BASEBALL CAMP---DAY ONE

Well, I have just returned to the hotel from the first full day at the Cardinals Legends camp in Jupiter, Florida.  It is still a fabulous experience. 

This is my 28th year to attend the Cardinal camps.  It is simply surreal as well as remarkable.  Each year upon arrival I am reminded of how many deep and wonderful connections God has allowed me to make over the years.  And...they are still developing with new colleagues coming along.

My health is good and that's a challenge at my age.  Where the test at age 35 was whether I could throw from third to first, the question now is whether I can see from third to first.  I've already been in the trainers' room....twice....but doing very well.  Ice is good.

It becomes easier for me to talk to friends about God.  I find doors everywhere and marvel at how He slips into the most unsuspecting conversations.

I showed Ozzie Smith my "Ozzie Smith model" glove today and told him I wanted my money back because it wouldn't catch the ball very good.  He said the problem was not with the arrow but the Indian.  He used my glove in the game and.....hmmmm.....it didn't miss the ball like it does for me!

BTW again....our team played against for former big-leaguers the very first game....we lost 2-0 which is like winning....almost...because they are so good and we are so.....not so good.

Saturday evening my new book MVP! (Why You Are Valuable in God's Eyes!) will be promoted at the banquet and made available for sale.  We keep moving into lives.

WHAT MIGHT GIVE YOUR CONGREGATION A JUMP-START

This post is sort of Part B of the last post.

Things hit me.  That's all I know to say.  I really think about you.  That's sorta strange because I don't know who is reading this.  But I know you are there.  The counter says you are out there reading this blog.

So.....if you are one of those out there, I think about how your work is going and what God might have me say to give you a boost.  Here's what He gave me today:

Three things have impacted Memorial Drive in strong ways which God seemed to direct us to resurgence.

1. The study of Blackaby and King's Experiencing God workbook.
2. The study of Fresh Wind/Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala.
3. The study of the Holy Spirit by God. 

On this last one we didn't have a book other than the Bible.  We patiently waded through it and continue to study Him.  I'm personally encouraged that my very weak book Empowering the Ordinary on the topic of how the Holy Spirit helps inadequate believers is still used by study groups all over the world.  We sent 10 copies out to a congregation this week.

We have learned (and are still learning) the bright ideas of the flesh are no contest against the split-second brilliance of the invisible Spirit of the Holy God!

I NEEDED TO LEARN TO NOT GET MY WAY

I tried to tell John the Preacher not to give up.  He said his elders didn't want to grow.  Too, he said his church didn't want to change.  I kept urging him not to quit.  He did anyway.  I remain sad for him and those with whom he worked.  If he would have only held on, he probably would have been wowed by God.

But....I get his discouragement.  I've lived there and assume you have or are....or will.

One of the wonderful blessings I have received over the years is that fact; years and years and years.  I've learned that we tend to not give God enough time.  Most likely it would be better said we don't give God enough time with us.  We are too quick to immaturely abort.

I struggled for over a decade at Memorial with seeing anything change.  From my chair the most I could see was irrational squabbling coupled with "permission giving/permission seeking" atmospheres.  I lived very discouraged.  I kept asking the elders why I could try crazy things away from Memorial and they seemed to work; but I couldn't get permission to try them here. 

Oh, I did get to try a few things.  I did get to launch my goal of 600 baptisms in six months which died after ten days.  But most of my dreams didn't fly.  The one I got to try failed.  Not encouraging.

Last week I remembered those painful days.  Those days were valuable in two ways: (1) they taught me to depend on God and, (2) they showed me my ideas of getting things going were not up to His standards.  I needed to learn to not get my way.

What has happened to Memorial Drive surely has to be a grand combination of failures (mine and others) and we simply and finally looked to God to see if He might have anything in mind.  At one point Memorial was so low in attendance and morale that I pondered recommending we disband.  Please take in the agony of those weighty thoughts.  Why did we exist as a congregation?  I couldn't give a positive answer.

I reveal this side of my ministry only to give you hope in yours.  Today, I'm wild about what God is doing with us.  We aren't the best nor near the top in any measurement.  I will gratefully say we are a very happy and productive people who swim in one amazing report to another and yet another of God-working hearsay among us to the extent none can keep up with the stories. 

Where you live?  Give up your organizational mapping and tactics.  Pray.  Ask Him to run His church.  You might be delighted at what you experience when you surrender your brainy ideas.  Don't try to figure how the church will grow.  God has that puzzle completed. 

Step back.  Allow Him to step in.  Stay out of the way.

BUILD-A-PRAYER

Grandparents have grasped toddlers hands and marched off to Build-A-Bear shops hinder and yon.  Enter wide-eyed and leave befriended by the latest creation formed from your own assembly selection.  It is magic for all youngsters.

Father owns such a shop for His children.  He invites us to partake.  What would you like?  Tell me what's on your mind.  How may I bring peace to your heart?

I love to talk to Father.  He invites us to reach to Him, lean upon Him, and become totally reliant on Him.  He is our authentic God in real time.

When I pray I often ask Him to do that stuff He does where so much wonder and fruit takes place all would have to credit Him.  It just could not have happened via humanistic imagination or development.  And...I so love it when He responds.

Enter into the JoyShop of the Lord.  You know....you don't have because you don't ask He once advised.  Take a look; around your family, your work, your church.  What is needed?  Build-A-Prayer is open 24/7.  Personally, I've never left the shop disappointed. 

At times is seemed that possibly Father was out of some materials.  Even then I was wrong.  He was merely taking a bit more time to form His mysterious presentation.

PEOPLE ARE LETTERS

I don't think I will ever learn.  I am not king of my court.  I am not Sheriff of my county.  I am not Pope of a non-Catholic church.  I am a rescu-ee pitied and loved by God.

Jesus was beaten beyond human recognition; not just because of the way I was, but because of the way I am.  God got me but I don't seem to get it.  I know all of the church academics....sorta.  But my ego rares in stupid assumption I have arrived....sorta.

Last night I hung around the building as one of our AA groups began to filter in.  I marvel.  Everyone speaks to everyone....all 60 or so.  They look like ideal church assembly.  They speak in courtesyistic love toward one another and praise God for His goodness.

These are broken people.  One young gal was smoking an ink pen...sorta.  She had abandoned cigarettes the day before.  I commented to her about her new kind of cigarette.  She's working at it.

I took two Cardinal fans to show them my office and gave each a book.  They were (of course) wowed because my office is the most amazing preacher's office in the world (and if you know a better one don't tell me about it).  It formed an instant connection.

In visiting with one who looked so familiar, Rick said, Hey, I've visited your church twice recently.  Man it really does something for me.  It's really good.

I left the gathering so inspired.  The humility within the group makes me grateful I can see such goodness in brokenness.  Everyone spoke to me.  Everyone included me.  And I tend to go through life so smug in comparison.  It is unintentional.  So last night I went to class and learned that people really do read lessons from others in the room.

You are a letter written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.  Let all who study your context walk away with a warming message.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR MODERN DAY DISCIPLES OF CHRIST TO TEACH THEIR NEIGHBORS?

The Great Commission is a Great Threat to the most of our people.  Support missions?  Assist with VBS?  Join in prayer?  Yes to these and a multitude of other service opportunities.  But why is it that the vast majority of such a people can go for years without a twinge of action to teach the Word of God to their relatives, neighbors, and colleagues?

I think I have part of the answer. 

First let me say that I was among the group I question.  Thus, I have a concept to the answer.  I was frozen in fear.  It was easier for me to live in the guilt of neglect than it was to live under the threat of risk.  I'd rather fail not trying than to flop at fumblizational effort.  Sad; but that's how it was for this preaching school grad.

Today I believe that the reason so many just can't teach another is our doctrine has become such a mix of man and God that we can't sort the Truth.  Furthermore, we feel guilty for wondering if part of what we believe has come from man in the first place.  Thus, we hide in church works to avoid personal participation in the Great Commission.

Basically, our people can't explain why we do what we do from the Word because some of what we do doesn't come from the Word.  Communion every Sunday and only Sunday, no instruments of music, no choirs, men only pray and make announcements.  No testimonies and certainly not women if such is allowed.  No Holy Spirit allowed in many congregations. 

Trying to follow the N.T. church pattern except for those major things we claim have ceased.  We go by the Bible except for those things we can't actually turn to a verse to prove.  Thus....we would be better off to back off for what we staunchly believe in places finds the ice has already melted and we have already fallen through.

By the time we get done undoing what the early church did, our people are so confused we fundamentally give lip service to teaching the lost.  We know it ought to be done; yet for the likes of ourselves we can't figure exactly what that might look like and sound like.

While this may sound terribly rudimentary, I can tell you from successful experience that it is allowable and effective to teach another only that which you know for sure.  You don't need to be cornered by their sticky-wicket questions, nor do they need to be presented your sticky-wicket wanderings.  Let the Word speak for itself.  It does a wonderful job.

The reason we aren't teaching others personally as our belief system professes and our lip-service confesses is because we are too lazy to study the Word deep enough to find out where we got what we got.  To relax and let the Bible be the Bible is to gain the courage to offer the good news of Jesus without hesitancy.  He knows how to save souls.....still.

THE GIFT WE GIVE....REALLY

Money.  Service.  Counsel.  Transportation.  What are some of the many ways we as Christians truly give to those around?

