Wednesday, September 30, 2015

WHEN YOU'VE HAD IT UP TO "HERE" WITH PEOPLE

Urggh!  People!  Some people...anyway!

What is one to do when disgusting people live in our midst?  How they bug us with their attitudes, their biases, their moods, and, oh yes, their sins.  How shall we handle "them"?

The way we handle "them" is to realize we are far worse.  Really.

When the log is taken from our own eye a log is never seen in any other's eye.  It will always be a speck.

And we....we ordinary commoners are perpetually subject to the MRI of finding that we have labored intensely to clean the outside of the cup while the inside is full of crud and dead men's bones.

Yes, "they" do have their sheer weaknesses.  But Jesus is quite frank when he insists that no one else is as blind to the reality of personal sin like we are.  We have mastered avoidance of our own guilt to the point we give it zero thought.

When you believe you have had all that you can take of the missteps of others, it would be time to reevaluate.  Oh how we tend to excuse and explain our own failures while harping with squint-eyed judgment toward anyone other than self.

Always, when loaded with criticism of another, think again....inwardly.  At this point you will drop your accusations and begin a trek of eye-surgery to remove the one place that wields the blind-to-the value-of-others log.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

FAITH IS NOT-GIVING-UP DETERMINATION

If not careful, faith will be grandly verbalized and yet casually used.  We are to walk by faith; not just talk by faith.  Operating by the invisible?  I know of nothing more challenging.

Believing brings things into existence that aren't yet.  This is weird.  This, as well, is magnificently awesome.

Too often we simply give up on life, on people, on ourselves.  What we need is push-back.  Not the fist-fighting aggression; but the not-giving-up determination. Surrender is to be to God; not to difficulties.

Faith is the element that will transform relationships.  New days dawn because we pushed back against the tyranny of depression.  We are to believe in more than a believing system.  We are to possess an assurance that God is alive and functioning among/within us.

Anybody can determine the misfortune of words and/or actions.  Spotting negativity takes no talent.  To believe that people and circumstances can majestically change? That's the guts of faith!

Walk by faith that things that you can't see can become.  Anyone can operate from the lower life of what we see and the human reasoning that accompanies it.  Faith, however, has a secret imagination and conviction that actually breathes life, new life, into dead situations.

Try it.  You'll like it.


Thursday, September 24, 2015

DARE TO ENTER THE GREATEST EXCHANGE.

There is this thing about humanity that is under attack by dark forces; spiritually dark forces.  We are naive.  Even those who work at developing faith honestly have doubts about such opposition.

As much as we discuss the topic of faith there is a basic flushing of the spiritual toilet when it comes to one certain topic.  Of course the unbelieving world hops on this bus.

I speak of giving.

Have you ever wondered why this is such an extreme rub?  Why is that believers fundamentally join forces with unbelievers over this matter.  The truth is that we struggle to believe that if we give we will receive.  Honestly, we are just not sure if God can keep His promise.

Yes.  Man has taken over the wheel when it comes to giving to God.  We would rather self-provide.  We are, in saying to ourselves, managers.  We are responsible.  We convince ourselves that we can handle this; we know better than God.  Too, we explain to ourselves why denying Him is the right thing for now.

But I say to us that our faith is severely tested on this court.  Money or God?

I have really struggled in this area because I want to keep.  The Bible teaches otherwise.  It is clear that we will trust in One or the other; not both.

So here I am again facing this year's church budget which requires me to commit my increase.  EVERY year I am strongly tempted to stay pat.  But there's something about this Kingdom of God that won't let me sit on my current level of participating in the greatest exchange; cash for grace.

I can't get anything done on my own.  I'm too stupid, too ignorant, too disqualified.  His grace....His marvelous grace is what makes me/us tick.  Nothing else.  Nothing....

I urge you to give 'til you risk.  You can't calculate grace; that element of His action in our walk.  Should you feel touchy about this topic, it is no accident.  This is the war for all minds because faith is genuinely trying to break through.

