and TWO, but it is just so much more fun to mess with you!!

So try to live in humility and anticipate the world of erratic surprises will unfold as a result!!

THE CHALLENGE OF LIVING BY FAITH

You realize that you and I are called to walk on water, right?  Oh, I don't mean the H2O kind as did Jesus (and Peter for a few steps).  I speak of you and me walking across the very things in life that promise to sink us...probably drown us.

The concept of faith has been maligned and suppressed just as has the word love.  How many think of the term love--as in we need to love better--as a rather anemic trait which tends to be more poetic than empowering?  I wonder if faith has not taken on similar misdirection.  Has this intended mega-power issued from God become a mere step in a plan of salvation or Sunday School rhetoric which carries little weight?

The challenge of living by faith is that it actually does its stuff when there is no human reason as to why there should be any hope.  Faith isn't for sissies.  It's robust, daring, and quite nervy.  Faith thinks that things that are not, yet, can become.  Believing includes noting that what issues or circumstances may promise that death has conquered (like...a grave) have no essential power.

I am faced with the wrestling of this matter day by day.  How is it that I am to actually have hope when there seems to be none?  This is most intimidating...for all of us.  By nature, we tend to take our lead from watching others; their strengths, vulnerabilities, successes, etc.  However, our Leader (the one who conquered legalism, doubters, and death) takes us into zones of unpredictability as well as unexperienced challenges.

It is here that we find ourselves in a dilemma.  Our vision so wishes to look back; find someone or some thing that assures us that we are on stable ground.  But our Rock is Jesus; not a colleague's success or failure.

The challenge of living by faith is that it will necessarily include taking us into uncharted waters of potential and possibility.  At these moments we must decide for ourselves whether we will walk upon these waters or stand on the shoreline and fretfully wish.

A FALSE IMAGE OF WHO WE ARE.... .....AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT

When I began a serious walk with God, I was wide-eyed and over-enthused.  But after these four-plus decades I've learned something.  I am still wide-eyed and over-enthused.  Yet, the rules have changed, the markers have been moved, and there is a story-line that opposes my early entrance into the church.  I speak of the disturbing, yet quite advantageous, realization that I am one of the sinners of which the Bible speaks.

There is enormous, even untapped, power is the awareness of how sinful each of us is. Overall I'm going to assess from experience with churches world-wide that Christians see ourselves as more having cleaned up our act than being so wretched God had to do it for us. When the Apostle who wrote more books than any other New Testament writer chose to admit that he was the chiefest of all sinners, a powerful secret was just unleashed upon all of churchianity.

What has happened, however, is that church houses have become packed with a self-righteous sort who don't/won't/can't admit our own sins.  The produce of such a glaring glitch in the spiritual system in both immediate and abundant judgmentalism.  A very good society is sick of much of us for this reason.  We have forgotten why it was that we could not manage our own sins.

The Bible is packed with the message that we can't save ourselves; but Jesus can.  The Cross is a victorious one because our debts were/are so unpayably huge.  If God thought the church would shape up, He wouldn't have had to spend His biggest treasure in Operation Rescue.  Instead, He could have just demanded we get our acts together. But God knew the bigger picture; we can't.  It isn't that we won't try for we do...very much try.

God understands something major.  Man can't handle the depth of sin.  Yet, we have acquired a false image of if we just try hard enough we will master the ills of sin.  And we try.  And as soon as one seems conquered two more break out of a different kind. So our call is to experience the lavish gift of mercy and grace for we had assumed by now we would have a grip on sin.  That grip is quite deceitful for it makes us feel like we have won the battle...and that's the false image.

Jesus has won the battle for us.  Sin?  Consequences?  Yes.  The bodies we have are contaminated and are not destined for Heaven.  That's why there will be a new body. It isn't that sinners aren't going to Heaven.  It's that our old sinful bodies are not....they will return to dust.

There is gigantic hope for the world.  The momentum increases, not when we overcome and control our sin-nature, but when we will face up the the fact that we are sinners...just like those in our neighborhoods we wish to reach.  It is here that the neighborhood begins to connect.

Self-righteousness repels them.  Humility opens their hearts.

DON'T WASTE YOUR BREATH

The determination to like every day is built upon a mistaken theory that such must be experienced upon the mountain tops.  Anything less is drudgery; most likely discouraging.  Yet, this is the very place so many waste good quality living; that terrain of being down (in the valley).

If we are going to transform life, we must awaken to the truth that if we only shoot for the stars we will surely miss out on a massive amount of living time on this earth.  We do not want to waste our breath.  Are we really in favor of going through our days trying to get past them?  Seriously?

Like right now.  Yes, the one with the doctor's appointment.  Yes, the one with the trip back to the store because the clerk left one item out of your sack.  And for Heaven's sake yes; even when you've made an error that has been a costly one.  Jesus said it and we believe it, Don't waste your time worrying.  

I'm faced with such temptation the first thing this morning.  On Thursday morning I am to meet with 15 ministers in my office from 6:30-8:00 as our Tulsa Workshop begins.  It's all we can do to get that many chairs packed in here.  Plus, I always buy books as gifts for these guests and I have 15 stacks atop of my counter as I write.

But here's a problem; I don't seem to be able to keep track like I once did.  The 15th one contacted me Monday to see if there was yet space...and there was.  15!  Got it!  Full!

But then a minister contacted me to be sure that I had his name on the reserved list from when he contacted me in January.  Not.  There.  Now what?  No room.  No stack of books for 16.  So, I say come on anyway; maybe one will cancel.  So last night I get a text from Jim McCutchen confirming that I still have him on the guest list.  I have a Brian McCutchen on the list; but not a Jim.  Did I mis-write?  Or, did I mis-remember?  Uh-oh.

Jim's name?  Not.  There.  (That now makes two Not. Theres.)  Now the count is up to 17 with 15 chairs and 15 gifts.  So what am I to do?

Well, I'm choosing to be glad that too many want in rather than too few.  I'm going to assume that God will work out the details.  I'm going to hope that if 17 actually show up and I only have gifts for 15, that two of them can't read.

