THE STRAIN TO KNOW GOD

If God is everywhere, why can't He be found by so many who are searching?

This is a dominant thread of my heart.  It is strange, really, how much I root for the person(s) who are seeking the truth as to the reality of God.  This urge within society to find the Living God is serious, sobering, and significant.

The homeless want Him.  The celebrities want Him.  The foreigners want Him.  The industrious want Him.  The distracted want Him.  I want to be a part of the solution. These people matter.  I was once one of these of whom I write.

To begin, I think it would be wise that we realize man's mind and heart have been seeded with doubt while we slept (so to speak).  In utmost simplicity, we live with a vague hope-so that at our personal last breath on earth there will actually be a new kind of breath lift us skyward.  Oh how we want this to be more than religious theory.

What happens is, then, that multitudes over multiple centuries have devised ideas, theologies, doctrines, and practices in hopes of making the next life a successful transition.  Faith becomes/is much more than an evangelistic step to being saved.  It is where authentic certainty meets determined hope; not as hope-so, but as fact.

Within our 21st century nature is embedded a subtle superiority that educated man can deal with the question of the eternal God with a casual nod.  We tend to deem our personal understanding on any matter as the right perspective.  This trend is so strong among us that it is simply assumed that our views regarding God are correct; even if given no real research or attention.

So, as one small man writing this article, I think I have the answer?  Partially; but accurately, yes.  Partially, because I am in kindergarten as a theologian with little hope of making it to first grade in all there is to know about God.  Accurately, in that while I don't have all of the answers I have utmost confidence (literally) in the one who does.

It is Jesus where I place all of my egg-trust into the hope-basket.  His is the only way I can, after decades of search and research, conclude that there is a next life and how we obtain it.  His I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me of John 14:6 is to be awarded the winning bid.

Jesus is the only one who traded places with us; II Cor. 5:21.  He became our messes that we could stand before God robed in his goodnesses.  He is the only religious leader who came back from the dead; historical proof from multiple witnesses including the redating of our calendars upon his birth.

Be encouraged, you!  You who possess a glimmer of wonder as to whether this stuff is true!  I believe that I don't have fifty good answers per thousand good religious questions.  Yet, Jesus is the only one who loved us enough to actually be executed only to rise from the dead.  Even much of the world still believes him and I cheer you on in your search.

I think you have ample reason to believe him.  Give him a fair shot.  Endure the strain to know God...and then enjoy the surprise that He will...find you!

ISLAMIC TERROR; WHAT SHALL WE CONSIDER?

Who can think at the pace of God?  As mere men we are, at the most, clumsy in just trying to dissect the Word of God that we give forth hope and courage.  Upon any matter of concern, how are we to gauge our possibilities as well as our responsibilities? This is a sobering consideration because God seldom does anything routinely.

The Islamic terror cells are for real.  They named themselves; not the media.  And aggression, wild aggression, seems to be their tune.  So are we to do anything?  Can we do anything?  Who would know what or how other than the Controller of the entire stage called life?

There a few things that I believe we don't do.

1. We don't pretend steep threat does not exist.  
2. We don't "eye for eye" it.
3. We don't hide.

Should Christians be taking some sort of effective action?  I think so.  What should it be and how should it look?  I have an idea for one direction.  Would it be of God?  Possibly. So here goes.

What I think we should first do is lift our heads from any sands of denial and admit that these extremists have announced that they are coming for us.  That seems to be fact; not rumor.

Too, we can already note that their hostility is progressing in rapid-fire.  A beheading here, three there, burning of one in a cage, and then 21 throats cut.  It seems there is escalation that calls for alarm.

Next we should discuss among ourselves how we will be benefited by hostile action should it arise.  Here's one thing I believe of importance.  God knows how to deal with opposing forces.  He's good at it.

Well, first, He died for all enemies which includes us.  So we know His heart is in it. Next, we know that when opponents believe they are restricting God's children, He has this great knack of entering from an unannounced door to be nothing more than advantaged.

When the church came into existence in Acts 2, it was due to a great eruption of faith backed by Holy Spirit leadership. Some of the religious zealots were finding Jesus' new way to cramp their traditional style.  Peter and John were jailed.  Great threat was issued that this new nonsense stop or else.

By Acts 5 there was such outrage against the new believers that a respected Pharisee, Gamaliel, pleaded that they refrain from killing these renegades (?) for God would deal with them if they were not really of His system.  By Acts 7 trouble was still stirring and young Stephen was executed.  Yes, this was going on at the very beginning of the church Jesus was building.

Acts 8 is where God lets it get interesting...and hopeful.  He used the wickedness of the extremists to expand the preaching of His Word.  And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.  And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.  And some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentations over him.  But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison (vv 1-3).

Believers were being persecuted by another kind of believers.  With interest we can note that God used this negative circumstance to expand His work.  He used the enemy methods to force the church into new territories...where they would evangelize in the name of Jesus.

So verse :4 gives such interesting perspective; Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the Word.  The later scene of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch would not be there if the religious extremists hadn't persecuted the church in Jerusalem forcing scatter.

I mean God is so on to outreach that in Acts 10 this angry Saul of Tarsus was himself baptized into Jesus, becoming a promoter of the very one he had battled against.  He will forever be known, by the way, as the apostle Paul; the man who wrote more books than any other New Testament writer.

God has vision!  He knows possibilities!  He can handle this!

That may be an area we find free to imagine.  If and as persecution of the Christians escalates, I believe we can count on an awakening that we churches desperately need which will cause more to become believers had the future persecution not have happened.

If attack occurs, grief and tears will be obvious.  Be assured God will use such a time as opportunity to reach more nations just as He did when it happened in Acts 8.  We may be pressed and bewildered; but God has tremendous ways of converting even those who press hardest against His church.

Be encouraged.  God is not done being creative in His reach.  May we find joy in all things.

ARE WE SOMETIMES OUR OWN WORST ENEMY?

You know that I know that not everyone needs everything of which I decide to address, right?  Yet, there is this thing about us that I'm guessing a whole lot of us need....need today.

Why is it we resent any who seem bent upon insulting us or hurting our feelings; yet we do more of the same to ourselves...from ourselves?

Have you ever heard yourself talk about yourself in front of your back?

Your hair isn't right.  Your weight isn't right.  Your complexion isn't right.  Your neighbor isn't right.  Your pay isn't enough.  Your clothes look outdated.  Your influence seems to have hit a wall.  Your time seems to slip away.  You are tired of eating the same ol' meals.  You wish that you didn't have that funny eyebrow or those big ears or....or something!

Stop it!

We would defriend any who talked to us the way we tend to talk to ourselves.

How about we make a pact with God that we like the way He has created us?  What would you think about eliminating the self-talk that pulls us down....that in all reality pulls us down much more than those we deem as nuisance critics?

Let's do this.  Let's eliminate one of our biggest critics; one of our strongest enemies which terrorizes our minds while we drive down streets or try to pass off into deep sleep.  Let's tell the bully of self-destructive-talk to back off.

We have living to do.  We will not go through life permitting ourselves to be our own worst enemies.  No.  We have a God to be glorified, people to encourage, and we are on a big mission.

Good for us!

("Thank you, Terry, I really needed this.  Ah, you are welcome.")

FAITH'S CONFLICT

Faith isn't a step in religion's organizational redemptive approach.  It is a big word with bigger backing.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  I'm not so sure I haven't developed more of a wishful wanting rather than a holy conviction of what God can do.

Is my faith embedded in the fact that Jesus, once dead, has arisen?  Do I possess that kind of certainty about my work/our work with God?  Or, do I seem to have a Santa version of faith that wants things; wants answers, wants blessings, wants effectiveness?