Succeed.  Do what you can to win this war.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

YOGI BERRA DOES IT AGAIN

I believe that if Yogi Berra would have known that he would die and move on out the same day the Pope finally came to America that Yogi would have made something of it.

Since he died, I mention it for him.

I dearly loved Yogi.  I don't know of anyone like him.  I met him once...briefly...and I could tell that he was not impressed.  Go figure.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

ANTI-RELIGION IS A RELIGION

I get it.  The mockery of people who claim to believe in God is surely quite socially acceptable.  Such a bandwagon is loaded.  The smirks, the rolling of the eyes, the accusations of ignorance and inconsistency?  I've heard a life full of insults directed toward me/any who claim to follow God.

I get it.  And how often I know that such darts of complaint are justified.  Guys like me seem to leave a trail of missteps; if not blatant contradiction to the very thing we espouse.  For me?  I admit failure.

Yet, I will not bow in hesitancy to such strong claims against the concept God has in place of rescuing mankind from the swarming pit of which we often find ourselves.  He is more than religion.  He is Life.

What has happened is society, in turn, has developed a religion of being anti-religious.  I don't speak with blame.  I get it.  I get their frustration with us.  I understand their injury when living among us.  We should do better.  And how we try.  And, how sometimes we don't try and it appears we don't care.

But what the anti-religious religion doesn't get is that we are developing a faith in Jesus because we ran out of a self-improvement agenda.  Our efforts to get it right on our own turned out to be futile.

We tried to save ourselves.  Oh, how we tried.  And those who choose to take cheap shots at us?  Well, they were justified.  Our high-minded looking down our noses did not come from the Spirit of God.  Our bad.

We religiousers fail because we have bailed on humility and felt the need to parade our (self)righteousness.  The anti-religiousers fall into the exact same trap; parading an attitude of smugness toward...the other smugness ones.

The Good News, the full-of-hope news, is that Jesus doesn't represent religion.  He represents Life.  Religion, don't you recall, is what executed him upon the Cross.  Faith in God is so much different than faith in churchiosity.

Faith in God has an assurance of victory in the center of our demise.  We need this.  We all need this.

So just as those of us who admittedly need to park our high-horses and quickly dismount, so do those of the anti-religion religion.  We cannot save ourselves; neither group can.  Our mission is to find the one who can save us from this mess of being us...and Jesus can, does, and will.

Should you be one disgusted with the pride of people who are a deep part of church, your disgust most likely carries an equaled pride that you are not like us.  Both fall into the ditch.  So might it be possible that if we were to meet at the Cross we would find that both religions (the pro and the anti) would find saving grace that came straight out of Heaven?


Thursday, September 17, 2015

CLARITY FOR THE HUMAN HEART

How often we feel that we are possibly overrun by some sort of out-of-control weeds of life?  Have our spirits been overwhelmed by accumulating and pressing demands? Would it help if Congress would pass a measure that would give us an 8th day for our week, a fifth week for our month, and a 13th month for our year?

Humanity is laden with complication.  There, too, seems to be a simple reason.

Authors Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger relate the following:
   
     We drift toward complexity.  We drift away from mission.  The two are related. When you are complex, you tend to be inward.....At the same time, when you drift off mission you will naturally become complex and complicated.  Something will dominate your time if the mission of God does not dominate your heart.

We are making wonderful life way too hard.  Reasons vary.  But we must not dismiss the probability that we bring it on ourselves.

A good response is to live outwardly rather than inwardly.  The constant inward evaluation breeds complexity.  Thinking of others and how to assist them seems to clear the air we breathe.  This might give us clarity for the human heart.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

LET YOU YES BE YES AND YOUR NO BE NO

We are living in excessive measures of something that seems to be too much.  What is it exactly?

Over-working?  Over-thinking?  Over-eating?

Of course I'm headed for something to support my thought for the day.  So here goes.

I raise important questions:
  • Are we over-saturated with incoming information?
  • Are we losing contact with community because we are in such enormous contact?
  • Have we lost touch with people because we have so many tools with which to connect with them?
What's weird is that my posting may be distracting you from something.  Not necessarily; but possibly?