My point is that life throws us curves; oh so many continual curves.  What we learn to do is enjoy right now.  We will not waste our breath...not one breath...for every breath is a right now glorious moment.  Plus, if someone chooses to give you a rough time today?  You might want to tell them to not waste their breath.

Have a good day!

GO FOR THE GOLD...AGAIN TODAY!

We have every reason to hit this day full steam ahead.  Only the Enemy wishes to set up the roadblocks along with a maze of detours.  What we will do is like right now.  If our moments have significant twists and turns, at least they verify we are still above ground.  So, even our difficulties signal something positive.

Our day will not depend upon whether we see the glass half empty or half full.  We will be just a tad bit delighted that we can even see the glass!!!

Now...go out and try to like who you are and who you get to know.  This will be one of those days where we find the gold.

HOW DOES ONE REMAIN HAPPY?

This could be one of the most focused emotions which transcend age and locale. People..and we just happen to be some of those...are on constant prowl for the happies.  Is there a way, I wondered, to find such day by day?  Or, is such a state merely religious folklore?

For the longest time, this element seemed to run hot and cold.  Good mood one day, I was in a bad one the next.  Urggh!  And then things fundamentally shifted.  I'll share what I think I know as long as you understand that I understand that I am not the expert.

Happiness is not just a matter of the mind; but of the heart.  Life seems to unfold according to the way we think.  Interruptions and disappointments do not negate this idea for a significant key to moving through such is dependent, not upon the troubles themselves, but rather upon our thinking about them.  Problems do not stop us in our tracks.  How we determine to view them does.  If we believe troubles rule us; then we are sunk.  But if we perceive these as stepping stones, then of course we are advantaged

Consider the Beatitudes of Blessed are.  Notice that the circumstances are not always positive; but one's faith turns rough stuff into favor toward our days.  Blessed are the peacemakers and Blessed are those who are persecuted are not conflictive points.

The good day/bad day experiences are not determined by one's circumstantial unfolding (could I just admire for a minute my wording circumstantial unfolding) as an enormous life-adjustment takes place when we realize that we are to/can be happy, even blessed, in the very center of any moment.

God is the difference maker.  It is God who can make something from nothing or give life to the dead (Romans 4:17).  It is God who takes the old and makes us new.

How does one not only get happy, but remain happy?  This equation is never...underline never...dependent upon the behavior of another for we are set to find blessings in the conflicting truths of peace or persecution.  We are about the joy of the Lord.

The world is looking, I believe, for followers of Jesus who aren't so moody; so touchy, or so easily offended as if to appear that we don't know God either.  The Cross that we are to take up is our signal of intended injury and pain....very personally, I might add. Therefore, we are to quit running from stresses in the form of sad-faced pouting.

Even in the struggles of the day, we are able to have the strength from Him to be happy.  We can do this....and many already do.  May we do our best to think on the Bright Side.

PRESSED FOR TIME?

Have you ever noticed that living in this fast-paced, multi-mediac, rapid-fire, calendar-booked-tight, mega-communication world that we have much less time to get things wrong?  I know that I've sure cut back.

BEGINS. ONE. WEEK. FROM. TONIGHT.

ARISENNESS MAY NOT BE A WORD; BUT IT BRINGS HOPE!

This is the day the world celebrates more intensely than any other regarding the new: new hope, new power, new perspective, new beginnings.  Easter seems to remain a launching pad for Christians; rightly so.

So what will be different?  I'm saying nothing different and everything new.  We are expected to live in perpetual forgiveness of our human colleagues.  While this is as old as the stars, the newness comes into play because we have new offenders who need our mercy.  This is a perpetual (new) component of being a life-giving individual.

The difference that our arisenness makes is that we have a daily purpose of seeing that even our enemies are forgiven...by us.  Each of us gets so far behind the eight-ball of sin that our only means of survival is found in the resurrection power.  This is where hatred is turned into love, pain is turned into purpose, and the intense mood of harboring ill-will is transformed into delight in our offenders.

Arise!  This is all found as near as a decision; whether to forgive or not.  We should. We can.  We will.  Arisenness may not be a real word; but is surely is a huge factor of offering real relief to the entire world.

EASTER....AND WHERE WE SHOOT OURSELVES BETWEEN THE EYES

It seems that this weekend--Easter--sets the stage like none other for inner reflection as to who we are and what we are about.  This one date unveils the real us for God took us to the Cross 2000 years ago and strung us up for our lack, our foolishness, our sins.  Jesus was the replacement for each of us.  What a fantastic, immeasurable, impacting fact.

If not careful, we will diminish Jesus' move as we find ourselves, estimate ourselves, to be above the wretched wreck that caused him to come in our stead in the first place.  What we do is subtly and very determinedly develop a hatred for others in our midst who sin...as if we don't.

Unfortunately, too many of us have become churched.  In doing so we have not grown more compassionate toward the sinner; but more irritated.  It is at this place where we shoot ourselves between the eyes.  We have forgotten exactly how in the world God could allow us to get in.

Jesus methodically moved around the religious and into the hearts of men and women who were regarded as rejects by the holy.  We still don't get it.  None of us are in this thing because we've got righteousness figured out.  None of us are that good.  We aren't even close.  We, instead, take on his righteousness for ours is but filthy rags.

What has happened over time is that each of us has developed an ability to regard our personal sin(s) as manageably acceptable.  Yet, we detest the sins of another as if in shock that they could dare do/be such a thing.  This.  Is.  Who.  We.  All.  Have.  Become.

If God has made anything clear, He has assured us repeatedly that anytime we view another with contempt, we just shot ourselves between the eyes.  I know of no person worse than me...really.  You know of no one more disgusting than yourself...truly.

So what are we to do?  Go off to pout, or squawk, or quit?  Nope.  We are to realize the grace handed to us on a very rugged platter with instructions from the Savior to now go do the same for some other sinner.

DEALING WITH DAYS OF STRESS

These are not easy times.  I doubt that any ever were.  But, we face ours as these are the ones we must negotiate.  Dealing with stress is a constant...for everyone...calling for elements of maneuverability beyond ourselves.