No.  I believe I have developed a kind of faith that is based more upon what I can imagine for God than what God can imagine for me.  While I love Ephesians 3:20, I seem to hedge by playing risky faith safe.

Note the fascinating workings of Jesus.  Too, scan the moves of faith in Hebrews 11.  If we were a board of directors, would we have launched into these no-verifiable-certainty-this-will-pan-out modes?  Or, would we have wished for great to happen; yet, would not have ventured into such silly looking traps?

If we who believe Jesus is raised from the dead do not change our routine and anemic approaches to faith we are going to offer the world nothing more than Santa wishes. We will just hope we get the gifts for which we had prayed.

Faith presents deep conflict.  Shall we go through the motions of each day and reach the end concluding it had been done by faith (when what we really mean is that whatever happens happens)?  Or, shall we approach needs that can't be manipulated by man's organizational skill and anticipate God's wild provision?

I pray for three things consistently:

1. That God's glory would show up in the media.
2. That God would show us things about Himself that no one ever thought to ask.
3. That God would convert another Saul of Tarsus; namely Bill Maher.

These items are not the epitome of prayer opportunities.  Neither am I the only one that prays by faith.  I simply list what I do to give those who would like to be challenged in faith as to one (of millions) possible scenario.

Faith is treacherous conflict.  Man wants to see God work; but we hesitate.  We fear. I'm here to cheer you on.  Take a look at the world's needs for God.  Pray for Him to interact among us when we couldn't take a wild guess as to where or how or when or who or why.

Faith's conflict is that it wishes to function from the talent of the Creator rather than from the frailty of the created.  May we release ourselves into the fascinating world of believing when few indicators suggest our ideas would work.

THE LIE THAT STRANGLES ALL OF MANKIND

Men, women, and children walk under tremendous burden...every day.  No one is exempt; neither of age, mental capacity, nor physical qualities.  Every person is consistently broadsided by the inner discussion between our ears that we are not good enough.

This may be the phenomenon of all phenomena.

To say that this lie we tell ourselves is strange really is because such a confession doesn't begin to cover the width nor the depth of its devastating trail.  To show you how odd this lie is, consider any of us who seem to parade an over-inflated ego.  The egotistical are blemished by being super-confident.

Right?

I don't think so!

I've never met the person yet who displayed excess confidence who was not a child-in-hiding at the core.  Every person is smitten with uncertainty and insecurity regarding self.  No exceptions.  True, each of us possesses gifts from God which encourage others; even inspire.  But I still say there is this extra person we each carry within who wears us thin with inner arguments of lack here and wishful thinking there.

If I could meet a CEO or a Queen or a movie star, I would know immediately what I would want to talk about.  I would want to speak of assurance that they are more adequate in God than they imagine.  While their faces are plastered upon magazine covers, the famous scurry to feel better, appear better, do better because even their fame is not enough assurance that they are valued for being simply who they are.

You and me?  No different.  That greener grass on the other side of the fence is finally discovered to be a mirage.  The grass is green, for sure, but there has never been a fence.  We are all the same.  Fame or not?  Success or not?  We are all the same....in great need of the God-assurance that we are lovable and loved...by the Creator of wonder and awe.

I wish not to pedestalize anyone.  I merely wish to remove your unnecessary limp. Living by comparison is an assault upon the good heart.  Either way we do it, comparing ourselves to others is a cover-up; a very useless one at that.  We don't need to feel we are better than others for we are not; but we are wonderful.  Neither do we need to feel less than another; because we are wonderful in the way God made each of us.

I would ask that you do more than nod in agreement.  I would ask that you believe it. Very good lives are being wasted wishing to be someone else somewhere else somehow else.  This is a discarding of good, valuable, powerful material.

The lie that strangles all of mankind is that we seem to volunteer to believe the worst and the ugliest and the stupidest about ourselves.  Surely we are not called to be self-gawking egoists.  But just as surely we are to treasure the uniqueness God has dared to entrust to each of our personalities.

May we live like we really like life!  That would be a good start to the week, don't you think?

WHEN HOPE GOES BEYOND HOPE

There is a phrase in Romans 4:18 that, at first glance, seems bewildering.  In hope against hope, he believed.  This references the aged Abraham who believed God's promise that he and Sarah could have a child when they were the age of most great-grandparents.

In hope against hope Abraham believed he and his wife could have a child...if God said so.

This is very significant for believers for the idea is that we can have a hope that would surpass normal hope because of the power of God.  Later in that text, the writer points out that the late-date parenthood of Abraham and Sarah is parallel to believing God could raise Jesus from the dead.

The Bible, here, takes two of life's strongest timings; an over-aged couple beyond ability to conceive and a man dead.  And then God states that, due to faith, we have reason to believe there is hope that would surpass normal hope.

We must take care that we do not turn hope beyond hope into, I hope so.  I sorta doubt it; but I'll try to have a glimmer of hope.  Rather, we want to develop a hope that has certainty in God when fleshly calculations would not dare believe such a possibility.

Be encouraged to work on building a faith that hopes beyond where the flesh would hope.  There is much needed in this tired world or ours.  There is much life available through Jesus.  To sigh with a hope so just won't cut it.  We must have a belief in the God of impossibilities.

May we build forces of faith.  May hope be bigger, better, higher, and stronger than ever!

ANONYMOUS CRITICISM

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "MY INVITATION TO YOU FOR EASTER":

First words out of a man's mouth indicates his heart. Judges 17. Samson saw a woman and that was his downfall. I feel your heart needs to be adjusted. Who cares if you have 1700 friends on FB. Not about you. That could have been differently than starting it out with I statement. Yourself is before the cross. 

I tried to publish this response three times to my post but it would not go through. To be honest, the note doesn't make me look good.  Therefore, I share with you publicly this critique of yesterday's post.  I choose to do so for several reasons; the main one being to encourage those of you in the public eye of church leadership.  

We have this coming.  No one is above criticism.  Whether misunderstood in our statements, or guilty as charged, the toughest thing for any is to be criticized; especially in a public format by one who will not give their name.  

So, young leaders, what shall we do with things like this?  We thank God for it and we thank those who send such notes.  Everything is a yes.  So we calm down, don't breathe threats, and simply take what's due, learn from our mistakes, and don't fear others.  We are learners.

Take a look at the note.  Romans 2:1-5 clearly says that what we are critical of, we are guilty of.  What are the first words out of this person's mouth (of which they find like-minded upset with me)?  The same from them as the charge against me.  Evidently this person's upset is in front of the cross, as well.

I do not point this out in defense.  This is the way it is for all of us.  Therefore, I say to you young leaders, calm down and just weigh incoming attacks.  Think it through.  Don't race to defend and, simultaneously, ponder the message for its accuracy.

I truly wish not to be putting this person on the spot.  Their charge might be right on target.  I am pretty excited about the number of followers because I assume each reader has their own number of many followers.  If we multiply our numbers in invitations....WOW!....look at how fast FB connected invitations to a big Easter Sunday!

However, anonymous doesn't see it that way and I get it.  My apology as well as thankfulness of their remarks.  I know this from biblical perspective.  Whoever anonymous is, they are a better person than me.  That isn't a false humility; rather it is Word fact.

Yes, it bugs me that we in the public eye get told off by such brave brothers and sisters called anonymous.  That one bugs me.  Yet, again I say to the young leaders, we have this coming.  This is an important part of ministry fabric.