For me the thing I conscientiously give is that I believe in people.  We want others to know that if no one else does, we believe in them.  This is gold. 

How many do you think interact with us who feel they are failures?  Or, at least are failing?  How many live in mistaken comparison and conclude less than truthfulness about their value?

I believe that even those we tend to mark as successful, or beautiful, or influential have grave doubts about themselves.  That's a secret I know in effectively working among the rich and famous.  I know many doubt themselves and wish they were like someone else.  Odd, don't you think?  The infamous feel precisely the same.

This move of faith is to be especially applied to children.  They are constantly looking for signals that they are okay as is.  Must they live wishing they were like someone else? They really need us to believe they are valuable.....remarkably valuable.  Living in comparison wreaks havoc with all of us.  When we compare incomes, cars, houses, jobs, locations, etc., God says we are without understanding...II Cor. 10:12.

If you want to do something with immediate return, believe in one who feels he or she is a failure.  Isn't that what Jesus did?  A man up a tree that nobody regarded?  Jesus went to his house.  A woman at a well with a sordid past?  Jesus ask for her help.  Jesus asks us to believe that he believes in us.  This is major.

The gift we give others is to believe in them when they just can't believe in themselves any longer.  Prisoners and homeless.....these are in such need of eyes---believers eyes---that see.  And you....I think you get more done when others believe you can get more done effectively.  That's what I think you do....great stuff for others.  It's your gift.

THAT GAME I PLAY...FOR A REASON

I'm soon headed for my 28th year of baseball camp with former Cardinal stars.  Over this time I have learned quite a bit; how muscles deteriorate and reflexes evidently rapture.

There are so many amazing experiences coming from this venture I can hardly count them.  Learning of the first baptism after the very first camp still enthuses me.  Curt Flood voluntarily treated me as a brother to the extent of him speaking at Memorial Drive and then me speaking at his (our) mom's funeral and then at his was such an honor.

Friends galore have filled the locker rooms over the years.  And, spills as galorish have filled the base paths.  I've spoken in Cardinal chapels, appeared on ESPN twice and local TV stations as well as St. Louis ones countless times.  News and magazine articles have covered our unique ministry.  Even books have resulted.  The work keeps plowing fields and sowing seed.

I take a very big ribbing from the pros.  I'm an easy target because of my occupation, my humor, and my lack of skills.  Two years ago I was one of four (categories) to win a Legends batting award and when the emcee got to my name in announcing the winners, his exact words were, I don't believe this next one. 

Here's what I enjoy the most.  I volunteer to become ribbable; to the weak I became weak.  I don't mind.  If I did mind it would get much worse.  But the thing that matters to me is that when crisis happens...and it has...they turn to me for direction.  From the tragic floods in St. Louis during one of our camps to the wife of one of the players dying during camp, they lean our way.  God just has a way.

These pros pester me to death with jeering and laughter.  But when it comes time to count as my friends....they jump to my aid.  God lets me do what many dream about.  I am grateful....really grateful.  The doors this ministry has opened can't be counted....there are so many.

The bottom line is souls have been won.  That's what the game I play is about.  It is very rewarding to me to watch door after door open.  I don't have to force it.  I don't have to beg it.  God simply works in a place where few would have guessed it would work....in a baseball camp.

MAYBE THIS IDEA WOULD WORK WHERE YOU ARE?

Memorial Drive is preparing for another hopeful day of baptisms.  We have developed Baptism Sunday.  Throughout the year we have baptisms on various days and at all hours.  We are clear that baptism is available at this place....for it is a place to start life over. 

God led us to something years back which continues to work.  We set a target date on our calendars...no particular time of the year as this time it happens to be February 27th....as Baptism Sunday.  I will teach a class for the four Wednesday nights in that month; the basics about one being born again.

We have announced such plans the last two Sundays.  Talk is spreading like a rumor as various ones inquire and indicate their interest.  We never know who will be there until we show up for class #1.  And, we never know who will be baptized until we reach that day.

But here's what makes it work.  With an actual date targeted, for some reason people seem motivated to take action.  This just helps them make a decision to move on that which God has been whispering to them along the way.

There will be some who go through the class and will not be baptized that specific Sunday.  But it will happen down the road.  At least it has so far.

This is a simple idea that works.  It allows the members have a goal/date in talking to colleagues and relatives.  One woman emailed me this week and said, I heard your announcement yesterday and I'm in.  I have one question.  Since I was baptized at age 6 in the Baptist church, will you allow me to be baptized again? 

Ah, that's why we will study.  So many have questions about their earlier faith.  I visited with a middle-aged man who has attended with his wife for years.  I said to him, Friend, I want you to know that I'm teaching a class on baptism during the February Wednesday nights.  I really think it's time you be there.  It's your call....but I think you are ready. 

I truly meant such with no pressure.  I wanted him to have the confidence he could benefit.  I surely hope he will.  If not this time....then down the road.

We simply look at the Word and give them great room to decide in response from their own hearts.  Maybe this idea would work where you are?

THE BRIDE TOLD TO SIT DOWN AND ABIDE QUIETLY?

Churches of Christ are paying a huge penalty---unfathomable---for the false doctrine evolving from a couple of centuries back regarding the cessation of Holy Spirit activity among common believers.  When the debate was over, the Spirit was fundamentally eliminated except for reading of Him in the Word....the Word He inspired to teach of His activity.

He revealed through the writers He inspired that He could be quenched.  He has been.

All that is left once this amputation is fulfilled is for man to engineer his own plot and maneuver his own trail without the leadership of the living God....literally.  Mystery yields to explanation and power succumbs to loves me/loves me not kids' play.

Ceased.  Yeah, that was our word to our young leaders?  Ceased?  Over?  God's done?  No more uncontrollable and unmonitorable participation of the Spirit God?  God has brought us into a lower-keyed Age where His resolute glory, the church, is a rather subdued and even a stiff non-participant doing our best to get by from closing prayer to the next opening prayer?  This is what we are to expect of His bride?  Arthritic timidity?

And we are to believe this?  The God who could part seas or walk on them?  The God who could sling a pebble into the forehead of the G-Bully or transform a Pebble into a church leader?  Done.  Ceased. 

We are now to read the Bible, pass the exams, and go do nothing but basically stand with our behavior clipboards at the church door and determine whom we are to fellowship and which ones we do later decide to disfellowship....for we are all about right and wrong?

Except....for the gullible wrong we took in through hoodwinkery which stole the Residential God from our midst.  Yes, big voices with persuasive influence successfully shielded us from those villains (?) who would wish to make us believe God actually and actively operates among His people?  How dare someone be so...so...naive as us to believe such?

Notice....we pay a costly and heavy price for buying into this brotherhoodwinkery.  The Holy Spirit desires to work with and among us today.  Period.

Those big voices haven't been easy to push against.  But pushing must be done.  We are hungrier than ever to see our Lively God take center stage in a world filled with egos and dead-end philosophies.  This includes our egos and dead-ends. 

Awaken and remain awakened to a truth that has been awaiting in the Word to just be believed....the Holy Spirit of God awaits to release His power in the inner man that we might understand we are to live in the fullness of God so that He can do more than we can ever dream according that power that resides and operates directly in us....Eph. 3:14-21.

The penalty of failing to let Him work among us....leaves us to try the work on our own.  Big penalty.

BELIEVERS OR BELEAVERS----PART II

As have you, I've been pondering my post a few days back regarding the exodus of so many from the church.  As you, I yearn to see a stabalizing force reverse the exit ramp.  Such can be done.  There is a God in heaven and it can be done.

Something simple occurred to me this week; thus I toss it your way.  Could the inherited doctrine of demanding the Holy Spirit be shelved affect these who are beleaving?  The Holy Spirit is discussed and experienced in my circle; yet even that topic is only in kindergarten stages.

Could it be that the back door is largely due to no life?  Beleavers just can't hang in there any longer when there is more life at a football game than at a church assembly? 

The Word declares law kills and the Spirit gives life.  If the Spirit is not allowed then from whence comes life?  Works?  Well...that is surely tried (even today).  However, listen to the grumblings and rumblings of many of those workers....because the life of God's Spirit isn't in them?  Could this be?  Rather a fleshly committment to work for the Lord is?  Possibly?

Over the last two decades God has made significant effort to gain our attention toward the third limb of the Trinity.  We are seeing advancement.  But we are way behind.  Until we shift unto the Spirit of God all efforts, plans, and organizational approaches will fall from the mantra of death.  Life is due to the Spirit of Jesus and nowhere else.

We are trying to saves lives.  The Holy Spirit possesses a response of which nothing else knows.

RI IS A COVER-UP FOR OoA.

I don't know how it goes in church leadership around the country.  Personalities surely still clash.  I'm sure diverse opinions are challenged to meet on Harmony Street.  Such is the nature of all who operate in some mode of kingdom effort.

What I'm about to tell you hasn't happened to me in over two decades.  Its action, though, still strikes me with a very great (or grave?) sting.  I had never encountered this term I'm about to divulge until working in the midst of hornet's nested church leaders.  I speak of one being Righteously Indignant.

Jesus was indignant once (at least) when the disciples were shooing the children away.  This evidently became the licensing bureau for hot tempered men and women to lose our cool.  We could let the fur fly under the cover of being righteously (just like Jesus) indignant. 