I've known (and said) for a long time now that some of our most meaningful work is found within the realm of interruption.  Yet, I want to ponder the other side of that coin questioning whether steady disruption negates some of our well-intended efforts.

This post is not a complaint.  I love people.  We love people.  I'm merely asking us to consider ways to calm our hyper-active pace; perhaps weigh whether we need to streamline it into a more productive pace.  As much as we feel the pressure to say Y-E-S to others it may be a crucial turning point if we could learn to equally say N-O.  

I know Mary found herself criticized by her sister Martha for being a perceived slackard.  And wouldn't you know Martha (upon her brother's death) declared Jesus to be in the same camp as her sister?

I marvel...still...really...marvel at Jesus.  He had a way of being true to the Spirit within.  He could say yes...and no.  He could agree...and disagree.  There was a cool 'n' calm about him that, to me, goes unmatched.  

Jesus must have understood the pace of life a bit better than me.  Clearly he possessed an aggressive calm that effectively aided in sorting the need to be attentive without the crazy pace of fret.  He knew how to let each YES and NO stand on their own.  I need that...still.


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

WHAT IS "BELIEVING IN GOD"?

For a society to believe in an invisible entity known as God seems to be a rather risky proposition; if not completely absurd.  To be honest, multitudes don't buy it.  I get it. Yet, multitudes do.  I get that one, too.

Explaining belief in God is surely a challenge because the entire concept is cryptic and spelled M.Y.S.T.E.R.Y.  For those who struggle to believe I would want you to hear of my empathy.  Even we who believe struggle to believe.

Faith is not a silly walk in the park whim because we feel good about a moment.  It has a much deeper and wider dimension.  Faith is attentive and concentrated labor in the realm of the unseen.  This, of course, sets us up for both ridicule and even slander.

Believing in God is a yielding to Him with an invisible intensity that calls for more than the handy mechanisms of mood swings.  Faith assures us that things which aren't yet can come about while being certain that the unseen realm of reality is a prominent part of our existence.

Believing in God is much more than a gambling whirl of the wheel hoping the spinner stops on Heaven.  It is absolute hope based upon what we already see with our earth-eyes like planted seed arising to become much more in beauty and value.  Whether an ear of corn or a daisy, the life we see is a result of death to a seed.  That be us!

Believing in God says that death isn't the end; but is surely a new beginning.  Yet, there's more.

We tend to make Him out to be the good stuff which is to happen beyond the cemetery. But to be born again is to take life now and watch God make something of it; of us. Some believe life can be better..now.  Others believe not.

Don't you think it odd that so often life goes according to one's belief?

Believing in God is our deepest challenge.  Is He or isn't He?  The answer will only come by faith.  Either conclusion--does exist/doesn't exist--will be formed by the invisible process of believing.

Believing in God means that He has the ability to live within us and produce a life that we cannot possibly coerce on our own.  He is an entirely new and unexplainable power given to men and women who choose to believe that He is more than true; He is life...now.


Sunday, September 13, 2015

PERSONAL SATISFACTION

Life is a challenge.  We tend to live for the ups while fending of the pestering downs. How shall we ever make significant progress against this rising tide that pounds into our hearts that we are not enough?

It seems the solution, once again, is found in the life of the Son of God.  He took the accusations and the punishment.  He absorbed enemy sins (including yours/mine). And then he died in public shame.

And then he came back to life.  I said, AND THEN HE CAME BACK TO LIFE!  (I thought we had become a little bit immune to such a fantastic truth.)

Personal satisfaction is solved (and claimed) when we shrink in order that God might be given glory.  We become less; He becomes more visible within us.  Our struggle for effectiveness has not been due to some one or some thing.  Dissatisfaction has always been the root cause when we balk at the call to decrease that He might increase.

Dear reader, I root for you.  You are a valued child of God.  And you are my friend.  I want you to feel good--no, great--about who you are and who you GET to be.  Be encouraged to give yourself away that you may find abundant life.  Jesus has taught this from day one.