We do not shrug.  We do not smirk.  We do not dismiss.  Neither do we worry. We evaluate; take our lumps and dismiss the parts that are inaccurate.  This takes serious discernment; otherwise we will always conclude that we are always in the right.  Often, that is not the case.  We need correction.

Our job is to grow deeper in the Spirit of Jesus from every encounter of harsh wording toward us.  Many times we deserve it.  Sometimes, not so much.  But every bit of it, whether accurate, is a blessing and a must to effective ministry.

Do not be overwhelmed by those who boldly hide behind their letters signed anonymous.  We've all received our fair share.  But rather listen to the charges. Accept correction where appropriate.  And always tell God thank you for getting to live in the Kingdom where this goes on.

We must have criticism.  Otherwise, we are very likely to begin to believe we run the show.  We don't.

To my anonymous friend, I really thank you.  I'm sure you to be a valiant servant of His.  You have blessed my day.  I will work at wording my posts more carefully.  I will not be discouraged by your note, but will use it to hopefully cheer on many readers of this post who will in turn bless others through their efforts.

My name is Terry Rush.  Anonymous, what is yours?  I wish this question not to be tacky.  I wish, however, for the young leaders among us who are going to encounter their due share of criticism to make note that sometimes this will come from bold but cowardly hearts.  

This is a serious matter.  

Our good men and women have left ministry and the church by the droves because of such faint-hearted tactics.  I wish to encourage them to stay.  It is worth the endurance to watch the love of God transform even our enemies into our great friends.

MY INVITATION TO YOU FOR EASTER

I have no idea what percentage of the over 1700 friends I have on FB who are local; Tulsa and surroundings.

I say to each of those that if you don't really have a church home for Easter Sunday, I'm inviting you to this one.  The Memorial Drive Church of Christ;10:30 Sunday morning on Easter at our church at 9th and Memorial in Tulsa.

You'll be welcomed.  Hopefully God will speak to your heart that day to give you perhaps a boost you and your family have needed.

And those who live far away, I applaud your good hearts that you would attend some congregation in your locale to give honor to God.  This is especially the time for those fortunate to have a vibrant church to invite, invite, invite.  Ask them to sit with you so that they won't be alone and feel disconnected.

Easter is that main time of the year that the authentic goodness of man--what we are really made of--shows up in our trek to join other believers. There remains a deeply and honorable embedded faith within the hearts of mankind.  On this one day it seems to take priority over all other routine and schedule.

Jesus arose from the dead with no ax in his hand; but rather tenderness in heart for his beaten and battered creation.  Why would we not be ultra-appreciative?  Thank you for being among the good hearts who will take the time to give God attention on Easter Sunday!

If you would be one who hasn't been to church in a while, I think you will be amazed at the boost you give others because you cared enough to be with them.  People matter....all people.  Bless a church.  Attend.

WHAT WE BELIEVE AND HOW WE GOT THERE

We believe many things.  Of course those things vary....a lot.  Some prefer Fords. Others would not own one.  We understand such opinionated trends.  Often such conclusions have been reached due to experience; if not research.

When it comes to God, however, a pattern is fairly predictable.

We tend to believe what we inherit.

If our parents were church people; so are we.  If not, we are not.  To an extent, the churched tend to continue the family brand-of-theology preference; but not as much as maybe it once indicated.  Being a certain brand of faith once meant the next generation will follow the same style of faith.  Yet, today those of God-interest seem to be more faithful to seeking Him than to attending their family's historical denomination.

What we believe about God (whether to give attention to Him or dismiss Him), usually follows what our parents did.  This part is most disturbing for it could indicate that much of spirituality is honestly nothing more than thoughtless.  For this to be the case--and I believe it is in many instances--it appears man in general is more likely to give attention to cologne preference or sandwich toppings than to adapting a faith in the living God.

Do we not realize that our general perspective about God is inherited rather than researched?  Are we okay with dying while giving our own souls extremely little thought?  Do we not matter to ourselves?

How easy it is to dismiss such points and questions with a grunt or a sneer.  But please don't.  Be obstinate toward me if you like; but don't be that way toward the deepest part of your true self.

Would you consider doing more than inheriting your faith or your non-faith; dependent upon family history?  Believing God isn't for cute children and silly women. It is for grown-ups who are, indeed, quite important.

Please don't waste the most important part of yourself; your eternal soul.  Please.  And, would you consider dropping what you deem as a valid excuse of staying away from God because of all the hypocrites?  What a waste in this well-worn and tired chatter.

Men, women, and children die.  Obituaries validate this fact.  I would urge you to take a serious look at this God who is crazy about you.  He is not a hoax.  Neither is He the demon some of your friends may have made Him out to be.

Consider looking at Jesus.

Notice he was executed because religious people--the very kind you may detest--set him up.  Yet, notice his love for those who simply wanted hope and renewal and life. This man, Jesus, lived and died that we could really have a serious hope beyond the grave.

Please, I don't mean to sound preachery.  Rather I mean to sound neighborly; as in a neighbor who cares for you forever!  You deserve better than living indifferently toward the God who created you in the first place.  Don't you think?

WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO TO BELIEVE IN GOD?

Good grief, I root for people.  So many, regardless of race, gender, or social level, struggle day after day.  Misery seems compounded for some.  Anger.  Bitterness. Sheer loneliness.  Troubles abound.

Where is God?

Where is God?

Does He not care?  Is He not supposed to be the One who makes everything work out better?

Yes, He does care.  That His Son was executed in one of the world's most torturous styles is one of the strongest signals that He cares.

No, God is not supposed to make everything work out the way we wish.  Again, He didn't do it for Jesus and He doesn't do it for us.

So?  What good is it to believe in God?

When we learn that He does not just transform life from loss to victory; but that God transformed loss into meaningful power, we are then onto something most valuable. God's followers suffer.  We are called to do so; to take up our crosses and follow Him; all for the benefit of others.

Man's problem with religion is we have entered believing that now we will discover the Midas touch.  And then when things don't go the way we had hoped, we blame God for being unfaithful to His promises.

Life with God does not mean everything goes my way.  It does not mean that Christianity is a walk in a rose garden.  It means struggle, frustration; even irritation. And what it also means is that we yield our own will that others may become blessed.

Jesus died that we might live.  We die for others--take our insults and our persecutions--so that some with such frustrations can have genuine hope....just like we have.

What good does it do to believe in God?  He doesn't give us painless lives.  Rather, He makes our hard times useful that others would be blessed.

CHURCH....WHAT? AGAIN?

Living with God is not a routine.  It is a walk.

How long I made my trek to church as a little kid.  There I was always hoping that this time it would be interesting.  I especially liked it when my Grandpa and my uncle sang in the choir.  But mostly I counted down to that final dismissal song that set us free.

Shaking the pastor's hand was meaningful mostly because I could see daylight again.  I had just lived through another time of mostly boredom; but felt so much the better for having endured.

Whew!  Did it again!  Now, on my walk back, pop into Hendricks Drugstore, snag a Snickers, off to home, off with those Sunday-only duds and out to gather up enough kids for a baseball game.  Sunday!

There you go, for those similar to me, church seems to have always been about entertainment.  But when it comes to us personally, we never call it that.  That label belongs only for those of modern day who want new things in church.  Right?

But I was a kid.  Church meant sit-still big time.  I just wasn't a sit-still sort.  Oh the drudgery of church.

So, do you think those who attend are feeling as I did?  They are putting in their time?  Or, are they as I am now, finding the pleasure of really, attentively worshiping God?  The latter is a major shift.

If in a church to be pleased, then ultimately criticism will be on the tips of our tongues.  The sermon was too long, the music to loud, the attire by some too....something.  But when our goal is to give praise to God, the church scene seems to experience complete remodel.