Not so fast.

This is basically a sham in order to allow the flesh nature room to practice its blemishhood.  Righteous Indignation is usually used to excuse and reclassify the darkness of the flesh deed, outbursts of anger (Eph. 5:20).  I've spread a little righteous indignation in my day.  And...I've been spread upon.  In each incidence it was a cover up for permissive anger outbursts.

When this reclassification has been most difficult for me to receive are those moments when the one practicing his RI was doing so in front of his cronies.  He was showing off.  Sorry folks.  RI is a cover-up for OoA. 

We will all do better to work on and out our differences from the fruit of the Spirit rather than the urgings of the flesh.

OUR TALENTED FAMILY....SORTA

Our son, Dusty, and his family are moving to the Campus Church near Atlanta this Spring.  They sent a video ahead. 

They are a Movie Star family.....sorta!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70bjcg0wCB0&sns=em

WILL THEY BE BELIEVERS OR BELEAVERS?

I am alarmed.  I am concerned.  I am very sad.

Three reports sit upon my desk; Pew Sitter, Megathemes from the Barna Group, and an article from Christianity Today.  All confirm what we already know.  Christianity is losing souls out the back door.

I must be more than...well....let me say I am more than alarmed.  I want to know what is going on and what we need to do to help.  While these reports offer no surprises, I call all of us to stir our hearts for God's possible solutions.

Compared to the ages of those beleaving the fastest, I am old.  However, I'm hungry.  I yearn to know what is needed to claim these wonderful hearts....and keep them.  The solution must be God's on the basis of His wisdom and passion.  It cannot be of our modern psychology or spiritual habit...unless such are aligned with Him.

We who are 40 and older must evaluate what we are doing which might be contributing to this negative trend.  It would be more convenient to blame the beleavers.  Yet, could the fault lie within the household of we believers?  It very well could....and most likely is.

I see trends I don't like which cause me concern about that age group.  I might be of proper judgment.  Again, I might be operating from my natural assessment rather than the Spirit one.

Would some of you volley thoughts you have...especially what you see changing/working which might awaken leaders as myself who want to see a transformation of beleavers becoming believers?

WHAT KEEPS THE HEART NEW?

Paul's comment of II Cor. 4:18 is a live wire to me; especially in its context of suffering is a productive force among believers.  Daily renewal is present because God is present.  We get to be newer today than we were yesterday.  We live a perpetual rebirth.

How this happens is God's secret and mystery.  I surely enjoy it.  It is fun being 63 and feeling the aliveness of 3.  Not all childlikeness is negative; just the childish part.  But being like a child in our eagerness and gladness and energy is so the life of God.

What is there about a believing heart that feeds its renewal?  First, it is totally God; His style, will, and formation.  Second, a tool He seems to use to keep us there is directly connected to our interaction with the poor plus the realization of our own spiritual poverty.  Blessed are poor ropes us in.

The more we fear being with the poor and the more we avoid the poor a direct correlation will be of weakening hearts for the drive of God.  As one is moved to give to the underdog, the heart opens.  And then when one interacts with the same, a heart of compassionate understanding and sympathy turns the heart valve to wide open.

The best thing for our kids, adults, and all skeptics is to put them in the line of where Jesus stood...with the poor.  Resistance might be experienced by a few but the more we hang out with these special people the more we come into direct contact with the will of God.

What keeps the heart new?  People.  Helping, touching, and encouraging people puts us advantaged!  Why?  This is the very thing for which we were designed....people blessing people.  Earth is not about Bible-Bowl moments of scripture recitation and participation.  These elements groom us to be equipped to apply God's principles to....people. 

If we have a knowledge of the Bible that does not put us in the center of people, we have misread the Word.   As a result our hearts will not be strong enough to effectively reach the one or the many.  Renewed hearts seem to continue because we make efforts to apply our faith toward helping the many in great need.

HURT FEELINGS ALONG THE WAY

I'm one of the screwiest men you'll ever find serving in the capacity of minister.  I can't figure how I've ever survived the church or how it has survived me.  It surely must be the gigantic grace of God. 

When I started out I had been in the church four years.  I wasn't a know-it-all.  I was much worse.  I was a didn't-know-it-any and I had Preaching School test scores to prove it!  If it would have been a three-year school instead of two, surely I would have become a drop-out statistic.  I struggled to "get it" as to how we concluded what we concluded from the Bible. 

Oddly, I believed we were the only ones right and I was proud of it.  It was just that I couldn't get a grip on many of our formulas that got us to where we were.  All I knew was the others were wrong and we were right and I wasn't going to be one of those weak sort who didn't go by the Bible.

In this mix of immaturity was my ultra-sensitive personality that took shadows as enemies.  I was unapproachable for any duty of conflict.  I had strong feelings but could not withstand opposition.  One of the things my original elders at Memorial Drive kept telling me was that I was too sensitive.  Well....that really offended me.

Yet, they were right on target.  And it was my perpetual struggle with some of their decisions which began to help me grow out of these hurt feelings.  I guess one could say I had a lot of practice. 

This plague of hurt feelings has never really left me.  I'm terribly sensitive.  I break out in a rash simply over mispronounced announcements (Kidding)  (Sorta).  But I have noticed myself improving. 

II Cor. 12:5-10 began to enlighten me about this.  Conflict is an important ministry factor.  Who in ministry doesn't have such abundant importance?  However, it is there for us.  Antagonism is there for our benefit; to keep us humble and also dependent upon His grace.  We learn through personal frustration that the power we yearn for only comes in the form of weakness. 

Hurt feelings do appear along the way.....so don't let them go to waste.  They are our God-signals that we can't but He can.  So don't be discouraged...and for heaven's sake stop your pouting....as all those arrows coming your way to sting a bit are valuable in the sight of God.

Been chewed out lately?  Good.  You had it coming.

INVISIBLE PRESENCE

Today is one of our favorite of all; it's Sunday.  With tremendous anticipation, we watch for the cars to roll into the parking lots and the tens, and hundreds, and thousands empty into our church buildings.  We are excited.  Rightly we should be.

This is a time for leadership to be invisibly present.  I speak of the preacher and the worship leader.  This is a daunting task for we are us.  Yet, it is imperative we be up front and as unseen as possible.

How?  By letting the attention be upon the Son of God through singing, communing, and preaching.  Christ is to be honored and, thus, God glorified.  There's a way to do it.  The two staffed worship leaders we've had at Memorial--Allen French and Shane Coffman--are ideal at leading the songs without drawing undue notice.

A move they make which helps is to sing a round of songs without their commentaric interruptions. 

I encourage all of us who stand before the assemblies to do what we can to let the Spirit of Christ be seen from His invisibility while, we at the same time, do what we can to be noticeably undistractive.

TRENDS

On December 13 the Barna Group Research came out with what they call six megathemes.  I value this group as their grasp of the present culture can signal both open and closed doors for our outreach.  The first one is my focus, The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate.  A synopsis of their elaboration is that fewer are aware of basics to the point they are not sure how faith is to be integrated into their lives or how the Holy Spirit is to be more than symbolic and iconoclastic.

I see two reasons this first point is developing: (1) Unbelievers don't know to read the Word, and (2) believers don't know to read the Word.  Unbelievers (as I once was) don't realize the Bible has a message.  They really believe it is a nice book to be respected; but overall they have no idea why.  Believers who ignore the Word (as I once did) do so because man's traditions have blurred Holy Truth.  We struggle to see His thoughts for the bombarding of historical figures (past and recent) who had large (self)authoritarian voices.

Preachers, teachers, elders, and parents, we will do well to heed Barna's observations.  The Group is giving us a clue...an important clue.  Stay with the Word.

FYI, the other five of the megathemes are:

1. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented.
2. Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.
3. Among Christians, interest in participating in community action is escalating.
4. The postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
5. The influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives is largely invisible.

FAITH: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

Faith is life-changing; life-altering.  The ground of life shifts for the good when faith becomes authentic in its application to ones daily movement. 

While it admittedly is invisible, it is surely a legitimate concept within the human framework.  Activity is affected by either its presence or its absence.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, wrote the Hebrew writer.

So how does one function differently by possessing faith compared to not having it?  One of faith moves about believing as fact what isn't seen at the moment.  Until this action begins to work, faith could merely be a fictional Sunday School concept.  But faith works; it is active and makes a difference for the one believing.

Let's say two people don't get along.  A hope-so faith will wait to see if things work out; but will not operate as such until it happens.  Faith sees it has already happened and those who choose to believe find their talk and their walk to be one of resolution...even if only one believes it.  God must have a believer in the mix.

This is a tough concept for us because we don't care for the name-it and claim-it philosophy.  I hedge on such myself.  Yet, this is where we mistakenly toss too much from the bath water.  We are to believe what we can't see.  We are to believe what isn't (yet) as is.  We are not to use such a doctrine flim-flamically.  But I believe faith is bigger and stronger and wider reaching than what we tend to accept.

We believe un-things into existence.  This is God's teaching in Romans 4:17ff.  It isn't that we possess a faith in our faith.  We believe God can do what can't be done.  He measures much by our faith. 