The reason that I sense the need to address this matter is because I want to cheer on the whole world to live...to really live...right now.  By that I mean that living is not the same as breathing.  Everyone alive is breathing; but not everyone breathing is really alive.  The latter are not filled with joy; but are overwhelmed with burden.  Too, these feel that they are plagued with bad breaks.

We, therefore, want to recognize that this world of ours has its certain highs coupled with definite lows.  Also, it simply must be realized that the difference is not in whether one has troubles.  The difference is found in how those stresses are handled. Even the rich and the famous carry severe burdens that the lower class would not have ever guessed.  Of course the reverse is true as well.

In dealing with stress, then, it might help if could we could begin by eliminating the comparison factor.  Observing how others are doing and how much more they have, etc., is one of mankind's worst mistakes.  The Apostle penned in II Corinthians 10:12 that when one classes, compares, commends, and measures himself against another, this person is without understanding.  This one doesn't get it.  Feeling less, or superior, due to how much another is doing or possessing is a waste of emotional gymnastics.

Finally, as so much could be said on this topic, don't be fooled into believing the sun revolves around you; but rather you it.  To take this a step further, don't be as fooled by believing that the Son revolves around you; your every need, every wish, every plan.  We are to revolve around him.  As we grow in this process we will learn about the crosses we have been assigned.  And as we do so, we will come to understand that even the bad days have meaning, purpose, and usefulness.

Romans 5:1-5...we are advantaged when we are having a good day and we are equally advantaged when we are having a bad day.  These are ideas which might help us turn the tide of stress into a wave of advantage.

Wow!  What an energy field (our troubles) at our disposal!

GOD. US. TURBULENT TIMES.

Unless you are one who has been living in a cave with no Cox Communications available, the turbulence of this world is increasing intensely.  News of bombings and beheadings fill the World News pockets with more to cover than time would allow.  Threat seems to be a genuine concern as the wave of horrible crime gains global perspective.

I believe the concerns are legit.  Too, I think that I believe that the rumors of preparation for future attacks by the radicals will hit in the near future.  If not prepared we will likely be shaken more deeply than necessary.  It would be our quest to ponder our reaction should attacks come upon our loved ones...or ourselves.

This world is not our home.  We are just a passing through...so we sing; but do we securely believe our very own words?  Yes, we do.  So if one believes in God and prays, then will such a person be exempt from harm?  No.  Yes.  ?

Injury surely does fall upon any and eventually even more.  Death is man's greatest dread.  It is here that the world can take a turn for hope instead of fear.  This is where God really gets to show His stuff.

In baseball terms, Jesus is the Closer.  He is the relief pitcher that comes in during the bottom of the ninth inning to shut the opponents down.  Jesus is that hero.  He will see to it that team Death does not have victory.

What shall we do to be saved?  Oh, how that question becomes more meaningful when facing impending threat to the very core of our being...that powerful point known as death.  Saved/salvation are not church terms.  These are codes of survival at the peak of protection as well as preservation.  People (famous, poor, educated, common) who live are going to die.  There are no exceptions and no exemptions.

Jesus is the Closer.  We are called to hide in him in baptism.  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?  Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  This Romans 6 text continues to point out that being baptized is in sync with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

The enemies felt certain they had dealt the final blows to the Son of God when upon the Cross.  They had unleashed their full muscle.  Jesus was...done for.  But what they didn't know was God has this surprise element called resurrection power that no enemies have the where-with-all to dent; let alone stop.

The.  Game.   Is.  Over.  And.  We.  Win.  Death may take us....but it cannot keep us!

CAN THERE HONESTLY BE A LIFE AFTER DEATH?

Are we Christians making this stuff up?  Are we simply and honestly so afraid of death that we have created a mysterious folklore of new life in Heaven beyond the grave? Our critics believe so.  And, I think for almost good reason except for one factor; we have even better cause to believe this to be factual.

When it gets down to the nuts and bolts of faith that the dead will one day rise, it seems so very extreme that it can come off appearing as if we are creating the story to compensate for our fear of dying.  This is admittedly so outlandish that it could seem to some that we are only psyching ourselves up for the biggest of let-downs.

I do believe that life after death is reality.  Faith in a actual next life is a system of such astounding fact.  What's more impressive is that it follows the final of all finals; death. It would seem to the reasoning mind that death pretty much has the last say.  But it not only doesn't, death is actually a mere part of the life-affording process.

Take a look out your window.  Do you see any trees whose leaves died this past Fall? And then do you note that those months of bare limbs are roaring back with new leaves?  Take a gander at the flower beds.  Any bulbs planted that...that, oh shall we say aloud...died?  Died and then what?  Oh, raise again to a new beauty?

No one needs to be a scholar regarding the life-death-life functionality of reality.  It's all around us.  Furthermore....we expect it.

THE BEYONDNESS OF GOD

We struggle to encounter the wild and untamed world of God.  Nothing but our will holds us back...or...moves us forward.  Preference for manageable, we tend to believe, suits us better.  Control...that's it...situations we can control make us feel...well...in control.  Would you think that perhaps God has a difficult time breaking into our pre-programmed, pre-packaged concepts of what faith is supposed to be?

From Genesis to Revelation for (by-the-way the Bible does matter) every reader arrives at testimonies of a the Living God standing with His created earthlings urging men and women to move; to move into the weirdly wonderful.  They were forever going out not knowing where they were going....and God calls us to be like them.

But ours tends to be a faith more manageable, don't you think?  Mine seems to lean that way.  I weigh lots of things; organizing, planning, arranging.  Yet, the walk of Terry doesn't seem to align with that of say Moses, or Deborah, or maybe Nehemiah.  I enjoy the seed of hope that does eventually sprout; yet I feel certain that God is in the wings waiting to do more for, with, and through me if I could mature in the very strange-to-the-flesh deed called faith.