What we sow comes back.  Friendship...comin' at ya.  Understanding?  That, too. Attention?  What we sow and water is what God raises as a crop to bless us.  The reverse is just as true.  Sow no sympathy.  Plant no compassion.  Give no concern for others.  What you get is nothing (because there was a failure to plant); no sympathy, no compassion, and no concern for you.

Personal satisfaction comes by caring outwardly for others.  God will, then, see that our attention toward others will come back to bless us....in abundance.  It's called caring for one another.

These me first generations aren't experiencing a very rich life.  Simultaneously, the others first folk are thriving in happiness.  Not only that, but the contentment provided from above is a treasured commodity.  Personal satisfaction is embedded in the effort to give ourselves away that others be strengthened and assured that they are most valued.

Friday, September 11, 2015

THE THORN. THE PAIN. THE SECRET RICHES.

If one were to tell you that a vast oil reservoir were just beneath your back yard and for you to drill would result in wealth for the rest of your life, would you be interested in hearing more of what it would take to claim it?  So it is with another part of our walk.  It is rich.  It is thorough.  Yet, it is a secret that, even when proclaimed, no one wants.

There is a quality, or maybe a characteristic, that 100% of men and women possess. Not only do we not notice it as power; but when it is noted we do our best to shed ourselves of it.  In essence we reject the strongest thing about our lives; not occasionally, but repeatedly.  I speak of our weaknesses.

Weakness is a secret power which only works in the Kingdom of God.  This is fact. Read II Corinthians 12:7-11.  If we will believe it we will become remarkably--never to get over it--blessed.  Note these truths:
  1. Thorns are present to keep us from believing we can do life on our own.
  2. Our power is always found in our weaknesses.
  3. Contentment comes, when understanding that we are nobodies, through the very things that tend to make us miserable; weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties.
Note: each of the miseries listed in #3 are the very things that usually cause us to shut down; not open up.  These are the nightmares to our otherwise decent lives...we think. We are so upside-down with God's kingdom that we believe that if we could but shed these struggles we would be...content.  

The opposite, however, is remarkably true.  It would be good to note that we actually spend a significant part of our awake time trying to rid ourselves of the very things which are gold to our walk.  W A K E  U P  T O  T H I S  S E C R E T because the trail of hardship isn't going to change.  Our perception of it must.

Power is never within our self-confidence for eventually it will begin to leak.  A firing here, a divorce there, a mistake elsewhere might leave one feeling like a failure.  While we don't seek such moments, what we could do with them and a wide range of other disappointments is to yield to the secret of weaknesses.

These and other thorns jab, puncture, and drain the heart.  Be directed to look upon the Cross where the Son of God is being tortured.  Begin to list the anguish, the misery, and the gasping for oxygen.  Yes, watch his best friends flee from the murder scene despondent as Jesus' aforementioned promises seem to be dissipating before their very eyes.  He....he....died.

The secret of life is always found within the framework of things going wrong.  Some believe it.  Others fight against it.  Power is still perfected in weakness.  There is not better route to success.


Thursday, September 10, 2015

FEELING LIKE YOUR RESERVATIONS IN HEAVEN WILL BE CANCELLED?

Sure wish that the idea of heaven would be true....but even then you would feel like you will be headed for Hell?

Oh how I realize this comment is just so abrupt.  I would prefer to apologize as well as not address it.  But in reality, there are so many very wonderful quality people who feel it is a waste of time trying to get to heaven.  In their words, I would not be good enough.  There is no hope for me.

I hear such phrases from the poor to the rich; from the nobody to the famous.  I want to change this unnecessary perception for any who possess a feeling of being so very sinful that their reservations in Heaven have most likely been cancelled.

The very recall of Jesus on the Cross assures us of two things; (1) we can't even fathom us at our very worst and (2) we can't fathom how much God loved us to put His Son through that torture in order to rescue us.  So while it is noble that we be honest about our desperate lack, we must be assured that God has us measured for personal failure long before we were born.