I think faith makes a big difference.  Yet, we are guilty of practicing more of tossing-the-dice doctrine mixing crossing one's fingers and wishful thinking.  Faith takes work, imagination, and conviction....in the talent and skill of God.  He can.  He is able.  And...He is ever on the watch to find those who believe Him.

Faith isn't one of the five steps.  It is to be a new way of life.

PREACHERS: WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

We no more than complete the delivery of a sermon and the next one is clamoring for our attention.  Due to this occupational perpetuity, we must stop and ask ourselves WHAT ARE WE THINKING?

The reason I bring this up is because if we are not careful we will be driven to fill up the time.  Three points and an invitation will become our goal.  Thus our thinking is misdirected and the church is stuck to the point they are the ones taking up the time....just counting the minutes 'til we GET DONE!

What we should be thinking is not outline but people.  Did God send Jesus because He was responsible to be a sender or because He loved people?  Did Jesus commission the disciples to go into all of the world because he, himself, enjoyed travel?  Or, was it because he had people in mind?

Preaching shifts from neutral into forward gear when we apply our thinking toward the people; what they need.  Every week I think, What would God give me to give these faithful as well the these visitors hope?  My goal is people.  My message is healing hope.....every time I speak.

Shouldn't our goal be to think about God?  Yes.  We are to think about God's will for our work which is to reach people.  People are the target; not three-point outlines.

If not careful we will be like students who never learn anything because they are busy trying to pass the test.  A student's goal is to grow in knowledge of the subject being taught.  The pressure of passing fits our pressure of filling up the time. 

Yet we have a greater calling.  We are called to think about the hurting, the hopeless, and the lost.  We are called to think like God would think...about the stability and need of people.  The Jewish leadership wanted Jesus to be devoted to law.  Jesus was obsessed with assisting....people.

Preacher: what are you thinking?  One will give life while another will dispense meaningless boredom.

THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF GEARING UP

Ministry is as odd as Jesus.  We can know tidbits and facts only to discover the more we learn the further behind we really are.  I am not gaining at all.   Truthfully, I'm losing ground...in the best possible way.

Confidence is a component everyone wants; none more than me.  The bigger the vision of His work the greater I find the downward spiral.  I'm losing confidence.  And....well I should.

Steadfast assurance is slipping through my fingers like sand.  Of course I speak of confidence in myself...it is surely fading at optimum speed.  Yet the blessing of this downward spiral is that I am gearing up for greater confidence in Him.  I must have it.  I want it!

I am confident that my confidence must decrease that I might allow His to increase.  Someone else felt similarly, don't you think?

In two days I hope to have the Tulsa Workshop program D-O-N-E.  As it nears completion, I feel empty.  What if I didn't hear Him correctly?  What if I've completely missed the direction of the Spirit.  Nothing about me believes I can do this job. 

However....and it is a major however....the Spirit of God knows how to make the fumblings of frailty dance with life.  I must.....I just must pull for the hope that God can deliver life-changing hope regardless of my downward spiral. 

It is a stressful walk of fear and hope to hunger for His approval over this labor.  When you think of it...would you pray for the Tulsa Workshop?  By the measure of its opponents one can be inclined to believe it is a work of God.  Such is over my head.  I merely want to bless all with His call to the highest form of man-walk....that of resurrection power.

The loads we carry are intentionally designed for downward spirals that we may grow in confidence--not in ourselves, but---in God.

FORCING THE KINGDOM

We are a naturally enthusiastic and ambitious sort.  We L-0-V-E to see God's expansionistic approach.  We are thrilled over His moves.

And.....we should be!

Due to these energetic traits, we may find ourselves stymied by our hunger for movement.  This needs a word of caution.  God has a timing mechanism different from ours.  He may arrive immediately (as in response to the loaves and fishes) or He may dally (as in Jesus distancing himself at Lazarus' death).  We enjoy the former; yet the latter bugs us.  We even wonder if something about our faith is broken.

God works.  End of discussion.

He will be there.  Everything that goes on submits itself to all who love God and are called according to His purpose.  I think He said that!

Since we desire to see the kingdom mobilized in great and wide effectiveness, it is important that we refrain from forcing impositional labor which comes not from the Spirit but from fleshly guestimation.  God will be there.  We are not in charge of being in charge.

I have had to learn to measure my walk to fit with His quickness and His slowness.  To Him, He is neither.  Such is an earthy gage; not a heavenly one.  So be encouraged.  God is neither slow, slack, tardy, or running behind.  He is right on time.

Do what you can to allow God to operate from your vessel without forcing the kingdom.  You'll like life a whole lot better.

LISTEN CAREFULLY....YOU MAY HEAR THE GROAN, TOO.

Do you hear the groan? 

I hear it. 

I've heard it since the mid-80s when I began to realize I was a young and ambitious Pharisee.  We (I) were driving souls away.  On the same scale as buck Saul of Tarsus, we were killing Christians' hearts.  We meant to.  We wanted to.  We were strong.  It was they who were weak.

And now the moans. 

We succeeded as we had wished.  We drove them away.  They had done nothing wrong but men like me pounded until they finally gave up....and walked away.

Oh, they said they needed to do this and were looking for that because they didn't realize what had happened.  They had been killed in church.  The law was brought in.  The Spirit was disfellowshipped...and they all died.

Do you hear the moans?

I hear them. 

I hear the strains of many we now categorize as lost in our communities; former members we call them.  They are lost.  They think the law church was as it claimed; the right church.  But they moan for something about them could not keep up with the dutiful legalists.  You know; women can't wear pants suits and they better not pray.  You know; if the giving didn't happen on Sunday it was a sin.  You know; three times a week is....well, we don't need to explain it further.

Do you hear the moans?  I hear them.  They aren't only coming from the masses who were driven out by church sheriffs.  The moans also come from men like myself who hammered in the name of Truth without regard for love in the name of the cross.

To my shame...I hear the moans.

THE SEDUCTION OF OUR FAITH

Faith goes places.  Opposition wants such travel stopped.  Therefore, a great lure comes at us to dumb down our faith?

How?

Two cousin-words worm their way into our thought formalities; fear and safety.  Faith is uniquely about risk.  It dares to be confident in results which have yet to be seen.  Fear imposes itself through intimidation and even threat.  Safety, then, becomes the criteria for life. 

Fear and safety both freeze and warm.  Odd, don't you think?

Fear freezes our faith by its propaganda to keep one from launching into activity which is, for the most-part, unknown territory.  What could go wrong?  What might happen?  What if...?  These are freeze warnings.

Safety, on the other hand, warms the heart.  No threat.  No risk.  No mistakes.  It is simply cuddle time in the kingdom of an aggressive God.

All of this can be reduced to one's stand; under law or under Spirit.  The law is the great seducer of faith.  Mark off the chart of religious duties without touching another person in the form of help; especially the poor.  The law can count its responsible deeds and sit back without damage to heart or conscience. 

The Spirit, though, will lead us into storm warnings, Don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you.  Spirit versus law is what one notices about Jesus as he stood in the garden and plead for safety; yet yielded to action.

You are targeted my friend.  Really.  You are called by the Living and Robust God to go into zones where you might not come out alive unless He quickens you.  In these very settings one finds His words true once again, If you lose your life you will find it.

CHURCH LIFE

A challenge before us is nothing new.  Yet, we must continue to keep it before us lest it become old hat. 

The nature of a stagnant church is to step back and set down.  While I no longer feel the call to press and pressure any of His saints, I do see the obvious need to keep fires lit in individual hearts for both mobilization as well as globalization.  We must grow in our attitude of keeping the church body nimble for action.

Such movement is not for the sake of keeping our joints limber, but for the sake of covering earth with the vital nature of Jesus. 

American churches are accustomed to joining and sitting with a few who launch with servanthood vision.  Not true of the King's church.  We are gathered to cheer one another on in order to exit with readiness to function as did Jesus in each intricate social circumstance.

May 2011 find you rejoicing in the King and doing much to activate the body of Christ for the purpose of causing astounding glory to Father.

SOME ARE AT THE WELL....THIRSTY. OTHERS ARE HIGH IN THE TREES TRYING TO GET A BETTER LOOK.

My plans for 2011?  To win a few.

In 2011 I plan to become all things to all men that I might win a few.  I plan to intentionally connect with those in my natural surroundings by giving attention to....them.  It is an easy life in Christ.  Be interested in the people God places in your path.

There was the woman at the well.  And then how about that man up a tree?  Jesus didn't go door-knocking (and it isn't illegal to do so).  He went through life with his Father's eyes intentionally connecting to the huddles and masses and lone strangers.

In 2011 I look forward to running into the Scotts and the Kylas and the Dorises and the T.J.s of 2010.  Some were at the pantry and others up a creek.  And...Jesus was there in our various members of his body.

In becoming all things to all men of I Corinthians 9, I am mostly the weak; I became weak that I might reach the weak.  That's the easiest and most natural.  I am naturally nothing and such goes over so good with those who feel the same about themselves. 

Regardless of your position or non, view 2011 with enormous hope.  Several will bump up against you with their thirsts and their inability to see clearly.  Notice them.  Let God use you for such times as these.

WHEN OUR BACKS ARE AGAINST THE WALL

There is grave danger in everything going right.  After awhile our dependency upon the Lord diminishes as we subtly take on an air of personal skill-set provision.  It is when our backs are against the wall with no way to be self-provisionary that we get to see who really runs the show; God.