We think about Him in gratitude.  We sing to Him.  Pray to Him.  We believe He hears us as well as dwells among us.

What a lot of churches these days could use is a good dose of God.  I speak from personal need.  Church isn't God.  Church music isn't either.  Neither are attendance numbers nor contribution counts.

God is.

Church.  When we can all pool our praise for Him, God seems to release blessings within our hearts that can neither be explained nor manipulated.  May we have more of that!

STATIONED FOR COMMUNICATION

Let's see.  How many links of communication does one have at his or her disposal?  Let me count some of the ways.  You got your telephone.  You got your postal service.  Oh yes, there's that email and voice mail and Texting and Pintrest and....well there are surely alternatives to get the job done.  Oh, and then there is that other mode of (how I almost forgot) prayer.

Prayer.

You know.  That communication concept that works off of a Satellite System from way out there in space somewhere?

Prayer.

Verbal expression that, for most, seems to be a futile exercise in time consumption?

Prayer.

For the longest time, not only did I not do it, I resented the need to do it.  However, much has changed for me and maybe I could encourage some of you to restart your engines.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not an ideal praying person.  It's just that I've learned to need it, like it, and do it.  If my technique would be meaningful to you....well, there ya go!

Prayer for me has been a time of God and me together.  I speak to Him as well as listen for Him.  As soon as I awaken--every day--I tell God how grateful I am for Him.  Prayer is a conversation where we brag on our Life-giver.

As soon as I back the car out of the drive I praise Him for what He has done for those on my street, those in far away lands who are being mistreated, and for the great unfolding plans He has for His kingdom today.  I thank Him for people in cars that I know not their name; but I am sure they are in need of His direct attention.

I thank God...throughout the day.

While people are talking to me in my office, I will whisper inwardly of my gratitude for His delight in them.  For my hometown of Memphis, Missouri, He knows how proud I am that He gives all attention.

For my sweet congregation in Tulsa which is surely immature, and lacking in so very many things, so strong, so dynamic in others; yet God has chosen to let a wimp of a guy like me be a part of their great nature?

How could I do anything but tell Him of my complete wow?

And as I lean in upon sleep for the night, I remind Him of the 48 names of my neighbors that I've met over these last three years; secretly seeking His blessings upon them all.

Stationed for communication.  We hold in our hands these cute little framed boxes which can contact the world in an instant---like Instagram--but no mode of contact can compare to prayer.  It isn't a churchy routine.  No.  Prayer is a breathing communication between you and the Greatest Communicator....Ever!

You can want a lot of things in life.  But to be clear, if you have not yet developed a true sense of prayer, you are out there on your own.  That can be appealing for a while.  Yet, linking up with God in a real, substantive way is of utmost importance....as well as blessing.

HOW TO GET UNSTUCK FROM SERIOUS STUCKABILITY

I can't think of anything that feels like a bigger waste of time than being stuck.  A ring on a finger that needs to be removed, a car in a snowdrift, or big critter wedged within a small doghouse, stuck is not what one would identify as a progressive moment.

A mood hovers over much of mankind.  It isn't angry.  Neither is it necessarily painful. It is burdening; quite so.  I think men and women everywhere are stuck.  With inability to move forward coupled with lack of direction, people everywhere are spinning their daily routinic wheels with an overwhelming feeling of, I'm stuck.  I'm going nowhere.  

Stuck equates to not knowing what to do next.  Therefore, we just keep doing what we've been doing.  What we've been doing may really be just fine.  It's that feeling. You know what I mean?  That feeling of there is lack of an edge of excitement productivity, and joy.

(Let me assure you.  I know many do not live this way.  I give you an atta boy or an atta girl.  I speak with those too many who do know what I'm discussing all too well.  So thank you for enduring.)

I have a very good life.  I've always wished I could get to be me and it turned out that God let me.  But that wishing part...at times that was hard because it felt never enough; never going anywhere.  It's that Bingo free space in our hearts that, even it, feels unoccupied.

What I do in those moments is thank Him for making my life tick.  I brag on His skill for no one has talent like He has talent.  Now pooh-pooh this all you want.  Go ahead. Work it out your way.  But for those who are stuck, God knows stuck.  His Son was stuck in a tomb one day and God....well, let's just say He possesses know-how.

Romans 4:17 is a miracle truth for every stranded person.  God knows how.  He can give life to dead efforts and He can cause things which are not (yet) to become.  That just happens to be something where I would have interest; you as well.

My guess is every person of every social class and skill level encounters this thing of feeling momentarily stranded because we are creatures of habit.  We keep doing the same thing over and over while wishing over and over we didn't always have to do the same things over and over.  (Gosh, mom must be proud.)

So how do we get unstuck from serious stuckability?  We live thanking God for His creativity right where we live.  We don't necessarily need greener grass on our side of the fence.  We simply need a signal from Him to blow by that reminds us that we are not alone.  And, neither are we stuck because He is moving and we are along for the ride of a lifetime!

WHY IS THERE ALWAYS HOPE?

Hope.

The word seems kinda conditional.  If things go the way we had "hoped" then hope seems to live.  If not; then there wasn't any "hope".

Truthfully, there is always hope.  If what we had wished doesn't come about as we had planned, there is ample reason to believe there is a plan B.  Again, as long as matters go right, then we feel hope is legit.

It's when tragedy and heartbreak arise that hopelessness seems to abrasively pound.  And this is where God is in the lead.  He knows how to take darkness and make light.  He can turn a flooding sea into an aisle for His children to cross.  He can even take a once depressing grave and empty it for future passersby to marvel.

If there's one gigantic joy that I find in knowing God, it is He constant message of hope.

• He vows that regardless of struggles, hope will be there....Rom. 5:1-5
• He makes a YES out of every NO....I Cor. 1:18-20
• Love hopes all things....I Cor. 13:7

Everyone has reason to hope.  God isn't a puppeted magician expected to dance to our emotional fancies.  No.  He is a serious God that knows how to perfectly turn defeat into victory.   He is the best lemonade maker of lemons...ever!

We can count on Him all of the time.  Even His Son died.  That event, in itself, was to display His promise to us of reason to hope.  With every moment that strains try to pull us down into a giving up mode, we can be sure that God has a response...that will really bless us.

LIFE IN JESUS

Life in Jesus is neither hokey, sheer formality, nor even religious.  Did Jesus say that he came that we might have religion in abundance (Jn. 10:10)?  Or, was it life in abundance?

It was LIFE!

It's interesting that in that John chapter Jesus was stating that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. This is consistent with II Corinthians 3:6 informing us that the law kills; but the Spirit gives life.

Why is religion a problem?  If a congregation is who it is based upon control (the only right way to do church) by the more powerful members, rather than the Spirit of God, the spirits of the members will wither while they repeat their Sunday treks.  The thief robs by leading us to become enamored with rules and regulations which tends to develop the mean-spirited, impatient, and grumpy.

Just how strong is this negative influence?  Count the masses who give us a disinterested nod as they cannot take seriously a group that they note as similar to themselves; moody, rude at times, and occasionally insulting.

What would change things?  That they see that we are really alive; even on rough days.

We want them to see the Light in us.

It should be said that not all in the church are this way; quite the reverse, fortunately. However, just as the squeaky wheel gets the grease, the onlookers with a negative slant about us find ample proof that they should keep their distance.

As Christians, what shall we do about this torrent of disbelief which is global?  Can we do anything?  Should we?

We say we believe in the most impossible thing imagined; death transformed into eternal life.  I think it would help the questioners if they could see in us our happy faces and hear from us our confidence-in-God words.  Never do we have the posture that we are better because we believe.  Not ever.