God is not caught off-guard by our immense ability to disobey.

It is this truth that could lean us in His direction.  He loves us as sinners.  He saves us; not after we straighten ourselves up, but before we even realize what a mess we are. God killed His own heart because He treasures His children.

You can be lost if you choose.  You can dismiss the powerful and profound work on that hill one terrible day.  But you don't have to.  Anyone can have hope of living eternally. Such a hope isn't for the good ones in some churches.  It isn't relegated to those who are most sacrificial.  Rather, eternal life is for the miserable hyper-sinner who could not save him/herself....which would include...me.

No one is too far gone.  No one is exempt from reason to hope.  No one is so bad that God can't save.  That would include you or your relative or your neighbor.

Maybe it would be worthwhile for some of you to reconsider.  This Jesus didn't hold a pep rally for those who like enthusiastic gatherings.  No, he volunteered to die in our stead because he knew full-well we could not compensate for the misery we brought to earth while here.

Good enough?  No one is.  Join the crowd...and research what it means to believe in a God who gives Himself up for His children.  It's quite the success story.  And you are very much included in the story-line.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

FEELING LIKE YOUR RESERVATIONS IN HEAVEN HAVE BEEN CANCELLED?

Sure wish that the idea of heaven would be true....but even then you would feel like you will be headed for Hell?

Oh how I realize this comment is just so abrupt.  I would prefer to apologize as well as not address it.  But in reality, there are so many very wonderful quality people who feel it is a waste of time trying to get to heaven.  In their words, I would not be good enough.  There is no hope for me.

I hear such phrases from the poor to the rich; from the nobody to the famous.  I want to change this unnecessary perception for any who possess a feeling of being so very sinful that their reservations in Heaven have most likely been cancelled.

The very recall of Jesus on the Cross assures us of two things; (1) we can't even fathom us at our very worst and (2) we can't fathom how much God loved us to put His Son through that torture in order to rescue us.  So while it is noble that we be honest about our desperate lack, we must be assured that God has us measured for personal failure long before we were born.

God is not caught off-guard by our immense ability to disobey.

It is this truth that could lean us in His direction.  He loves us as sinners.  He saves us; not after we straighten ourselves up, but before we even realize what a mess we are. God killed His own heart because He treasures His children.

You can be lost if you choose.  You can dismiss the powerful and profound work on that hill one terrible day.  But you don't have to.  Anyone can have hope of living eternally. Such a hope isn't for the good ones in some churches.  It isn't relegated to those who are most sacrificial.  Rather, eternal life is for the miserable hyper-sinner who could not save him/herself....which would include...me.

No one is too far gone.  No one is exempt from reason to hope.  No one is so bad that God can't save.  That would include you or your relative or your neighbor.

Maybe it would be worthwhile for some of you to reconsider.  This Jesus didn't hold a pep rally for those who like enthusiastic gatherings.  No, he volunteered to die in our stead because he knew full-well we could not compensate for the misery we brought to earth while here.

Good enough?  No one is.  Join the crowd...and research what it means to believe in a God who gives Himself up for His children.  It's quite the success story.  And you are very much included in the story-line.

GO TAKE ON THE DAY

You have the freedom to hit this day with gusto.  Of course, you carry concerns for others or for yourself.  And surely your bed of roses has the wilt in places.  But I warn you not to lose sight of the magnificence of you.

True, you have failures.  Also true you sometimes miscalculate.  And we just as well admit it that there are times your attitude could use a scolding.

But there is this thing about you; well, really this Person.  When you have been baptized into Jesus his Holy Spirit has taken up shop within.  And just exactly what is He doing in there...inside of your very personal mancave or womancave?

The Holy Spirit is printing out DNA of goodness that you can't manufacture on your own.  He produces items like love and like joy and like patience (Galatians 5:22, 23). You are to be God's warehouse where He has set up shop to put out a line of goods that everyone on your street needs.

Of course we can't do it.  We get cranky and fussy.  But that's why He resides within you; to take over the production line.