When visions and dreams strike a leader in the church we tend to look to the bank balance to see if we can first afford it.  This is the beginning of a man-made venture.

One of the several things I enjoy about our elders at Memorial is their detachment from materialistic provision over this flock.  If God doesn't do it via some person or circumstance, it won't get done.

I recall a time when we were in pretty slim straights financially at this congregation.  A poor college girl who had no family here gave the church a check for $17,000 without restrictions.  A gift!  A surprise gift from one least expected.  We are still blessed by her timely move as she followed God's urge.

Don't be discouraged when you have a deep need and you just don't know how.  God knows about you just as He is verifying it by this article.  How did He know you needed to read this right now?  Oh...He has a way!

It is His very way that puts smiles on our faces and adrenalin in our faith muscles.  We may be pinned in by a wall too high and an army chasing us.  It matters not.  With God there is always His talent to part the sea on the other side which we assume would cause us to drown.

Is your back against the wall?  Don't flinch.  God is simply pruning you of your assumed essential provision.  Your way won't cut it.  So don't labor long in your weak management skills.  Look to Him.  He has a blessing coming every moment of every day. 

Our backs aren't against the wall.  Our God has our backs.  We just assumed it was a wall.  Our backs are up against God....the Great Provider!  Walls...our opportunites to notice Him.

HOW MIGHT WE MOVE INTO THE LOVE OF JESUS?

Who would disagree that we should love like Jesus?  We are free to give lip-service and song-service to go tell it on the mountain or I'm in the Lord's army.  Yet, de-roosting of the pews is surely a goal of all churches.

So how do we accomplish this meaningful task?

There seems to be an interchanging word for love.  It would be care. God so cared that He gave.  God cared about us.  We will love when we care and we will care when we love.

So how do we accomplish this meaningful task?

Sermons will support.  Bible study will help.  To put legs on the task we may find placing our people in the line of the poor is what opens the hearts the quickest.  Impact is felt when hearts begin to feel.  The body of Christ is a feeling system...everyone kept feeling the sense of awe..it is written of the church's opening day.

The church is both emotionally based and emotionally charged.  Both have been siphoned by "church correctness" and "decent and in order" propaganda.  Our people have frozen for fear we might get service wrong.  We have been reduced to mere "clock in" "clock out" for so long that we have let the tenderness of the body of Christ wane.

How we move into the love of Jesus is to realize, first, this is an emotional matter.  The church always needs deep-seated emotion.  Indifference is a lack of emotion; a lack of care, a lack of love.  What breaks indifference is to stand face to face with a poor person in need of your care.  We stand together in our little acreage and find that we care.   Our immediate response is to give.

God so cared for the world He gave.  Giving hearts love people, root for people, and move for people.  How we might move into the love of Jesus is to hang out with those whose life isn't going well rather than only those of our social level where we are getting by.

GOD'S SHIPMENT OF POWER RIGHT BENEATH OUR NOSES

And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

God causes is a mighty statement.  The only reason all things (distress, failure, disappointment, etc.) work for us is because of God's innate capacity to turn lemons into lemonade.  We got it from Him!

So where you live, try not to waste God's shipment of power through the cargo system of ruggedness or strain.  Neither are something one rids; but rather precisely designed power to be used.

All things.  Arguments.  Disagreements.  Varying opinions.  Hurt feelings.  Relationship violations.  These are not to be ignored.  They carry as much kingdom value as harmony and justice and honor.

Life is being wasted when such cargo is assumed discardable.  None of it is.  Everything works together for the good of all who see and serve God.

We are not just mighty in successful deeds; but also in horrendous malfunction.  Leaders, I think, are different from followers in this vital area.  Leaders are not manipulated by circumstances; but rather are fueled by them.

Life is right under our noses.  Do what you can not to miss it.

DO YOU THINK WE ARE LOSING GROUND?

Does anyone else get those gnarly sensations that we are not making a dent in this fallen society?  Such could seem legit.  News reports of tragedy plus threat bombard our minds...unless.  Unless...we have filled our minds ahead of time with the news from Heaven Live...that journal eerily inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Reporters David and Daniel, Peter and Paul, and others promote an entirely different concept....hope.

I think daily earth reports (II Cor. 12:7 references these messengers from Satan) are designed to both detract and distract from the faith-armies of God.  Abundance of progress is being made.  Souls are being more than saved; they are being transformed into glorious soldiers of the cross.

From the Mid-East to the Mid-West, small group Bible studies are cropping up in magnitudinal measurement.  Such students are serious about their mission.  There is a serious move of believers arising to bravely and confidently challenge the opposition of our time.  God's righteousness is be heralded. 

Be assured the gaining of ground is neither imaginary nor weak.  Substantial sowing of kingdom seed is arising world-wide.  People are adoring the Father, believing the Son, and empowered by the Spirit.  Change---real hopeful change---is taking place in all nations. 

Do you think we are losing ground?  Consider books and journals and blogs cannot report all that is being accomplished by God today.  As the Bible emphasizes that the world could not contain all of the reports of Jesus' works when he was here.....it still can't. 

Be encouraged.  God is happening and those connected to Him are in the winning mode!

DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS OF THE MONUMENTAL DEATH?

Just in case you haven't watched the local news, or the world ones for that matter, a major death has taken place which will affect each of us.  A highly sought criminal has been charged, arrested, and most promptly executed.  Fear has died.  Yes, the agony of harassment is all over folks.  No longer is there a need to lock the doors and windows to our dreams.

The twist to this fascinating news alert is that Fear is inherently tied to the conspiracy of Self.  As long as Self has the stage Fear has an audience.  The preemption of Fear is the death of Self.  When one dies, so does the other.

Congratulations to all conquerors.  You now have entered the Real Life known as the style of Jesus who did not live for himself but died and was resurrected.  When we each die to Self, resurrection--free from Fear--hits us square in the heart. 

Live Big!  Live Grateful!  Live Happy!  Live!

WOULDN'T THE 63RD TIME AROUND LOSE ITS LUSTER?

I love Christmas!

One of the things I like about God is He insists upon giving grown people child-hearts.  Count me in.  I know I am a child at heart and I have no plans of growing up or out of wonder, fascination, and awe.  This is a remarkable world we live in.

I really like AT&Ts slogan Rethink Possible.  The child-heart does not know marvel can't happen.  Growing old is too much about losing our enthrallmalicity.  On the other hand, growing young (II Cor. 4:16-18) is believing possibility becomes reality.

Do you know what I really like about Christmas?  Because of the surprises and astonishing moves of God, we experience it every day!  Christmas doesn't lose its luster regardless of our age.  Why?  Because God is all about celebrating the new...and new is a kingdom vitamin!

Merry Christmas!

THE VERY THING WE HAVE BOASTED WE AREN'T....WE MAY NEED

Have you ever heard it explained in great pride that we aren't a Reformation Movement, but a Restoration Movement?  The point that immediately tails such statements are Luther's Reformation Movement merely ended up in many divided denominations.  Our (RM) is better....more biblical...we conclude.

Reformation means to "reform", "re-do", or "re-make" because something is inherently wrong with the current.  We may be in need of the very thing we have boasted we are not....reformation.

For one, the Restoration Movement has delivered the same divisionary communities identical to the Reformation denominations with one exception; our various splitages insist on calling ourselves the same name---Church of Christ.

Our efforts to regain firm relationship with our living Lord is a pursuit which must not be adjusted.  The inserting of doctrines in the name of Jesus which are truly and merely doctrines of habit continue to debilitate the body at large.  Restoration and Reformation are dually needed.

What we didn't realize, in our earlier years, was that whatever we decided to believe became and what we decided to not believe didn't come about.  For those who believe firmly the Holy Spirit of God works in and with us today...He surely does!  However, for those who staunchly believe the Holy Spirit does no such thing; in their lives He truly does no such thing!

We have much to learn, much to ponder, and much growing to do.  All sensations of pride of having arrived calls for immediate repentance.  We want God to be free to roam upon us, with us, and for us.  Rigidity of habit will not permit the freedom of His call.

May we be about the receiving of His grace and the relenting of our stubborn stances.  The world awaits...and so do the authentic people called the church.

WHAT'S WORKING FOR US....AND WHY?

First, I want you to know I feel wonderfully weird in writing you through this blog.  I mean by that that I don't have a series of anything lined out to write about.  I just keep getting these impulses (that's all I know to say) of things I think might interest you.

So here's a weird one. 

Today I've been going through my routine of a very non-routine ministry.  I love the ins and outs, ups and downs (well, maybe not the downs...yet even they are kingdom useful) of working in a zone on earth I would at one time have never believed to be remotely a part of my life.  Now it is 24/7....and I am nuts about it!

It occurred to me this afternoon that we are so removed from the true scope of our work that we cannot declare what is working for us nor why.  God is in charge of these facts; these truths.

For example, of the many wonders I've encountered today, did they happen because I prayed this morning...or yesterday morning...or fifteen years ago and God is just now developing it?  Or, are our wonderful experiences happening because an inmate off in some forgotten prison hole two centuries ago devoted herself to prayer to the extent I was blessed today...and neither of us (she nor me) know of the connection?  Only God.