Jesus, the perfect one, humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross.  He did not come to earth to argue.  He came to earth to show all that he could break the barriers of threatening death by causing death to yield to life.  We are not in the church to debate who is right and who isn't.  We are in the church because we desire to follow Jesus.  That's it.

As we develop in following him we will find that we dearly love the unlovable.  Too, we will go to great "pains", as did Jesus, to love our enemies.  This is very different than the competitive Bible battles which tend to cloud God's message of restorative hope for every soul.

Too much of Christianity appears moody.  If we are having a good day, good for us and, therefore, blessed are others.  Yet, if not so good, you better not get in range of our squint-eyed judgmental ire.  This is not only really wrong; it is sinking the ship which carries God's intended message to all of the world.

We can do this!  We can be fantastic encouragers in our communities!  Our sheer hope in this process is to let the light of Jesus shine through.  Lights shines best in darkness; so let not our dark experiences cause us to falter.  Even our struggles are mere stages for show time.

May He find mercy to help us shine even our very best when crushing kinds of days pester our hearts.

Life is abundant.  It is found in Jesus.  He breaks depression.  He offers reason to believe.  Too, Jesus assures us of hope in the very center of every distracting tactic thrown at us...Romans 5:1-5.  May we do our best to believe it.  If we will, maybe others will also.

WHAT WE CAN DO TO FREE OURSELVES FROM MEDIOCRITY

There is this thing that goes on perpetually which stymies progress.  I believe that there is a culprit in our camp that shuts us down.  It's strong.  It's influential.  And, it's mean.

For years I submitted to this rude intruder.  I was found to be invisibly shackled by his clear voice that rang out with clarity in my head.  Hesitation would be one fruit.  Fear would be the strongest and most potent.

I speak of a very nasty human doctrine; comparison.  Comparison is complexity in the simplest of forms.  Complex because we strain to sort through the maze he offers. Simple in that He works undercover within our heads; going completely without notice.

This undercover agent thrashes our hearts as we compare how others are better; work, sports, intelligence, speaking ability, or social technique. Others always seem to be healthier, wealthier, wiser...on and on our lists give assumed proof...which causes a noticeble limp in spirit confidence.

Comparison is a thief with no gun.

Neither does he have a code to gain entry which signals his strength.  He simply roams the terrain of our spirits as a normal friend who issues perpetual caution.  While he poses as our friend to keep us from making mistakes, this villain hold us hostage with no weapons.  We permit him to exploit our mind-set, ravage our intentions, and rearrange our thought dynamics.

When one lives by comparison, the understanding of any given situation is clearly not understood.  This is the enemy's goal.  Shut us down!

Mr. Comparison works by means of innocent distraction.  Measurements are warped. Truth is fractured.  Conclusions are erroneous.  Yet, this invisible bully assures us that he is very much on our side to the extent that he whispers, I would like to spare you from embarrassment.  If you try, you may fail.  Wouldn't it be better to play it safe?

So what happens is we tend to move through life looking over our shoulders for who might be among us that would do a better job.  Better...comparison.  Another's better? An excuse for us to cling while we await someone more qualified to carry out the mission. More....qualified = Comparison.

We are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves to themselves, they are without understanding (II Cor. 10:12).

This explains why so many won't give ear to God's call.  They know little about God (as was my case).  To venture out into this deep could be seen as inadequate...by comparison...to those who can now roam the Bible with somewhat clarity.

This also exposes why the church is stuck.  The individual call of God to serve others took a seat (a comfortable one) in the name of someone we know could do it better. How many times I hear that an effort worked because I'm Terry.

That is not true.  I'm chicken.  I'm a coward.  I'm fiercely inadequate.  But, I have utmost confidence in the Spirit of God.  He does the resulting; not ever me.  And so it is with all of us.  Really.

We have allowed (permitted) a thief to enter the compounds of our minds and hold us at bay from abundant life.  I urge you to drive this culprit out.  Mr. Comparison puts the clamps on us which leads to neutralizing mediocrity.

If you want to do something meaningful for God and for others, lean into the Power. The secret (which Comparison tries his best to abolish) is always and only found in our weaknesses (II Cor. 12:9).  The Power is always and only of God.

Set the excuses aside.  We are armed with the qualifications to make us effective.

Holy Spirit prop us up!  Comparison, get out of our way!

HAPPY MEDIUM ISN'T A JOYFUL PALM READER

Are we hurrying past ourselves to where we not only do not know our neighbors; we don't know our spouses, our kids, ourselves. We have given in to a demanding bossy lifestyle, given out by lack of will, and eventually given up.

Enter our friend, Happy Medium.  That term solicits a hearer's need to fight off extreme action.  Fanaticism is booed by Happy and his sort.

Truthfully, however, we find ourselves often caught between pressures of over-extension of our time to get things done versus bored because there is little to do and we don't like time on our hands.  Whoever is in one of these categories would love to meet the ones in the other with the question, How can I live in your shoes for just a few minutes?

Yet, I find Happy Medium to be both an illusion and a cop-out.  He is a figment of one's wishful imagination.  Middle life will lead, maybe, to neutral life.  Nothing productive; but neither bothered nor pressed while occasionally engaged and active; that's what we think we want.

Our thoughts about life could and should be directed toward the Ultimate Life-Giver; Jesus.

What made him tick?  Why could he be so productive within the boundaries of extreme simplicity?

Well, let's observe him a bit.

Jesus was in constant alone-time with God.  This is an immediate red-flag for our pace. Extreme busyness, or opposing indifference, sways us to avoid time with God.  This should change...quickly.  If we are too busy (or lazy) to pray, to study the Word, and to ponder our co-existence with Him, we are setting ourselves up for the hunt for Mr. Happy Medium...and we will not find him.

To implement this one action alone would have powerful impact upon our stressed-out and fractured lives.  (I just have to laugh right here.  Do you have any idea how many interruptions have passed my way while trying to get this message proofed.  If you see mistakes in this one....it surely was someone else's fault!)

Too, Jesus was seldom courting Happy Medium.  Rather his life was on the edge.  Martha tells him he has got to hurry.  Lazarus is dead!  Jesus compassionately waits two days before responding.  Evidently he has spent such quality time with Father that he is not disturbed by wondering how Martha feels (or will feel) about him.

On the other side of the Christ is the cutting edge of being way ahead of God's troops. His vision and imaginational awareness is unmatched.  Jesus was walking on the water, successfully, when his gang could only give a best guess that he was some sort of ghost.  He blew their minds.

It seems that Jesus was everywhere but in the middle.  He could relax when those who loved him pressed in.  Too, he could think of Father when suffering extreme pain upon the cross where he was not only in tune with God; but was loving others strung up beside him.

Life in Jesus is not Happy Medium's region.  Commitment.  Prayer.  Compassion. Connection.  Christianity is extravagant effort.  We look for what we call balance.  He calls us to much more than getting by.  He calls us to Life!  Life isn't balance.  It is hearing His call when to say Yes and when to say No.  That doesn't take balance.  That takes faith and courage.

If you often have days where you feel you are merely spinning your wheels, I'm one who will stand by you in sympathy.  The exciting news is that these matters can experience seismical shift when curbing the winds of business or the slumber of laziness.

To truly spend time with the Creator, the Life-Provider, we will have abundant life...He promises....John 10:10.

SHALL WE HOPE OR SHALL WE DIE?

About 35 years ago I designed a one-time-to-be-shown television program to encourage the down-and-out.  Shall We Hope or Shall We Die? was filmed and shown as a 30-minute special locally on Tulsa's CBS-6 station at 6:30 p.m.  It was good. (Well, at least my mom thought so.)