You are more than you are because having been baptized into Jesus you received his Holy Spirit.  He isn't in there to cause you to pretend you are having a good day.  No, He is within to afford comfort and hope for those fortunate enough to encounter you.

People are waiting on someone to give them a word of kindness.  You are exactly the one to do it.  Now...go take on the day.

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

QUESTIONS WE TEND TO HAVE ABOUT GOD

I believe there is information, valuable information, being withheld among us regarding the realization of God.  In this mix of current readers today, there is this great combination of people who believe absolutely in God, some have a quasi-maybe faith, others hope there is God, while some detest the topic.  Each group is extremely valued and loved by God.

While I make myself very vulnerable with this post, I believe that many of you possess insight that basically goes undetected because there is not a format for expression of either doubt or of question.

What is it that you wonder about God?  Or, possibly you just don't get why any would believe in such an entity?  I'm not asking for your criticism of your church neighbors, frustration with pastors, nor your disappointment that no one spoke to you when you visited a local congregation.  We all have such stories, unfortunately.

So I'm not asking for a gripe session.  I am, however, curious.  What is it that we leadership and churches simply don't yet see that you honestly question?  What points are we missing?  Where do guys like me who have been around this subject for decades seem to go blind to your needs?  Your questions?  Your anxieties?

I believe that a great number of dear and wonderful people have the simplest of questions about the reality or the actuality about God, but we are not sure if it is all right to ask.

I'm not inquiring of you so that I can give Dear Abby-like snippet responses.  I'm asking that I might learn.  I do not want to be a spokesman in the Kingdom of God who is failing to connect with hearers.

Would you risk?  If you don't mind, help me to understand what it is you can't seem to grasp at this moment in time?  Go easy with me as I'm just as fragile as all the rest of us.  Answers are not necessarily forthcoming in one big AnswerSwoop because this isn't about such.  I'm interested in being attentive to all who have questions; but guys like me are too busy being religious.

Your questions might be answers to help me grow into more effective ministry.  It's one thing to live in a critical stupor of church and all that goes with it.  It's quite another to simply wonder about the traits of God and how mankind fits in.  Maybe you could help me understand the complexities of concerns which are currently going on toward the topic of significant spiritual questions.

Monday, September 07, 2015

DON'T BE ROBBED OF THE MOMENT

I can't say that I know what it was like in what some would refer to as the Good Ol' Days.  Reminiscence of slower pace is perceived by the older generations of which I am now one.  Whether such is true or those were just some of our times we favor, I'm not certain.  I do know that we attend to a very fast-paced life-style today.

I do cheer you on to drink in the moment.  Life is rich with buried treasure; some of it going unseen before our very eyes, I believe, due to our hurried pace.  Notice right now.  Love right now.

While Internet, FB, etc surely keep us in touch, this can become quite surface.  These constant blurbs passing through our machines surely fill our waking moments with value.  Furthermore, let it be also noted that these "in touch" concepts, in reality, may actually keep us out of touch.  Communication is thrown out in quick-firing snippets.  Intercommunication is accelerated while understanding and genuine connection to one another are possibly being sabotaged.

I am quite fond of our communication gadgets because they let me pass through my friends' days as you all pass through mine...much like what we are doing just now.  However, we must not lose sight of the basic need among us to be present with others physically to give and to receive strength.

For all of the many gatherings of all of the versatile families and friends, we are most overjoyed.  I merely mean to awaken any who have traded human face-to-face interaction for the hiding place of communication gadgets to think again.

We can't possibly bond deeply with the hundreds and thousands as we exchange photos, comments, and articles with great delight.  But we can bond deeply with a few.  I urge you to be sure you are not robbed of being with the people who are in your presence because you are mentally and emotionally brain-dead to the family and friends hovered around you.

We need others...so let us be present when we get to be with one another.



Sunday, September 06, 2015

HOW COULD WE HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT?