And what victories (ups) or defeats (downs) that happen to you tomorrow are not specially designed for one to be blessed in Singapore in 2075 who, at present, has not yet been born?

Who can wonder if a prayer by George Mueller decades back just came to fruition in Portland, Oregon this morning?  We can't fathom.  God runs the show.

My point?  Don't question your life---good or bad, favorable or non---but believe God is continually knitting away at His table making sense of the Larger Life which seems blurred to us right now.  We live a robust life of miracle after miracle....but some in our heritage robbed us by the abortion of our faith before it developed.  Shame on them.  But even that move can prove to be a cause of grandeur for God is the One leading...and funding...the parade.

Be blessed....from a thousand different moves that none of us would have ever guessed!  There is more going on with us than we can perceive....and it was God who said He would do more than we could imagine or think.  We may not be able to imagine it.  We may not be able to think about it.  But...we can believe it.

WHEN GOD MOVED IN

God created the world and delivered the Words by which humanity was to live.  Spectacularism and routine cohabitated for centuries.  And then....and then a startling thing happened.  God moved in.

God's move is a matter to behold.  He got His fleshly start in a barn.  I'm a farm boy.  I've worked many days in the barn.  Should you think God moved into a nativity scene, think again.  The barn is absent tablecloths and polyester drapes.  Among its many uses, the cattle barn is the sewage department of the farm.  One of the first barn rules for all farmers is, "Watch your step."

This is where God chose to move in.  His moves were astounding.  How we love to read of each account.  His semi-final ending was that of excrutiating pain from the rugged cross.  God moved in....with complete Alpha and Omega commitment.

We?  His followers?  Aren't we called to follow in his steps?  Thus, when living out the life of Christ within us, we can count on treacherous days where we help the down and out so much we, too, have to "Watch our step."  We too will find the Jesus-involvement will involve foul odor and probable injury. 

God moved in.  And when He did He burrowed in with the rough and tough stuff of humanity.  The church wants to the be true church from a distance.  In other words, we tend to not move in.  We want to help...but we would rather not smell. 

What I am seeing is the church is most alive the more it smells of working in the barn instead of donating at mall.

IS GOD OUR GOD?

The answer to the title question is obvious.  Or, is it?

I don't know about you but I find myself still growing in this area.  Of course God being my God has received much lip service; especially in songs.  Yet, as I look back I note maybe He was not actually at the top of the "hunger for" list.

Here's what might have inserted itself into His place in my walk:

• Performance.  I was not as concerned about God hearing from me in worship and adoration as I was getting my religious skills/duties sharpened.
• Reputation.  It was critical that all cross-sections of the brotherhood liked me.  Popularity was essential.
• Doctrine.  Of course it was absolutely crucial to believe the right things in the right way in the right order.  Being right was the pinnacle from which I vowed never to jump.  His righteousness for me was a non-essential for I could bring my own to the table...I thought.

Each of the above is important.  They are not God.  It took me a bit--a long bit--to realize I wasn't crazy about God; but was mesmerized by functioning well in front of Him.

My wrestle is the church's battle still today.  It is a dead-end alley to believe that getting our i-s dotted and our t-s crossed in precision pleases God if our hearts are vacant of complete adoration of His central being.  One of the things I pray every morning on my way to the office is for those driving alongside of me to acknowledge the God of our lives rather than drive throughout the day without a complimentary thought of gratitude toward Him.

Love the Lord your God---commandment #1.

THE SNARE OF JUDGING OTHERS

No one needs to be alerted to dangers of judging others....Mt. 7:1-5.  It can cost us our own souls...Jas. 2:13.  Yet, we seem addicted to this sin.  Worse, we don't regard it as anything heavy against the heart of God.  After all, everybody does it.

Judgment is a tough sin to break. 

Try---as hard as we must---not to be guilty of this.

The reason it is vicious is because it is completely without truth basis.  When we judge we do so from our own heart; not the victim's.  We tend to assess others according to how we would and why we would behave in those situations.  Thus we might come to conclusions based on our own wobbly, mediocre, or dark thoughts rather than knowing facts for certain. 

Assuming the motive for another's behavior from the markers from which we would do similarly can be a grave and mistaken assumption.

Perception, concern, etc. easily play into this zone....and they fit.  However, judging is simply a slippery path which can thrust us to quick and wrong conclusions about another because we didn't have facts; we made humanistic guestimates.

Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things....and do you  suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God (Rom. 2:1, 3)?

WE CAN'T POSSIBLY TAKE IT IN

God's glory....who can fathom?  God's range of work....who can report it?

The more we tell of God's doing the more He does.  It is that simple.

The way to fill the earth with His glory is to sow seeds of it by our speaking.  If we will but rumor His love we will gossip the world into spectacular life without limits for He inhabits His praise.

We can't possibly take in the fascination of God's varying talent, skill, and unspeakable productivity.

We lost ground when we used up our words to out-argue other Christian brands.  We gain ground when we form words of hope, and life, and great love.  These words are working words; creative in the nature of the Three!

Let the redeemed say so...the Psalmist advised.  Still on target.  Spread the Word.  God not only is not dead....He isn't even getting tired.  His handiwork is still handy....so handy we can't possibly take it in!

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU THINK ONE HAS DECIDED THEY DON'T LIKE YOU

Humans are a moody sort, huh?  Up one day.  Oh up three years!  And then one day---boom---not speaking, not responding; very distant.  What's this all about? 

I spent a lot of time in that prison.  I ain't easy serving time there; especially for one who wants EVERYONE to like him.  But...such is real life. 

So what shall we do? 

The solution is very simple; think upon all who do like you.  Give them your mind; not the one(s) who have some sort of social problem.  Theirs isn't yours to cure.  Theirs isn't yours to fix.  It belongs to them.  Hopefully they will one day return.  They often do.

In the meantime, treasure those near you who have neither abandoned nor punished.  They are in abundance and you can be glad....very glad.

IF YOU ARE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT....LOOK LIKE IT

(The one giving the announcements)

"Welcome to church today folks. We hope you enjoy your time with us. In order not to offend anyone, we ask that you not act like you are happy. We all have our druthers and preferences. We all want to get along so let's be sensitive to all today and just hold back any expression of joy. We are in church, you know."

While this tongue-in-cheek comment is ridiculous, I've been in settings where similar announcements really did happen. This is painfully unbearable.

Of all people we should be the ones who sense great joy...over-joy...and are free to express it!

When visitors gather in our assemblies, one of the first things I believe they ought to experience is that they have entered a place of joy. "Decent and in order" has served as church handcuffs to stop whatever it was that Sister Gert or Brother Bert didn't like. Yet to be assembled for the purpose of praising God without the element of joy is a misnomer.

I don't know what your main church doctrine is...to you. I would direct your attention to the truth that those dragging in from your community have endured enough pain and agony in the week past. May the start of their new week find that you are happy....you know it....and you look like it!

A shift from looking like we were weaned on dill pickles to that of chocolate would be a wonderful decent and in order improvement!

WHERE FAITH AND DOCTRINE AND HEARTS GROW

I spent the first two decades of my new-found faith trying to match up with verses and doctrines.  I was a basic failure.  My alignment was off, my spirit was unhappy, and my results were nil.

Over the years momentum has shifted to the point I live mesmerized at watching God work among us.  It is a new experience everyday.  He is proving Himself true when He had Paul write that we are new day by day.  We are!

Over the past few months I have been stricken once again by God's tender mercy toward me.  He has let me grow into another level of awe toward Him.

God has opened my heart eyes by letting me be among the poor.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus began his irreversible crusade.

Here's what I see; being with the poor is the walk of Jesus.  It is also the doctrine as well as the heart of discipleship.  The poor draw God.  Find a church growing and more times than not it will not be due to upper scale location nor spit-shined architecture.  It will more likely be due to the poor being touched by His majestic love.

Look at those who work with orphans, with food pantries, with clothes closets. Look.  Depth.  The heart of God, the doctrine of God, and great faith in God.

Where we have struggled over the years may be resolved (not in our moves to the right, left, or center) by shifting to the very doctrine the heart of God has cherished most....caring for the poor.

Building facades are supposed to say; Here we are.  Come join us!  But doctrinally enriched faith says, Where are the poor?  I must join them!

Merry Christmas.....reflecting upon that deed where God let His doctrine show by joining us....the poor and lost.

SANTA EVANGELISM

The more we talk about God working the more God gives us to talk about.

Even Santa opens doors and hearts within our immediate community!  I experienced a marvelous thriller last night at Memorial Drive.  Santa came to see us!  Oh, how many times have you been there done that?  That's what I thought, too. 

For the first time, we extended an invitation to the immediate community (through fliers at Lindbergh Elementary and our food pantry...plus our new digital lawn sign) for pictures with Santa.  David and Lisa Combs developed this idea with the expectation of maybe 10 to 100 visitors.

Whoa!  When the doors opened at 6:30 I counted 56 waiting in line.  Hundreds came.  It was a wonderful zoo.  We had one printer going and had to bring in another to send home the pictures of little ones with Santa.  Because the crowd was slightly delayed in getting their photos, it gave me time to work the crowds.  They were so appreciative, so polite, and told me they would like to be at church soon.