Even today in the common walks we have we still ask, Shall we hope or shall we die?

That question is always fitting for any culture on any day.  The why of it fitting is key to our life in Christ.

No one is exempt from good days nor bad ones.  This is what makes us both strong and weak.  The secret isn't in living only for the good days.  No, the secret is in noting how the bad days also bless.

I don't like hard times.  I do not prefer lean times.  Yet, because we follow a guy who caused a grave to wonder, What in the world just happened here?, we get to participate in a new caliber of hope.  Regardless of the challenge(s), we are able to tell God thank you even at our lowest points.

Why do I have hard times?  Well one, because I'm often an idiot.  And two, because I'm a regular person. And three, I need gasping-for-hope moments so that I can be reminded of how others around me hurt...and hurt deeply.

Pain is never about us.  We usually think the opposite.  Pain is not a villain because it has been converted in Jesus.  Now, we find it to be our tool to reach others.  If we have no desire to reach others, then we will hover over our ache and utter whining, moaning words of the self-induced doctrine of poor-me-ism.

I do not like the concept of hurt.  I don't like me hurting and I don't like hurting others. Yet, the kingdom will transform the stings we endure into deeper understanding of the hurting souls around us.  The marvel of Jesus is that he could not rescue and redeem if he refused the hurting process.  That was what his key prayer time in the Garden was all about.

Shall we hope or shall we die?  For me?  Well, at times I just want to throw up my hands in give-upness.  I get weary of the incoming and outgoing injuries which abound in both directions. However, the resurrected Jesus insists that we all keep going.

As were his, our wounds are valuable blessings to others in some strange spiritual form.  When we feel insulted or neglected or betrayed, we must try to thank God for such pain.  Jesus did it.  We claim to follow him.  The rugged cross...our rugged crosses...confirm we are on the right path.

THE IMAGE WAR

Mankind is in a definite and certain kind of war for its life.  No generation is ever exempt.  Individuals of every economic, social, political, and religious inclination do battle over one major tenet; personal image.  How do we look to others?  How do we sound?  How are we judged?  How are we doing?

The pressure to live the image embedded within our own heads can be a monstrous dictator.  Appearance (or lack of) is a rigid ruler.  How often we try to bow to the Kings and Queens of latest trend and/or current fashion.

This reality gives me insight into every one's life.  I know this truth; every person lives with huge personal question marks about himself or herself. It doesn't matter how we dress of a morning or look in the afternoon, we wonder if we are doing all right.  Many of us are fairly sure we are not.

This is not an occasional battle for a handful of us.  Oh sure, some have no trouble with this because they simply don't care what anyone thinks about them.  (Well....they should!)

So what shall those three (or three billion), who are just as I am, do?  We shall learn to relax.  We shall learn that, even with all of our public warts, we are valuable and needed and useful because God doesn't create junk.

We shall learn to be thankful.  He is amazing and we are His!

Life isn't a matter of, Are we enough?  Life is a matter of us focusing on two powerful reservoirs; giving great attention to God and giving great encouragement to others. What about us?  We will receive the security we need when we give ourselves away to His cause and their well-being.

The image war is ruthless.  It is also a conquerable war.  We win such a fierce battle by being attentive outwardly toward God and others.  The most miserable among us are consistently the selfish.  The enthused are steadily the sacrificial.  Life a life....where you win!

BROADEN OUR REACH

I study constantly.  I love it.  I need it.  Put me in the room with most preachers and I assume to be among the least equipped as well as least informed.  There is so much to know.  Oddly, with God the more we learn the more we find there remains to learn.  He keeps expanding on us.

This would be one reason the legalistic side of the church is so vocal.  It does not want to be bothered by facts.  Neither does it want to be pressed to learn new ways that would actually come from God.  Personal growth seems to carry acute discomfort.

We are not to be a people who are only on the go (for Him); but on the grow.

The growing of faith takes us places.  It will not allow us to sit in pews to participate in belly-button religion.  Growing faith will call us, challenge us, and convert us again and again.

I've said all of this to get us to awaken to something that, at least for me, I had never given thought.  The Muslim faith is full of individuals who are as lazy and indifferent in their religion as some are in ours; not more so than us, but just like us.  This means an open door for the name of Jesus.

When we hear of any of an entirely different faith perspective, we tend to see them as devout, strong, aggressive in/for their belief system.  But this isn't the case.  They have the very same indifference levels that we in the Christian circle note.  They have their legalists, their liberals, their moderates, and their "in name only".

Many of these, therefore, are open doors to the message of Jesus.

When encountering any of a completely different faith base, do not assume they would have no interest in Christianity.  They not only would, many already have.

May we broaden our reach by opening our minds of what can be.  Let others be the judge of whether they accept the nature and message of Jesus.  May we not pre-judge causing millions to never get to hear of the God of the Resurrected Jesus and His Holy Spirit.

DO YOU EVER FEEL DOWN....BUT DON'T KNOW WHY?

I don't know if I'm weird or if I'm normal (no voting please).

I hit occasional down-spots where I feel discouraged and simply haven't a clue as to why.  It's one thing to feel empty because of conflict with a person(s) or an event(s). Yet, to come over the horizon of a moment in time and sense depression for no clear reason seems...really weird.

For one, working with God seems to be somewhat of a conflict.  I must continually remind myself to believe in His ability; not in mine.  Inadequacy has always been my strong suit so that part is most natural.

The friction may be that I'm trying to constantly yield my inadequate self of me to the quite adequate Holy Spirit...within me.  I don't know if you all find this to be a snap. Me?  Not so easy.

So you say, Terry, what seems to spark this struggle?

I say, There is so much to be done and so many who are better equipped than me to do it.

You say, Don't you remember your Philippians 4:4-9 teaching of shift our minds to think on the right, excellent, trustworthy, and then the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind?

Then I say, Oh yeah.  I forgot that part.  I will choose to think on what is going right more than what coulda/shoulda/woulda.

Then you say, You know, Terry, we are all so much alike.  We struggle with the desire to be more than we are.  But we are more than we are through the Spirit of Jesus.  He indwells to take us places we could never go on our own.  You must remember that if it is to be, it is up to Him to work it out.  You, Terry, are to be inclined to wait for Him and then move for Him that He might be glorified.  

My response is, But I'm this age and still so nothing.  

Your response to my response insists, Yes, but being nothing means there is great room for Him to fill you with His presence.  

Me.  Good point.  I get discouraged with my lack...but He seems willing to use me anyway.

Oh.  I feel better now.  Thanks for the talk.

OBLIVIOUS

Have you ever preached for a rigid legalistic church?  Do you know what it's like to try to survive in this when the Bible says that the Law will kill; but the Spirit will give life? Few realize the killing fields of Law.  The weight of legalism is threatening and staggering.  Good people wither and die under such regime.

Yet, God calls us to survive; even learn in the center of it.  Don't be oblivious to hope.

For those who feel they are about to die; I encourage you that due to the resurrected Jesus you have reason to live right in the center of anything that wishes to entomb you. Breathe.  Relax.  Believe.  Admire.  Focus.  Dream.  Wait.  Where you live in this invisible prison of yours has kingdom keys which can unlock the sturdiest of prison cells.

Just how green must be the grass where we live?

Very!  Certainly!  Absolutely!  Unequivocally!

Regardless of pressures, frustrations, and deep troubles, the grass which we tread is fundamentally quite green.

Bring your issues to the table of distress.  Hold them.  Stroke them as you absorb the difficulty of your particular demise.