I treasure the innovators, thinkers, planners, and dreamers.  Whatever level of faithful devotion we have reached, the fascination with God is that He is always creative.  To back that statement all one has to do is to note that world-wide inventions are not on the decline.  The opposite is true.  So many new concepts are coming at us so fast that we cannot possibly absorb the wonder of it all.

Major League pitchers learn how to develop a change-up to go with their fastball. Scientists cannot afford to lock in on the newest discovery to simply stay there; else they will soon be left behind.  The realm of education is still in need of knowing ABCs while trying to keep pace with current trends of ambitious learning.

So it is with faith.  I don't know of a zone more stuck.  Yet, to be fair, this is my realm of biggest interest; so possibly I'm biased.

However, I am concerned about what it is we call faith.  Do we read the Bible with its impossible stories becoming possible; yet close it as if such glory were for back then? Are we far too dismissive of our own sins while we crab at the world around us for there misfunctions?

Believers are surely aligned by God to have positive impact.  If not careful we will be more critical than helpful.  It could be that the Christian world needs first to confess our own sins before we pounce on that strain of sin in community that we would dare never to be guilty.

Surely our communities are in sinful disarray.  And God died to help us.  We have work to do.  We love the call to his work.  Our first line of duty again today may very well be that we confess our own sins rather than the sins of others.  From this move, we very well might see a new kind of response toward us; one of welcoming.

Saturday, September 05, 2015

TRYING TO GRASP THE BIGGER PICTURE

You blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!
                                                                                      Jesus

Religions (plural) seem to have an innate drive to hone in on the tedious.  Christianity joins the ranks.  It seems to be such irony that the more tedious and narrow the more ego develops as to doing faith correctly.  This was the demise of the Pharisees.  The plague continues.

It is a given that Jesus faced this contagion head-on.  He argued with the narrow and quite devoted legalists and was eventually executed because of their plotting mindset. It is this one, Jesus, that sets the course for developing faith.

All who follow must be on guard lest we follow the path of his executioners rather than him.  That we might slip into church rules and regulations over life and love is paramount.  We are called to walk a very risky trail.

A brochure came yesterday with headlines, GOSPEL MEETING.  In addition to dates and location, there is this admonition, For more than 60 years Brother ---- has advocated that there should be one drinking vessel containing the fruit of the vine used in the observance of the Lord's supper.  On Friday night he will speak on this important subject.  We extend a very kind and cordial invitation to be with us to hear his presentation.

For most of my readers, you don't even know what this is about.  And, I'm not telling you.  I will say it is steeped with small thinking coupled with fear.

My question for us is, what is there in our religious fabric that pushes the grand glory of God aside for our religious habitry?  What do we do in our devotion to our church's doctrine that not only keeps the lost from being introduced to Jesus, but even drapes a wet blanket across the hearts of our own?

I have been guilty of minimizing Jesus while maximizing standing for Truth. Unfortunately, that Truth perpetually comes into question (and rightfully so) because my focus has been on the plan and not on the Man.

Specifically for those who can't take organized religion, I apologize for my role in it.  I'm still learning.  There is a bigger picture than what I have at times made it out to be.  My intent is to gain momentum in the things that matter.  A good beginning is to spit out both the gnats and the camels of introverted religion that even unbelievers can tell is a facade.


Friday, September 04, 2015

A FAVORITE THING ABOUT LIFE

Don't you just love right now?

While unpretentious about negative matters existing, we are free to reflect, perceive, and focus upon the vast amount of wonder right before our very eyes.  It isn't necessary to travel a distance to scope out fascination.

At this moment my brain is sending signals to my fingertips in order to communicate to over 2000 Facebook friends.  Add to that the number of readers in my hometown newspaper.  And, I haven't even touched on the wonder of my eyes reading what your eyes will soon read.

Wonderfully bizarre!!!

A favorite thing I find about life is that regardless of age, regardless of what's been discovered, regardless of scientific structure, there is the constant and ongoing snowballing of practical innovation.

I.  Love.  Innovation.

The human mind is Disney World on caffeine.  We recall by the spectacular concept of re-minding.  If that isn't wonder enough, this same information sponge within our skull can also imagine.  When one has a capacity to re-mind and also imagine....well hello exciting life!!!