One of the scenes which touched me greatly was an older woman entering with her mentally handicapped son of about 45 years old.  I introduced myself and thanked them for being here.  The mother said, Oh we had to come to see Santa....he is soooo excited.  They were here for the man's picture with Santa.  It was adorable!

Santa will be back tonight for our Children's Christmas Program!  He will be a huge hit....again.  The more we talk about God working the more God gives us to talk about.

SURPRISE!

James commented two posts ago, Terry, I can't help but wonder if doing all these positive things caused some negative hearted people to leave your group, leaving behind more good hearted people who enjoyed and thrived in these activities? Or did everyone stay and find their relationships changed as they worked side by side rather than having face to face tension? Did cohesion come because you all forged a vision that included these activities and only those who shared the vision stayed? OR did cohesion come because carrying out the vision changed their hearts?



And then a Memorial elder responded, James Riley’s questions are interesting and thought provoking. Having passed through this time at Memorial I find myself occasionally musing in a similar vain. I can say I know of examples of each. My conclusion is it does not matter. God not mortal man is the source of such change. The answer to these questions matter as a means of measurement and/or comparisons that are not mine to control. Terry said, “I can't say exactly how God reversed our trend.” I think Terry would confirm one of the things He did was free us from worry over matters involved in answering these questions.

James, my answer to all of your questions is "yes". 

James' questions are so on target and David's response equalled them.  Our congregation went through extreme gyrations and victories and sweat boxes and celebrations!  One week we would be eating candy bars and the next would be sour pickles.  God had His hands full.  I still can't figure what happened or how it worked. 

But I know one thing I wasn't expecting happened.  Much more changing had to go on in my head and heart than I would have ever guessed.  I had no idea those holding back the work included me. 

Surprised me!

GOD SAID ASK....SO I DID

I want you to know a bit of behind the scenes with my new book--MVP!--that you might be encouraged when you continue to encounter brick walls. 

I worked on the manuscript for seven years.  It was difficult to sort my thoughts.  To put this time-line into perspective I had written ten other books in the last 20 years.  I had a nationally-known independent publisher lined up to do the book.  I was thrilled over this agreement.

However, six months before publication, Rich fell from a concrete deck and broke his neck and back.  He was immediately out of the picture.  But God.  God knows things.

I contacted another great friend who really didn't publish books; but he did manage a cracker-jack printing business.  Colin looked at the manuscript and liked it.  He put thousands of dollars into publishing the final product.  Yet we had no distributor.  Walmart wouldn't respond to my inquiries.  Neither would Mardell's Christian Books.  Barnes & Noble said no.  No stores will carry it....yet.

It could have appeared I was up a creek with only a book for a paddle.  But not the case.  No need to flinch in worry.  God said....

God said that when you need things ask.  So I did.  I prayed asking Him if He would be the distributor of my book for I didn't know where else to turn.

I spoke with Colin yesterday.  We can't explain it.  MVP! sales put us in the black within 100 days and still no store carries it!  Big-time book stores are crying because book sales are tanking (economy and Kindle) while we can't find an earthly distributor.  We can't figure...except for the One who told us to ask.

So be encouraged about your projects.  Go through the open doors and don't be deflated over the closed ones.  God runs the show...all shows. 

If you haven't gotten your copy of MVP! (Why You Are Most Valuable in God's Eyes!), but better get your Christmas order in now!

Order online: http://www.kellypressinc.com/  The book is going so well.  God said ask....so I did.

COHESION: A SIGNIFICANT MATTER

Pulling members alongside one another is very key regarding church health.  It is important to be together.  Such is clearly a New Testament thread.

Memorial struggled for several years.  Even our get-togethers were divided.  Work had to be done.

I can't say exactly how God reversed our trend, but He surely did.  Here are a few reasons:

• Children's Ministries....whether it be VBS, Fall Festival, or this week's Christmas Program, children bring adults into a special kind of unified goal; do a good job.
• Local Works....whether the teens are conducting Work Camp or adults are unloading and packaging food for Mary's Pantry, we have members applying their faith through works...side by side.
• Celebrations....Shane Coffman is key in this for Memorial.  The worship leader is such for you.  We don't assemble to put in our time but to celebrate the glory of God.  Last night we had our church Christmas Party.  The food, the preparation, the dressing up, the entertainment (?) and the mood were all a sampling of a church which enjoys being together.

But here's what I appreciate most about God's deliverance of cohesion among us.  In all of these events one will find non-members sitting among us simply enjoying life with us.  We have yet-to-be believers serving at the Food Pantry.  We have the same participating in some way in the entertainment.  We are building a growing family.

Cohesion is a significant matter....evidently the Three felt the same....Gen. 1:26, Rom. 8:9-11.

HE SAYS HE DOESN'T AGREE WITH ME. WHAT???????

Regarding my Friday morning post on The Favor of Doubt, this comment was left:

For the first time I find myself disagreeing with you. Perhaps I missed your thought, but what stood out was "doubt your whole faith system." Jesus said, "if you have faith and do not doubt" Mt. 21:21. I think we get stuck on traditions and our church formats and rituals and confuse that for "our faith." If you meant those things are what we should doubt, then I agree. But I basically think Seth Godin's statement is incorrect. Having been an entrepreneur, I acted in great confidence--not in doubt, or I wouldn't have taken the first step, nor do I believe others would.

Respectfully,
John P. Brown

I started to comment in the "comments" of that post in response to John.  But I didn't want his note to be lost in the comment graveyard and go without notice.

I love his response.  I want you to see it.  Here's one who graciously....doubted me.  What?  Me?  Absolutely.

John's points are fair.  His quote of Jesus is undeniable.  My post needed a bit of clarification. 

Indeed I was intending for us to doubt our faith system where the tradition of men, which crept in as Truth, might be flushed out.  Yet, John is correct.  Jesus was frustrated over lack of faith due to the presence of doubt.

But my main main point is to let you see that all of us have room to be questioned; certainly me.  And we should learn that such is perfectly all right.  God is right always.  We are on occasion.  So don't be surprised that anyone would question you.  Rather be thankful when they do it in the spirit John P. Brown did.

So, John P. Brown, if we ever meet (due to my appreciation for your kindness), I will let you buy me lunch!

IS THE HOLD-UP COMING FROM OUR SIDE?

Be encouraged about your work for God.  It is pregnant with hope.  Do not despair.  He has you and your needs in His sight.

I do believe His work is held up by us and not by His reluctance.  You know I don't understand Father's timetables nor do I come close to understanding His responses to our prayers.  But Jesus did say that matters of importance did not happen for some disciples because of weak faith.

In an age where we don't want to accept responsibility, we try to explain away---sometimes---why kingdom matters haven't developed.  Seldom do we admit we failed to believe God can.

Is the hold-up of progress coming from our side?  I think it surely must.  What happens when we engage in a God-project?  Immediate reason to be discouraged.  Some believe by enduring while others bail on the issue. 

We are a weak-faithed sort.  Not all and not always, understand.  But in general we tend to operate by "faith" according to our mood or reading of a situation more than according to the promises of God.  We are too careful to not blame God; so we blame and elder or a preacher or a teacher or a song leader or....when the real issue is God can't find one person in that church to believe.

So awaken to the wonder of it all.  When rugged terrain imposes itself upon your faith walk, I cheer you on to believe in God deeper, higher, wider, and farther.  Don't back up nor down.  Push.  Push.  Give birth to a new work in an old congregation by daring to believe---God needs one person to dare---that God can do the impossible. 

God can.  We can't; yet our calling is to believe He can.  That's the magic of ministry.  This is the fun of faith.  We need never give up!  You are connected to the Amazing God.  Believe like it!

THE FAVOR OF DOUBT

Larry Wishard sent me a quote of Seth Godin.  Take a look.

Living with doubt
... is almost always more profitable than living with certainty.

People don't like doubt, so they pay money and give up opportunities to avoid it. Entrepreneurship is largely about living with doubt, as is creating just about any sort of art.

If you need reassurance, you're giving up quite a bit to get it.


On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you'll have developed a great instinct.

There is healthy room for us to doubt ourselves.....and believe in God.  Independence (self-dependence) leaves one frozen in fear that we will mistakenly step.  Dependence (God-dependence) thrusts us into the true arena of belief where we can relax (Ps. 46:10) knowing He is God and we are not.

The church economy is in dire straights when living without the room to be wrong.  Doubt gives the church lungs room to breathe as true newborns.  Without knowing it, we have smothered much of our own potential by being fed perpetual "right" phraseology; We do church right, we have the right doctrine, and we are the church that is....right.  When these lines pelt the heart in repeated fashion one will begin to withdraw from risk.

We must learn to discern when to doubt ourselves in order to learn to not doubt God.  When this happens our verbiage takes a faith shift to, He does church right, He has the right doctrine, and He builds the church that is right.  By our leaps of faith, struggle, and doubt, it is our goal to partake of His wonderful Life!

Our Father is full of untapped Life.  There is gold in them thar hills!  Pharisaical rigidity has arrested the church and these rarely come out of their cells (shells); but only to be fed.  On the other hand, when a disciple can learn to doubt him or herself a new world of faith will open. 

We will forever learn.  Do you think heaven will be a place of only what we know?  How un-Life.  It will be eternity just to get over the first day of AWE!  So be it while we walk on earth.  Do yourself a favor.  Doubt your whole faith system and give God room to feed you what He may have been wanting to say for a long time.