God is the God of beyondness.  He not only demonstrates such; He expects us to believe it.  When Paul wrote that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we could ask or imagine, according to the power that works within us...Ephesians 3:20...he had a very new sort of walk on earth in mind.  We just must remind one another to remind one another that this God who parts seas and makes meals out of a boy's picnic lunch is willing to do the undoable and create what we would deem as uncreateable.

I want to do more than just acknowledge this power.  I want us to discover what it is God would do with me/us that is in the beyondness zone.  We are too prone to function from our own strength when He vows that He will do more...with us....according to the power that works within us.  I wish this for every person including myself.  I/we want to experience a life of meaning and purpose that is far beyondness the highest possibility.

Don't settle for your own ingenuity, prowess, and strength.  Let God, if we can dare, supply us with opportunity and talent that would accomplish the impossible.

TULSA WORKSHOP HOMEWORK!

That's right, you have homework to prepare yourself for the Workshop! If you haven't already, watch the movie "McFarland U.S.A." to learn about the story of Jim White (played by Kevin Costner).

Jim will be our speaker at the 4:00 keynote on Saturday afternoon. FAR more than just a great track coach, Jim is a 1964 graduate of Pepperdine and has invested his life in the local Church of Christ in McFarland as well, serving as a Bible Class teacher, Youth Minister, and Song Leader through the years, and even helping to start a bus ministry in nearby Wasco, CA. We have a great opportunity to be inspired by Jim's wisdom and life experiences as we wrap up this year's Workshop on Saturday afternoon.

Here's a link to the trailer...and don't forget your homework!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuzXWyeCo

WHY THE NON-RELIGIOUS MIGHT LIKE US

Society is packed with mixture; differing preferences, styles, and opinions.  We get it. We like it.  We are it.  Such variables affect even the perception of faith in God.

There is this constant tugging at my heart which pumps day in and day out without fail. I speak of thinking about and dearly loving the masses who are either neutral or negative toward developing a faith in God.  The reason for the tug is that I once was one of those that church people tried to figure just how they might reach.

I didn't like church and I especially had a bias against ministers.

And then....I became the very thing I opposed.  What changed?  I'll tell you the nutshell of my story should it encourage some of you who still have enough openness in your heart to at least ponder the possibility of God's calling in your direction...for I believe He is reaching strongly.

I regarded church, in my earlier years, to be one of the most non-life entities ever established.  It felt...well it felt plastic.  In going to Sunday School there was a disconnect between that long forty-five minutes and the rest of the day and then the next six days.  Church-time was more of the same.  But I tried to feel better about myself for having attended.

I must be clear that while I held such feelings, it doesn't mean that others attending didn't get wonder and awe from it. Rather, I'm just stating my reality.  For me, there was some sort of conscience-cleaning having punched my religious clock; but I got nothing out of sitting in rows and counting the minutes until I could get myself outta there.

I carry no blame for the church where I took repeated stabs at attending.  It was me.  I didn't get it.  Therefore, the boredom was louder than the music, the sermons, and the handshakes at the door as I was leaving.  I've put in my time, God.  I endured another one.  Now bless me.

By God's great mercy, He didn't give up on me.  He continued to open windows and doors where I could peer into possibilities and walk into opportunities to join the most powerful system on earth; His Kingdom.  The difference maker?  His call for us to help those who are depressed, lonely, and simply lost as to finding meaning in life.

I think about this all day long every day.  Great people, wonderful people, famous ones and unknown ones, each carry an inner ache wishing to be more than we are.  There is a holy gap within the interior of every individual that may be denied to friends in order to save face of sounding religious; but inwardly the call of God will not go away.  This is who we are....His.

Not in my wildest imagination would I have believed as a kid that I would preach, teach, and reach for the things of God.  Not.  Going.  To.  Happen.

I'm saying that there are some of you reading this post right now who know the exact tug of the heart of which I speak.  It seems rather nebulous and certain; all at the same time.  We want to deny Him; but He won't go away.  We try to convince ourselves that He doesn't exist; yet we can't understand why we keep wondering if He does.  We want to inquire about this issue; but what would colleagues think?

So here's what I can say.  Your friends and colleagues who have implied that they have no use for God or for churches are quietly, silently, and privately pondering the very same thing.  I encourage you that, when you are ready, you reach to one who has been there done that.  I'm one... trush@memorialdrive.org ...should you not have a go-to person who can't shield your identity as you ponder aloud what you wonder in secret.

The TULSA WORKSHOP...coming soon!

from DARKNESS to LIGHT

April 6-9, 2016

Tulsa Fairgrounds

KEYNOTES:

• 7:00 P.M. Wednesday           MITCH WILBURN
• 11:00 A.M.  Thursday           CHRIS SEIDMAN
• 7:00 P.M.    Thursday           ROBERT COX
• 11:00 A.M.  Friday               SEAN PALMER
• 7:00 P.M.    Friday               BOB GOFF*
• 11:00 A.M.  Saturday           BOB GOFF*
• 4:00 P.M.    Saturday           JIM WHITE

(* sessions will not be recorded for resale)

LIVING WAY BEYOND OUR MEANS

Perhaps you would think the title of this thread is going to be about the more efficient way to handle finances.  One might believe that this most likely will be a communication of how to be more thrifty or even a more disciplined shopper.  But...it isn't.  As a matter of fact it is somewhat the reverse.  Rather than calling for personal restriction, I'm wishing to promote quite the opposite.  Let there be incredible imagination which surpasses our tendency to live guarded in self-preservational safety.

While, Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, might be old hat to us, it is never exhausted in our practice.  This is a call, along with the rest of scripture, to shift from our human nature of best strength to the glorious ride of the Spirit leadership.  We are called to carry on a life way beyond our means.

God doesn't toss this challenge to just the theologically elite nor to the silver-spooned wealthy.  This is what I really love about the Kingdom system; all of us are in the family...God's elect family.

So here you sit.  It seems to be just a day.  Our hopes are usually that we get through it without increased debt or surprising upset.  We just want to make the dollar, be attentive to those around, and get off at 5:00 in order to carry on without interruption. But that there actually is more is the very beyondness of which God calls.