I urge you to think like God.  Think creatively.  Not only is that His forte, He passed it along to us.  We are created in His image.

Did you know that the game of basketball began with a bushel basket upon a pole at each end of a court?  Each time a basket was made, they had to stop the game to climb up to retrieve the ball.  Eventually....yep, you got it....the baskets aged and the bottoms fell out.

Ahha, a way to shoot the ball and eliminate the time-consuming act of retrieving it.  A genius idea that had been right in front of them all along.

Life is packed with invention-yet-to-happen.  I find that a favorite thing about life is that it is both initiated and backed by our God whose drive seems to consistently be that of perpetual creativity.  May we have the mind-set to join in!

Thursday, September 03, 2015

HYPNOTIZED BY HABIT

The apostle Paul uses a strange wording in First Thessalonians 3:8...for now we really live.  

What's the difference between living and really living?  Could it be that the former is more like getting through the day while the other is sensing the wonder of it all?  For now I simply wish to toss in your direction the question, Are we really living?

I wonder.  I wonder if because the sun rises and sets with such consistency, along with steady pace, if we have routined ourselves out of really living.  Even our faith can be found to have deadened by our unthinking rote formats.  We very likely are under the threat of being hypnotized by habit.

I love the really living factor.

What happens when our hypnotic trance is broken?  Life!  Life is everywhere.  We see possibility.  We see potential.  We see opportunity.

I've been in a semi-funk lately.  Trying to figure my future role at Memorial, coupled with a fatigue factor that insists on following me everywhere I go, has been an uphill challenge.  Having met yesterday with two of my friends/elders helped me to break my fog.  I am grateful for a special time to reflect with intent to pursue answers.

We must be on guard.  Daily procedures can become subtle grinds.  If not careful the life will get squeezed out...and such will not be noticed.

I read in a leadership book this week that our greatest innovative development often/usually comes when we aren't focused on the actual circumstance.  Away from the office or out on a three-day vacation seems to have a creative edge.  The reason would include the breaking of habitual routine.

So for your day...for your walk...for your mental and emotional health...I encourage you to come out of your possible trance.  Awaken to the creative flow of God.  Stages for such awakening can vary.

Some may be to leave the office and hit the driving range.  For others it might be to take in a movie on a non-movie-type day.  For some of us, it may simply be to have lunch with other thinkers who would give you input that even they didn't realize.

Hypnotized by habit?  Not if we can help it.  We would rather be energized by variable creativity.

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

VISIT THE CENTER OF GREAT WONDER

I don't know about you.  For me, I want to see things going on (productivity/effectivity) while, simultaneously, I can't seem to get to them because so many things are going on. This is weird in a weird sort of way.

I am grateful, sincerely so, for technology's progress.  Yet, for every app and tool of creativity for advancement in usefulness these seem to beget a parallel interruption. Getting to write this blog, for instance, is like a dream in reaching to so many so quickly.  However, the number of times my computer bing-bongs me while I'm composing this seems to announce that I am falling behind.

Should you think I am about to pop a solution upon you, think again.  I'm not.  I simply want to say, Don't you love right now?  

While I don't know how to manage these days of opportunity and interruption, I certainly don't intend to fall for the fake life of misery.  What a glorious concept; active. I'm active!  I'm able to walk, talk, think, see, and hear!  These are gifts to my day...your day as well.

We get to be on the starting team of living among the living. Life hasn't passed us by. It has invited us in.  You.  Me.  We.  Opportunity and interruption are ways of life.  Let me say that with a bit more emphasis.

Opportunity and interruption are ways of life....not of death.  In death there is no opportunity and no interruption.  We choose to live!  So since we have made such a dramatic choice, don't you think it would be good management to like right now?  Don't you think it would be best not to waste time in frustration when such moments could be focused upon celebration?

See.  I thought you were a good thinker.  While we wish more would be happening, take note.  We are simultaneously walking and talking in the Center of Great Wonder.