Reflect upon the pre-teen slave boys, pried from their Mommas and Daddies, in the Middle East who are awakened at 4:00 a.m. daily to hit the fishing waters to make money for the Power Agents of the region.  Some will die again today because they are so young and cannot withstand the duties assigned.  Others among them will wish they were so fortunate to die.

Ponder the young and beautiful teen girls who are made sex slaves of Drug Lords; once again extracted from their parents and siblings.  These of hopeful future, today, are drugged into submissive stupor.  They are real, authentic, wonderful girls whose lives are trashed by senseless egotists who care for no one other but themselves.

Sit for a moment at the kitchen table with the couple who discovered it was their son in the fatal wreck at 2:00 this morning.  What would they give to have your worries? What would they trade to study his handsome face while listening to the utmost privilege of him telling of his plans for college?

Try to sense the sheer stun of the family of seven as we hear the news this morning that their trailer home--and everything in it--was destroyed by fire last night. Everything is gone.  It's just stuff we point out; yet our stuff seems to carry immeasurable value.

Finally, as one account after another of actual horrid living conditions could be expressed, consider the multitudes who hear from the doctors this morning of their beloved, Hopeless, Malignant, Brain-dead, or Will be as a vegetable.  

Are these what you are facing?  Would you trade your stress for any of the above?  It's doubtful.  Please be encouraged.  I am not naive to radical difficulty.  Neither am I naive to the fact that much of what fills our minds is a thief with designing tactics to rob us of gratitude from the green grass of right now.

While we all hurt....while we each take our turn in varying levels of direct pain....we must not live oblivious to the sweetness that also fills our days.  Regardless of those serious troubles which take our breath away, there are deeper and darker conditions that would cause us to volunteer to keep the ones we have.

Thank you, God, for my right now.  Please, please reach into the many camps of torture, homelessness, and lonely...and give them the joys like I have.

THE CHURCH ISN'T A LECTURE HALL

I sit at this computer day in and day out.  My first agenda is to post something real for where you live; for who you are.  That's an exciting challenge in itself as numbers say there are over 1600 of you out there reading these words.  What an exciting and wide array of personalities and prejudices.

So I often sit, as in this morning, just staring at a blank screen.  I wonder two things: what does God want you to consider and how do I communicate it in such a way that the message will resonate with the multitude.  Every post has the two of you in mind; God and you.

Church has been sideswiped by an innocent mislabel.  Church is not a framed building with stained-glass architecture where people flow in and out on schedule.  Rather, the real meaning of church is the people.  Church isn't a lecture hall.  It is a systematic arrangement of God-people who live bigger than they can imagine because He is.

We are a vibrant combination of where we have been, who we are, and what we will become.  All three ingredients formulate a fantastic combustible combination of vision and hope.  To focus on one or only two of the three will leave us deformed....or possibly unformed.

The church isn't a lecture hall where good people file in, sit still, look at their watches and file out in relief that it's finally over.  Church is life with meaning and purpose. Believers don't just acknowledge doctrinal codes with a shrug of indifference.  No.  We believe...we believe God will do amazing things through us that will glorify Him and bless so many others.

The church isn't a lecture hall.  It is a great gathering of people who finally find that illusive, What is life all about?, answered.  Pills and addictions are mere signals that the spirit of man is authentic as well as in the hunt for a satisfaction that is bigger than one can construct on his own.

The church isn't a lecture hall.  It is a wild life of what's happening now.  Yet, to be honest, this is not the vision communities have of churches.  Strong (but sad) impressions have been left that we are narrow, edgy, and highly squint-eyed in our judgment.  Our judgment isn't necessarily wrong; but we have failed to include ourselves in the mix of much needed improvement.

I would want every person who has found it very handy to dismiss church to rethink your conclusion.  Open up the religious can of worms you once set aside because you could see the holes in guys like me.  Look for a people who love God and who love others.  These will be alive; not just when they die and go to heaven....BUT RIGHT NOW.

The church isn't a lecture hall.  When you come across such, freely dismiss.  Yet, look for the church; the real one where a people sacrificially adore God and believe in what people can become.  I want in on that one.  How about you?

FOLLOWING THE SPIRIT OF GOD

The religiously bent have a challenge; a very big one.  We are called to follow the Spirit of God.  This is not a suggestion from heaven.  It is the core response of a following humanity toward a leading Creator; be led by the Holy Spirit.

Even for those steeped in the theological course, this is no easy task.

The reason following God seems difficult is that once man reaches for a territory or characteristic beyond the norm--and get there--we try to preserve our arrival for the rest of our days.  Following God is journey.  Once climbing a mountain in God's kingdom, we will find that there are more peaks awaiting.

Younger generational mankind seems to have a drive of exploration.  As the younger age, exploration shifts to preservation; an adamant one at that.  Because God is big (immeasurable) and because man is small (measurable), we must consistently strive to quench our efforts to make a kingdom take-over.  To yield and submit to Him will be our call in every age we experience.

Following the Spirit of God is life-giving.  It is risky, unsettling, and wild.  These factors pose threat because we like being in control; running our own show.  The kingdom of God will not work that way for any.  To follow His Spirit will of necessity mean we must shift often in direction and mission.

Man tends to not do this well.  However, when we can make the transition, there is nothing like it.  I encourage you to live daringly on the edge of God's wonder.  It may scare you.  It most likely will take your breath away.  But it will lead you to a Promise Land of life experience you would have deemed likely impossible.

Our God is not tired in His creativity.  Neither is He out of ideas.  It is up to man to yield.  It is up to us to say to God, Show me what you are thinking for who I am and where I live.  You will enter into an entirely new kind of life...now.

Blessings as you search.

IT ISN'T JUST ABOUT WHAT WE DO KNOW

I get to live the oddest life.  I'm surely not alone in it; but my walk is not according to the do this equation that would make life tick.

My life is weird because of our immeasurable God.

You see, I always thought God was about ritual.  That's what made church so boring.  And church, in my mind, was because of God.  He came in neutral colors with nothing to do but sit in a tall armed chair and looks down over Scotland County Missouri where I grew up as a kid.

He didn't seem to do much except crack some sort of spiritual whip when I/we got out of line.  Life in God was basically about right and wrong.  He wasn't much of a help, I figured.  God for sure was not into fun.

But, I've learned. I've learned over the years that man's mind can't take in the wonder and the beauty of God.  He is exciting, creative, imaginative...and very much rooting for me/us.

God and His system isn't just about what we do know so that we are supposed to do the best we can with it.  No.  The kingdom of God is also very much about what we don't know; what we can't explain, what we can't define.  His blessings and riches for us are, in His words, beyond our imagination.

So?  Go for it!!!!

Life with God in Christ is the most amazing concept to try to behold; yet it is so huge we just can't get our minds around it.  If we could, it wouldn't be of God, would it?

WHAT DETERMINES WHO WE ARE?

You are what you eat is a statement slung here and there; I guess intended to urge hearers to better health.  I would assume there is much truth to be evaluated about this.  I do know that there is yet another factor that is absolutely the truth of how we become who we are.

You are what you think.

Sure.  Even this statement requires monitoring.  A person can think they will get a part in a play and find that another received the assignment.  One can think a vacation will go without a hitch, only to find out differently.

But we are what we think when it comes to the spiritual side of our walk.  Our moods.  Our attitudes.  Our dispositions.  These are quite often subject to what we decide to ponder.

If we think happy, this doesn't mean sadness will never appear.  Yet, to think happy will find ways to see joy in the very difficult moments.  To think success doesn't promise that everything will go as we had planned.  It does, though, cause us to see hope; even in the trying times which would ordinarily pull a negative thinker down.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!  Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things--Philippians 4:4-8.