I began my morning in the dark praying for my homeless friend that is missing, for my shepherd who is struggling with memory, and our nation's politicians who are living in such a volatile time that if we get through this season it will be amazing, my opinion, if someone isn't shot.  Prayer is my focus because it is beyond what I'm about, where I am, and the immediate direction I'm headed...breakfast.

Friends, we have won the lottery!  The Living God has called us to walk a path that is beyond any person's skills and talents; beyond our best plots and most imaginative plans.  God anticipates that we will live out lives that are so far beyond our wildest concepts that all we know to do would be to tell Him thank you in praise.

I cheer you on.  Don't live your usual.  Live your unusual.  This will require provision from above.  He is ready.  The question is, Are we willing to live beyond our means?

TULSA WORKSHOP: A SPECIAL MINISTER GATHERING!

The Tulsa Workshop is quickly approaching!

I will conduct our annual EarlyBird Special for fifteen ministers on Thursday morning in my office beginning at 6:30, April 7, of the Tulsa Workshop.

If you would like to be in the count, please email me at trush@memorialdrive.org.

Spread the word,

Terry

THE GREAT GIFT WE DON'T WANT TO UNWRAP

We have been offered abundant life.  This Jesus vowed.  It's ours for the accepting. Riches of wholeness combined with a thriving potential are ours for the claiming. However, there is this burr under our saddles that we deem necessary to maintain. This restriction is that we are subtly (if not intentionally) driven to hurt others by the blatant refusal to overlook and forgive another of sins.  This costs...the refuser.

We have in our possession one of the most powerful gifts ever known to mankind.  It's as old as the cross, as new as the day, and as enriching as fresh air.  It is called mercy; our will to forgive others when they have not only not asked for it, but in many cases don't even realize the depth of their sin against us.

Our egos insist that we speak in a way that cuts others down while simultaneously lifting ourselves up.  This is personal deceit at its gravest power.  Regardless of how much we believe that we have legitimate accusation, we have no one in our vision guiltier than self....ever.  Jesus made this clear in John 8.  It wasn't that the woman wasn't guilty of adultery; but it was that her accusers were blind.  They were blind to their own deep, deep sins.

The very great gift we have on the table before us is waiting to be unwrapped and accepted.  Yet, go ahead.  Go ahead and hate.  Go ahead and despise others for their failures; for their blatant, awful, sinful, violational behaviors.  Go ahead.  By doing so one will fail to unwrap a very special gift indeed.  It is called mercy which forgives others and, in turn, discovers our own freedom from our own sins which have been an undercurrent of frustration and hope all along.

Why is it that many leave the church in a huff?  Often because they see the hypocrisy in others; the preacher, the elder, the spouse.  But why do others stay?  They see the same hypocrisy in the others with one major difference.  They see the preacher, the elders, the spouse, the same way with one additional truth.  These also see themselves.  Consequently, they stay for we must have the mercy of God and we will not receive it from Him if we will not give it to others.

There is no gift as strong as finding the freedom to believe that Jesus died on the cross for our own sins...all of them.  I would ask that you consider throwing down those weighty stones of accusations toward anyone else.  Get a grip.  Look in the mirror and decide just exactly how generous you would like God to be over your deep, awful, embarrassing, and costly sins.  This might change your accusatory heart which would, in turn, open the gift.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” They were saying this,testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one,Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

IS THE BODY OF CHRIST BECOMING ONE BIG EAR?

To reach into this vast world with the power, grace, and love of Jesus has to be one of the most fascinating operations ever.  The call is eternal.   The value is the same.  Yet, I'm noticing a pattern that has long been with the Christian community which would call for corrective attention.

Churches of every brand are caught in a very strange territory.  Shifting from being hands and feet, arms and legs, hearing and speaking, as the body of Christ extends itself into all of the world in order to encourage and strengthen others, there is an increasing trend to be mainly ears.  These ears are big and are ever growing.

It has become very important that the members like the sermons.  If not, out-o'-here. This has been true of every kind of church as long as I've been a part of this system. Yet, the Bible is clear that in the last days people will seek to find messages that please their ears.  Now, I'm not currently in trouble for what I preach, so don't go there.  I am saying that near the top of the finding a church agenda reigns the question of "Do I like the sermons?"

Tied with this is the question of music.  Do we like it?  Do we enjoy it?  Do we get anything from it?

A more important question is whether God needs you there and does He possibly have some learning to endure in your future?  Church isn't about our preferences; but rather about where He intends to take us.  This will very much include the discipline of not getting our way.

To be clear I am quite fascinated, as well as most appreciative, by the depth of so many sacrificial members.  I am, too, saying that much of the American church thrives on seeing that the Ears are pleased.  If not, they will go somewhere else in order to be pleased.

What is to be done?  Learn to stick with the church.  Others have and are.  Our call is to love God and others.  This means that our ears are not the day's first consideration. Heartbreak of others is.  Loneliness of others is.  Fellowship, sensitivity of the Spirit, exercising understanding, using our ears to hear the weak voices of the distressed; these are our considerations.

We are the body of Christ.  We are transported throughout our brief time on earth to be ministering servants; not to be served.  If your church music is poor lift your voice while you bring in a neighbor or two who can carry a tune.  If your preacher is a poor communicator, buy him books and share inspiring CDs that would cheer him on.

We can make a difference in this limping world of ours.  So let's do it.  Let's motivate, and inspire, and above all things continue to love one another...when some of the time we might not seem very lovable ourselves.

WHEN YOU PRAY

I don't know if you struggle with the very act of prayer.  As a minister, I fought it for years.  It was boring.  I didn't want to begin and, if I did, I hurried for it to end. Speaking words into the air only to evaporate quickly?  Well, I just had more meaningful things on my plate.

But He's converted me.

God is Father.  The Trinity isn't known as Military Commander, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is Father; compassionate, loving, and intensely interested.

It might help some to pray if you could regard prayer as visiting with Him rather than talking toward Him.  He wants to know us, walk with us, supply us.  God is after a relationship with His creation.