The Truth will always be there.  Openness to it will always be our challenge.

HOW TO WEATHER OVERWHELMING STORMS

What is a person to do when life's billows want to bellow?

How much more roaring can some take?  Health.  Economy.  Relationships.  Don't they ever feel the need to talk with their "inside" voices instead of screaming?  Such clamor may not be a 24/7 things, but there is admittedly a lot of stress borne by each of us.

How do we weather these storms?  The good news is that there are ways.  For one, such moments are powerful times to exert our faith muscles.  We choose not to believe that these crises are the final statement.  We will operate from our possibility reserve. 

We recall the resurrection is a daily reality.  We possess resurrection power.  Now this is the point too many quit....they shut down in life.  Big mistake.  Dark times are simply those times of the grave.  Light, though, resounds from the resurrection potency of a believer. 

Paul and Silas did it in prison.  Praying disciples did it for Peter also in prison.  Jesus did it for the lame as well as the blind.  And then there was that time it was "growing dark" and 5000 wanted to eat.  Remember?

What are these stories to illustrate if not that overwhelming storms can be weathered? 

Eighteen years ago our family began a walk in a horrific storm.  Wendy's fiance and his brother were murdered.  By the time I got to the murder scene, my daughter had no appearance of blood in her body.  She was so pale she appeared embalmed.  It was a startling and stunning night of pure horror.

What a time for Jesus.  What a time to learn more about his ways.  What a time to learn to pray in thanksgiving when all indicators were the storm may not be over.  A picture of Bobby and Wendy was found on the stairway which indicated the murderer(s) knew her as well.  The police informed us of their concern. 

During the following days a squirrel happened to break into our attic.  It had the same sound as possibly a person up there...we couldn't tell.  We were given strict orders to call the police at the slightest unusuality.  We called 911 explaining we just couldn't tell if it was a person, an animal, or the wind.  Squad cars, dogs, and a helicopter soon surrounded our home. 

It was a living nightmare as media camped out in our living room and police patrolled our street.  A guard dog was brought in to live with us.  It made us sick.

But God.  God was remarkable.  He showed up.  He shared His promises of peace. 

I know you hurt over a few things; some of you many things.  I believe your evaluation.  Do what you can to direct your attention to His resurrection power embedded within.  It is there for a purpose.  We have every reason to rise up in victory; not lie down in defeat.

Bless you as you sort through the darkness of confusion and disorientation.  I've been there.  Our Father was there long before we came into existence.  Trust Him when you can't trust your own judgment in settings too rugged.  You can weather the storms as He gives each resurrection power.

TULSA WORKSHOP:ELDERS, PREACHERS, AND OTHER CHURCH LEADERS

Here are a few of the classes for church leadership:

Kevin Skidmore......For the Mission-Minded Only: How to Peg Proper Focus

Shane Coffman/Gary Bruce.....For Worship Leaders Only:

Will Spoon and Friends: For Children's Ministries Only: How to Enhance a Vital Work Pt.1

Kevin Skidmore.....For the Mission-Minded Only: How To Keep the Soul Winning Fires Burning!

Don McLaughlin/Al Maxey: For Preachers Only: How to Move Deeper Into the Word

Rick Atchley/Terry Rush: For Preachers Only: Lessons We've Learned (and Some We Are Still Learning)
 
Will Spoon and Friends: For Children's Ministries Only: How to Enhance a Vital Work Pt.2

Memorial Drive Elders: For Elders Only: How to be Shepherds and Like It  Pt. 1
 
Memorial Drive Elders:  For Elders Only: How to be Shepherds and Like It  Pt. 2

MARCH 23-26.....GET YOUR LEADERS READY....TO BE HERE!

THE PERPETUAL WONDER

It seems anything of power leaves us enchanted all over again; regardless of how many times we have experienced its presence.  Looking at the ocean does this to me.  I am as fascinated at 63 years old as when I first saw it.  For some such a re-thrill may be at a sunset (or rise), the sight of a waterfall, or the sheer goose-bump of a newborn viewing. 

I find this same sensation pondering the Word of God.  It has remarkable strength and surreal beauty.  When we are students of this Dynamic, we are engaging once again in perpetual wonder.  The Bible has that ability to stun and even resurrect moods as well as potential of the weakest man.  Wow!  It is perpetual wonder.

We dare not observe this volcano of Life with indifference; certainly not with boring routine.  Hearts which yearn in perpetual wonder for God-moves find that mining the revered pages will always produce a strike-it-rich haul.

The perpetual of wonder in calling, praying, reading, waiting, and God-timing are all absolute overjoy for the hearts of men and women.  Who can contain the awe of it all?  Isaiah was ruined when he saw God.  The church was so struck upon its inauguration the Word says "it kept feeling the sense of awe".

Kept-feeling-sense-awe---

• Feeling....emotion
• Sense......sensational
• Awe........indescribable emotion and sensation
• Kept.......perpetual wonder of emotions and sensations which never could be described; they could only be believed and experienced.

That's....how I want to live in the church.  Ummm....no....that's how I do live in the church!

ROUGH DAYS AHEAD

I think earth-life has some very difficult days ahead.  I'm no prophet.  However, I sense we need to prepare for some intensely confusing and disorienting times. 

We will do well to be bound to the Book; not our whimsical moody doctrines, but the authentic life-meaning and life-giving ones.

Our biases against others will gradually be chiseled to one war: belief in Jesus or not.

Our hopes will pervade the landscape because of a famous empty grave.  Our dispositions probably will be challenged; yet our confidence will prove to rely upon His Spirit and not our own.

We are believers for doubtful times.  We have the tools to win---whether life or death or somewhere in between.

Jesus is the Savior and we intend to be saved....now.  Do not lose heart.  Light and momentary affliction merely causes productivity in the secret and invisible kingdom.  We shall not grow old in our ways; but newer today than yesterday and far newer when tomorrow gets here.

Rough days are ahead....unless we slay such days with the love of our Lord.

LET THE MAIN THING BE THE MAIN THING

For all of us responsible for pulling off much of the day's plans, let us not forget that God runs the show and a good show He can put on.  Whether it be preaching or praying or participating or planning, God is the main one through His Son Jesus.

Go into your day full spirit ahead.  Be ready to give it your all.  Yet, keep it close to your heart that you and your performance isn't close to the main thing.  Full and exaggerated Life in Jesus is the big deal.

Work today...and believe today...with the main thing being the main thing.  You and me?  We aren't it.  Glory and praise be to God because Jesus is!

WEDDINGS SO AWESOME!

In 36 years of ministry I have done 127 weddings.  Other than my three kids, two stand out with special note.

A few years ago a homeless couple stopped in.  They wanted to get married, needed a minister, and wanted to know if I could do their wedding for $10.  I told them I could....but I could only do it for $40.  They looked naturally saddened.  I expected such a reaction.  And then I said, I can't do your wedding if you pay me $10....but I can do your wedding if I pay you $40.  Their smiles were priceless!

Today I did a small wedding for a couple of similar circumstances; but not quite that drastic.  They were of extremely humble means.  Her mother and his father came as witnesses.  It was a special meeting in my office.

I cheered them on with simple words of encouragement from God's word and from my heart.  At the conclusion I gave them a $20 bill for letting me do their wedding.  They could hardly believe it.  The life in their eyes made it worth it. 

I don't usually pay the couples to let me marry them.  But the ones I have are two of my favorites!

BLESSED ARE THE PAINED

I believe a great secret of God often escapes us for we spend our time trying to escape it.  I speak of pain.

Regarded as a liability, pain is a wonderful kingdom asset.  Becomers are robust when found to have a history of affliction.  Look at Beth Moore; abused in her younger years.  How's she doing as far as influence goes today?  Blessed are the pained.

Liz Pence; the same as Beth to the extent of pondering suicide.  Yet, consider her vast impact across America.  Blessed are the pained.

Joe Almanza, whose family owned the Mexican mafia, was in a Texas prison when he finally called out to God from his cell late one night in suicidal mode.  Who could possibly count the souls reach by this man who cannot be stopped for God's glory drives him day in and day out?

Each of these is extensively productive in the Kingdom today because of the gift of the great God-secret; blessed are the pained.

I'm driven to excel in seeing the church lives because of a major struggle in my childhood.  I couldn't bear to attend church because it seemed to have no life.  Church is the last place I thought I would spend significant time!  Blessed are the pained.

For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison...II Cor. 4:17.  In other words....blessed are the pained.

BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS IDEAS

• In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White.  A very roughly languaged but an intensely honest true story about a young man imprisoned only to find his stay shared by a leper colony.  What he discovered is what you I would also find if we could humble ourselves by the suffering nature of Jesus.
• What Good Is God? by Philip Yancey.  In typical Yanceyesque style, this book is riddled with extensive real-life research to find the movement of God in places other than typical church buildings.
• The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen.  A classic which will tie your heart to the One who did heart things best.
• Experiencing God by Blackaby and King.  Still....after two decades in print....if you want to find a starter-book to bring new life to a congregation, begin a class study with this one.  I don't know of a group which hasn't been wonderfully impacted by this study.
• The Art of Possibility by Zander and Zander.  This secular work gives even the religious a few hints at opening our minds.  And, wouldn't that bless a bunch of people?