When you pray, tell Him things like how awesome He is and how thankful you are. Voice your opinions about Him to Him.  God treasures our praise.  After all, prayer isn't our sending our grocery list of needs upward without first expressing our thrill over the path He gives us; whether positive or negative.

When you pray....let God know how much of love Him.

BE SURE TO SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD TWO HOURS

Now look, some (well probably most) don't need this post.  But, this is a very tricky weekend.  Most get the concept of Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time.  In reality, this is a basic non-problem for a high percentage of men, women, and even children.  I, on the other hand, seem to come up with impossibly new ways to fail at the Clock Setting ceremonies.

I just can't believe it.  It's like I'm making this stuff up.  But it's happened A G A I N.

Changing clocks over shouldn't be this hard.  For me it is; like the time I set my new alarm clock forward in the Spring....not realizing that this modern contraption would set itself forward.  So instead of when I thought 6:30 would be, I was up at 4:30....well...even this story doesn't seem right, does it?

What's weird is that I am really into this time-changing moment.  I really like it; but the various ways I have missed it and messed it is incredible.  And this goes on every year.  That time I set my clocks forward a week too soon was tough to take because I had to do it all over the next weekend.  I was changing clocks forward and backward and then forward all week long.

Folks, it just ain't easy being me.

So this morning as I am in the office I realize that I want the staff to walk in tomorrow upon three clocks that      have     already     been     changed!!!  They will be so surprised that someone took care of this.  Won't they?  Full of pride in my recall that this is the weekend, and then factoring in that this will surprise the staff that I've taken care of it, I went to every clock and set them back one hour.

Done.  Good job, self.  Proud of me.  No.  No.  Stay seated.  No need for a standing ovation and applause.  It's just a thing I do.  Goodness, don't shower me with heroic accolades.  Really.

Moments later while walking down the hall and still congratulating myself upon my fine attention to office detail, something hit me.  Did I do what I just think I might have done?  Did I do that backward...again?  Oh self, say it ain't so.  Spring forward; Fall backwa....oh, no!!!

So then I had to set my clocks two hours forward.  Now how many would you know who can say that they set their clocks two hours forward this weekend?  Me.  Anybody else?  Anybody?

For those like me....be sure to set your clocks forward two hours.  I don't know exactly why.  Just do it.  Note: I really hope this is the correct weekend.  It is.  Right?  Hello?

HOW KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN HIJACKED

Knowledge is one of the front burners of everything.  We want it, depend upon it, value it.  However, as is true of much of the wonder of creation, it too has been sabotaged.  The scandal is that such goes on by the very ones (ourselves) who deem knowledge as important.  We are the crooks.

And where does this hijacking occur?

When we gather enough information to support our theories and causes, is it not the case that at such points we tend to shut down?  I think so.  A shift from learning to defending has always been a conflict in the church.  Yes, there is absolute Truth. Admittedly, we have called opinion, tradition, and preference to be Truth when, in reality, we had shut down and shut out knowledge.

Dr. David Hawkins, in his book Power vs. Force tosses about words over my head; but he combines them with a staggeringly important message.  The individual is thus like a cork in the sea of consciousness--he does not know where he is, where he came from, or where he is going, and he does not know why.  Man wanders about in this endless conundrum, asking the same questions century after century, and so he will continue, failing a quantum leap in consciousness.

My critics may want to say something like, Don't you know, Terry, that the Bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free?  Yes, I do.  And it's that very truth that I wish to unlock among us including myself.  The history of the Christian faith is full of Bible gluttony; full of verses and yet sluggishly unhealthy in experiencing the very freedom our Bibles proclaim.

Knowledge has been hijacked when we thought we knew enough.  We knew steps or we knew proof-texts, or we knew church history.  Yet, godly faith--as in Abraham style--will take us places of which we have no idea where we are going...Hebrews 11:8.  You see, we very much want to know where we are going.  To not know is deemed to be sheer ignorance.

So the hijacking continues.  We trade adventure for stability.  We give away the heroics of the church by offering some mild appearance of valued activity.  Our courage has been sideswiped.  Drive has been traded for the decent and in order pledges of cowards.

Knowledge isn't to be discarded.  It is to be continued, built, and believed.  We must not stop at a bit of knowledge which would stop the flow of additional, available understanding intended for our fascinating walks.

The Word of God is for the lands to know Him, and His death, and the might of His resurrection.  As is the call of Father, I would challenge us to dare to seek the unimaginable, the unfathomable of which the Truth speaks.  We have shifted from living a faith where limbs have been sawed off behind us to one of knowing each detailed step before we leave the front porch.

This philosophy...this theory...of living behind the shield of safety...is killing the church.

MIGHT WE EXPERIENCE INNER REVOLUTION?

We not only seem to live in a wacky world, each of us is a bit wacky.  Well...maybe I should have said a lot instead of a bit.  There is this deep conflict that seems to reign from person to person to person.  Try this on for size.  We each believe we think better than others.  Simultaneously, we envy others; even to the point of depression because we feel that we are not as good as they.  Are you following me here?

I have experienced an inner revolution over the years.  While slow, it has been steady. It wasn't a matter of finding a cheering section.  Neither was it a sudden discovery of a hidden talent that I hadn't realized.  Quite the opposite, really.  I hit upon an experience of true revolution.

Romans 5:1-5 pegged me against the wall.  It explicitly speaks that any who are critical of others are guilty of the very same identical issue.  Oh no!  Say it ain't so, God!  Yet, this Divine Revelation has created an inner revolution of which I had never encountered.  It is a most self-defining, breath-taking, personal inventorying matter which will no longer allow me to see others as less and me as more.

What's stranger than strange is that this realization didn't depress me.  That's odd in itself.  What it did do was release me.  The shift that took place still marvelizes me.  I can't believe that the very things I would erect as safety measures were some of the things which kept me at bay from connecting with peers and reaching the world.

Take a look at Father.  Sure.  He reached to mankind through humans like Moses, Esther, and Micah.  But when He got himself down here as one of us and took on the robes, not of a king but of a human, He began to walk us through our own potential. We connect with the invisible God when we first perceive the hey-he-really-does-get-us humanity of Jesus.

God came down.  It was during those days that He gained useful insight to His highly complex creatures called men and women.  When we come down...come down from arrogance...come down from elitism...come down from the need to conquer, to win, to look good...we will be oh so surprised.  Humility isn't humiliating.  It isn't depressing nor is it as repulsive as we had perceived.  It is the lens from which our very own eyes can fathom a divine strength to change the world.

Might we experience inner revolution?  I say yes.  God says it better than I of course. Revolution comes in the forms of submission, yielding, and othernesses for which we bravely and courageously die to our own dreams and safety-insistences.  We are not average; but such not average does not mean that we are elevated.  No.  The opposite. Just as Jesus, who gave away himself, we encounter the highest call at the lowest rung of the experiential ladder.

God reached down sending his Son.  His Son reached up for effectiveness and strength. We are called to follow....the Son.  Reaching up is revolutionary.  So try to remember; we don't do ministry reaching down....but up.  This...will change our world.

AND YOU ARE BORED....BECAUSE....

The God of Genesis is the One who can make something from nothing by simply uttering one-syllable words like sun or moon or day or night.  He takes chaos and makes something productive of it.  Oh, and there's more...much more.

God can take what's found by the cleaning lady under an average bed, dust, and make something of it...like a person.  And then, get this, He can take the man formed from simple dirt, extract a rib, and wah-lah ( or wa-la or however one should spell it)...and there you have a new creation called woman.

If you have a connection with this powerful, mighty, creative, sensitive, industrious God, you would be bored....because....

WHERE IS THE VALUE IN SUFFERING?

We seem to have a pattern of taking the junk in our lives, bagging it up, and sitting it out for the trash man to pick up.  The junk I speak of would be discouragement, frustration, disappointment, and other such nagging bummers.  We believe it all to be trash...

....but it isn't.

Jesus had trash; lots of trash.  His walk was not smooth sailing.  One will not read the Gospels very long until wild interference approaches him.  It's contrary, mean, cunning, and even injurious.  Yet, Jesus stepped upon these abrasive stones as gracefully as he did upon unstable waters.

Our crushing moments are the very places we get to experience the Master Plan.  Real life isn't always found in the parade nor the honors banquet.  Authentic life which is quite rich and meaningful is found in the ditches of insult and the caverns of pain.  It is here that we must also learn to stay focused upon the prize of what real life is all about.

Where is the value in suffering?  The riches are found when realizing that such bold moves of submissive injury (taking up your cross and following him) result in God's favor.  If you note any within your circles who seem to be weirdly and remarkably blessed by God, one is liable to conclude it has been brought about by good breaks or close connections.  But look again.  I'm saying the successful among us know of a quite unique secret to success.  These have learned that the many things which don't go their way are beneficial.

For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?  But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.  (I Peter 2:20)

If we are going to be a serious part of the fabric of the outreaching church, we will need to absorb the truth (and we are quite big on truth) that extreme unfairness and explicit personal injury are two elements of the holy call.  After all, who is it we are called to follow?  The one who didn't have injury nor insult coming; but took the rejection and pain as our example to reach the entire world.

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.  Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.  (Hebrews 5:7-8)

Try to realize this about us.  Our loud lament is not anguish to be eliminated because, in reality, we mainly target our ultimate pleasure.  We are called to lean the world toward God.  Our problem is that we has no other the method than the cross.  His pain blesses us.  Our pain blesses others via the identical way Jesus rescued us.  Suffering is the ultimate design of our God to win the world.  It is here, upon our crosses, that society has any fiber of real hope.

SEEING LIFE BEYOND THE VISIBLE

Faith is one of the most outlandish aspects of humanity.  It believes over the top of the highest visible obstacle.  No wonder so many don't care for faith in God.  They assume it to be nothing more than catching good over bad breaks.

Faith is so incredible it can hardly be grasped; let alone implemented.  Yet, it gets done by the humblest of both men and women.  The ability to negotiate momentary presentations of the daily walk is one thing.  To create something which thus far does not exist is quite another.

Therefore I know of nothing more daring, risky, and profoundly exciting than an active faith that believes God can accomplish sheer astonishment when multiple testimonies would warn that such moves can't be done.

(as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.  Romans 4:17

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

A CHALLENGE AT THE HEART OF THE CHRISTIAN NATION

Whatever is at the root of religious frustration is simultaneously the solution to epic renewal.  It isn't either/or.  The Kingdom of God is not a list nailed to the church doors. Rather, it is a vibrant process which is eternal.

Eternal.

Get it?  Continual?  Never ending?  Always...but not just always the same; but rather always as in increase or more. The challenge is natural.  We get it.

Due to man's incessant drive for management and security, we function even subconsciously to be in control of events, schedules, opportunities, and developments. We just assume that we rule.

God, on the other hand, is so indescribably imaginative and creative that we can't possibly keep up with His brilliance.  This exasperates any of us who strive to get a grip on...well on life.  It seems He won't stay put which irritates us when we want to call the shots.

A challenge at the heart of the Christian Nation is to identify eternal facts from eternal possibilities.  Whether the Bible is true, Jesus was human, or the Spirit works in one's life are very core stabilizing forces.  What the Bible teaches, however as one example, may be always true; yet that revelation will perpetually call for us to change.  It's very message is for believers to increase in knowledge, in wisdom, in action, in faith.  The Word of God carries expectation that the reader will make progressive adjustment to His defining life in the rich and abundant Kingdom.

The challenge before us is nothing new.  Every generation wishes the older ones would awaken to the pressing potential of the yet-to-be-discovered.  Every...generation. Every generation will eventually be challenged to live by the exploratory spirit and not the bossy flesh.  This isn't a matter of age.  It is a matter of mind-set.  We all know some in their 70s who are more alive than those in their 30s.

Age isn't the rule-of-thumb.  One's faith in the living God is.

The call from the Bible to preserve and protect is not the current standard of church rules which happens to have evolved to this date and time.  Rather it is a persuasion to maintain a relationship with the Trinity in a mode so thrilling, so challenging, that our jaws will drop and our hearts might skip a beat.

The light of the world is growing dim because the church has fallen in line with the-way-we've-done-it-before.  I concur; many of those things remain wonderful because they are in tune with His current activity.  Therefore, do not hear me saying that we are doing nothing well.  I am stating that it is the nature of the flesh to fail to discard methods and mannerisms which have long been used as a stifling force within the community of God.

To stay in step with God is to adhere to His calling to be renewed day by day...II Corinthians 4:16.  We are called to operate on constant alert to the things God unfolds as we grow in Him; mature in Him.  Do not be afraid.  Rather be free.  We are assured that we can know the truth and that truth shall set us free.

Dare we strive to constantly enter?  The challenge at the heart of the Christian Nation is whether we are going to praise God from our love for Him or from our rules about our preferable religious stances.  There can be a difference.

A CHALLENGING POLITICAL SEASON

I've watched both Democrat and Republican debates with intensity.  Each presents a replica of some segment of the American fabric.  Some viewers like some of the candidates while others don't really care for any.  The sobriety of the process allows each of us to evaluate responsibly.  Men and women have died in service to their country so that we could participate in such an honorable format.

For those who watched last night's debate among the four Republican candidates in Detroit, what did you see?  Me?  I saw four men offer a bit of the best of themselves and then, at times, the worst of themselves.  The disrespectful talking over one another was annoying and did not put any in a good light.  Yet, there were moments of insight and depth of display that allowed us to ponder glimmering rays of hope.

The challenge of this political season is an identical challenge to the church's mission. Do we love people who don't behave or believe as we wish?  Or do we write them off like we do politicians who get under our skin?  Where people stand is not to be our first heart-beat.  It is, rather, to be of firm compassion for each is under severe weight of sinnership in need of redemptive works from Heaven.

Yes, we live in a freedom to select our favorite candidate.  We must guard our criticisms for our call, first, is to care....to care about those who stand before us. Anyone can voice approval or disapproval.  Only by God's Spirit can we love even an opponent; can care for one who has vocal perspective against our possible preference.

This year's political scene, to me, is one of the more complex I've seen.  But, that could be just because I don't have a great recollection.  I know that if not careful, even Christians will build a subtle hatred for this one or that one or a few of those.  And right there is where we have skipped an essential beat in the makeup of what it means to be a believer.

We are called to believe in others when they can't/don't believe in themselves.  We are called to love others when they don't act in loving fashion.  We are expected to speak life into the dark arenas.  My questions is, Are we?  And the next one would be, Will we?

May we avoid speaking with disrespect regarding those on stage who speak with disrespect.  Being disrespectful of those I deem disrespectful is a trap which is far too easy for us to enter....I have already discovered....about myself.  May we rise up to care more about people than our positions and stances.

WE DO WHAT WE CAN DO...GOD DOES THE MORE

A strong frustration fills the air.  Which religious bent, or whether one has any faith at all, it is a real challenge for each of us to get through a day without perplexing issues that, at times, tend to eat our lunch.  Therefore, I sit a this computer hoping to enter words that will offer you an authentic glimmer of hope.

In my younger years I was engaged in a major battle.  The turf was days; any day that included me in it.  The problem was that I could not get people to do what I believed they should.  Ever been there?  The result was incredible worry....always....about....them.  Why couldn't they get a grip on what I had a grip on? Furthermore, why was it that I had the grip; yet, they seemed to be the happier?

Go figure.

I was leading my cause to assist the world to become a better place by being actively responsible and assertively productive.  Such was an inner drive and I'm glad.  My intent was to bless others; help them out.  But my plans didn't seem to flow well. Entanglement, conflict, even argument, perpetuated.  While pushing forward, I seemed to be losing ground as so many others couldn't seem to get the picture.

Ultimately, I discovered that the problem wasn't them...first.  It was me...first.  You know...like take the log out of your own eye so that you can see that the log you thought was in theirs was really in your own and theirs was truly, surprisingly, only a speck? Oh how we believe this to be true...for others.  Our self-importing exemption is what's blocking us from the peace and joy and hope that God offers...freely offers for any who wish to drink.

The solution for us could be that we are to do what we can do; plus recognize that God can do more than we estimate of ourselves.  God has effective moves up His sleeve that no one has thought about yet.  I know.  I know that such a suggestion is sheerly elementary.  I know, too, that the church is fundamentally not doing it.  We are subtly, oh so subtly, subject to giving God our best and believing in our own (lacking) skills.

We are giving the kingdom our best shot.  Our best shot, however, has a patch over both eyes.  We have forgotten to lift our eyes to His wonder.  May we believe whole-HEARTedly that at this date in history, mankind has yet to scratch the surface of God's prepared supply from which He is ready to give a hand-out to any who would dare peer into the strength of His mighty warehouse.

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him,” I Cor. 2:9.

CAN GOD EVER WORK WITH MODELING CLAY!

Jesus came to earth to experience what it would be like to be a human.  The Trinity would depend upon his report.  What would it be like to learn, to win, to lose, to forget, or to find matters of disappointment?  Jesus would find out.

Because he would encounter the entire earth-life range of birth to death, we find him well-equipped to give us hope.  But not only was his routine walk significant.  His blowing the lid off of the grave brought intent of informing all created ones of the most magnificent and outrageous possibility EVER!!

He walked in our shoes on purpose that we might know that He gets us; our victories and our defeats.  But more.  He showed us the way to lift up from the very strongest opponent; death.  He played by its rules (personal activity brought to an abrupt halt on the cross) in order to prove it to be sheer fake as one's death is not the end.

So how are troubles of value?  They each are poised to anticipate the surprises of God; every one of them.  Yes, we are human.  Yes, things go awry.  Yet, even the stressful and the interfering are no match for the imagination of God.

If He can melt death and remold it into life think of the license this give us to be of hope and joy.  His artwork is stunning.  Can He ever work with modeling clay!

What would you imagine He can do for you, with you, through you?  Our troubles are so difficult.  But it is very true, each one is an auditorium stage promoting the outrageous, unimaginable skill-set of the Living God.