This text has moved me from fierce insecurity to a new level of confidence.  Tough stuff still goes on.  But God has taught me to see value; even in moments where matters don't seem to be going well.  

God isn't fooling us.  The way we think about anything determines whether we have peace or whether we shuffle through life frustrated, whining, and blaming others for our seeming demise.  The way we think....is always a choice.

TULSA WORKSHOP...SPEAK LIFE...BE HERE!

TULSA WORKSHOP

March 18-21

SPEAK LIFE!

               Wednesday PM    John Alan Turner         Speak Life From His Wild Frontier

               Thursday  AM      Jason Thornton            Speak Life From His Wild Creation

               Thursday  PM      Brandon Hatmaker*     Speak Life From His Wild Imagination

               Friday  AM          Rick Atchley                Speak Life From His Wild Heart

               Friday  PM           Kent Brantly**            Speak Life From His Wild Action

               Saturday  AM      Terry Rush                    Speak Life From His Wild Adventure

               Saturday  4:00     Jeff Walling                  Speak Life From His Wild Possibilities

               *    Author of The Barefoot Church

               **  Doctor who survived the Ebola outbreak

               www.tulsaworkshop.org

HOW SHALL WE DEAL WITH THOSE WHO OFFEND US?

Maneuvering through this complex humanity maze is of utmost challenge.  Bumping into each other we have a tendency to wish to rid our circles of some of our acquaintances.  We have good days, better days, best days....and then....not-so-much days.  The latter can be filled with aggravationists as well as violationtionists....against us personally.

So how shall we handle those who rattle our cages by disturbing our moods?

The answer is not of rocket-science level.  It is quite simple.  Forgive.  Forgive the intentional offender as well as the innocent (didn't mean to) party who hurts our feelings.  This is not only possible; it is expected.  It is not only expected; it is very, very necessary.

Being offended will always play into our being the victim role until...until we awaken to a very stark truth.  Each of us also offends.  Often.  Both casually and intentionally.  We are never better at doing life than the one who offends us.  Not ever.

So how do we deal this those who offend us?

We find we can give them mercy and forgiveness at the drop of a hat because we do the very same thing; if not to them, then certainly to someone else.

We are never personally outdone by another in ability to injure and hurt other people. Each of us is very capable of ruining another's day.  This is why mercy is vital.  Mercy forgives offenders without their asking for forgiveness.  Mercy is forgiveness activated with immediacy because we are never more aware of any sins more than our own.

So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:12-13).

So you are a minister and the church is rough on you?  Deal with it from the awareness that you are also rough on them.  You are in church leadership and you can't get others to operate according to your vision?  Be assured you fail to function in ways.  Irritated with some?  Consider those who are frustrated with you...and then maybe you can back your anger down a notch.

We are in this together.  The bottom line is that each of us has enough crud of our own to keep us from blaming another for lack of progress.  Jesus taught it.  We believe it. Together we are able to dismiss the stinging arrows from one another because we launch a few of our own.

Of necessity, it will always be important that we first be attentive to our own flaws for they are many and they are perpetual.

SEISMIC SHIFTS COMING TO YOUR LOCAL CHURCH

I see three things that the local church either faces now or will ultimately confront in the immediate future:

   (1)  People are becoming less likely to be drawn to our buildings for Sunday mornings.
   (2)  Radical Islam may bring massive disruption.
   (3)  There is immense need to frame our faith in Jesus; not our man-biased doctrines.

First, it seems that the idea that community will be drawn to us for Sunday School and Church is waning.  Not all, but many congregations are withering.  Of course reasons vary.  Yet, there is a clear trend that this younger generation is looking for experiences to serve others and not simply a gathering time for observation from the pew.

Second, America has been hit as in 9/11.  This week it was Paris.  The threat of Radical Islam is fierce as well as intentional.  While we must not be led to panic, we must lift our heads from the sleepy sands of indifference.

Third, Jesus must become a greater reality in our personal lives; while simultaneously, we adapt to becoming lesser.  Faith's stage is not that we be front and center; but it is for Him.  We must decrease that He might increase.

So what shall we do?

   (1)  We must humble ourselves.  We have such inclination to believe what we want to believe.  Not so oddly, this posture is both self-serving and handy.  We must care for the needs of others over our own preferences.  It seems each generation, as it ages, takes strong stands to preserve church they way we like it.

Only humility will allow us to remain open to the Spirit's leading of any age.  God has been creative from the get-go and it is often the churches that do not like it when it comes to the way they go about ministries.

   (2)  Should there be massive attack upon any soil where Christians are serving, we should be prepared to receive injury and be ready to minister.  This will include much spiritual determination for the flesh will want to hide in self-preservation.

What is one to do if all communication systems are rocketed?  From Christian perspective, any massive disruption should already be programmed into our belief system that we are immediately called to engage in outreach to help the surrounding community.

   (3)  Just as our nation is getting by (financially) on borrowed time, so is the church. We have all but demolished the good name of Jesus with our competitive doctrinal debates.  It is a stark wonder that we have not been called into account.  Wonderful people have gone deaf to the strong call of God due to our clamoring voices of religious division.

We are the problem; not those who dismiss us.  Jesus is the Savior of this limping, dimming world.  All churches will do well to know more and more and more of Him so that communities may note we ourselves are transformed before we ask them to be.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW WILL HURT US

What we don't know won't hurt us is an age-old quip meant to give our shoulders permission to shrug.  We don't know.  We don't care.  None the worse off is indifferent posture.

Yet, this isn't a true stance.  If you don't know that the eggs are contaminated, will that not hurt your child?  If you don't know the highway is closed due to construction, will this not interfere with your trip?  If you don't know that you are to have documents filed by a specific date or be penalized, will the $250 late fee be of no concern?

What we don't know will hurt us if such knowledge carries importance and impact.

I have a holy ache in my heart for every person to know the love of God through the resurrected Jesus.  Yes, I hesitate on many fronts to bring this up.  I don't want to offend.  I don't want to appear cheesy.  Too, I don't want to drive anyone farther away because they just can't take religious discussion.

Truth be told, everyone is headed for the grave.  For some it will be a sudden moment of surprise at an early age while others will have had much time to fathom such an event.  We must know about the rescue of Jesus for if we don't know it, this will hurt us.

It is completely unnecessary that any miss the luxury of heaven.

I plead, beg, and urge those who value their own lives to give this matter attention. The flesh part of us is not eternal; but temporary.  Cemeteries back my claim.  The spirit part of man is eternal.  It is this eternal fact of us that we must give supreme focus.

Earth isn't the real and heaven the blurred.  Earth doesn't come in oceans and mountains while heaven is a non-formed, gray, hazy, floatatious, and meaningless mist.  No.  Heaven is earth exaggerated.  Everything is purer, brighter, more glamorous, and of greater value.  The streets of gold language is to help us to imagine the stronger value of gold over earth's asphalt.

Yes, I agree that learning about God doesn't seem simple.  Sorting through what is truly of God and what is the figment of man's interpretation takes initiative and discernment.  It it a lifetime effort.  Yet, we must do this.

It will not do to dismiss the call of God.  No sinner is exempt from the need to be born again.  Not one.  No one is too far gone but what God will not rescue by His unbiased love.  The person of Jesus is foremost and center.  He really died on a real cross in a real country for real people who take our turns roaming earth.  We must get to know him.

If we don't know Jesus, this will hurt us in the end.  To know him is to know the most important fact available to the heart of mankind.

STRAINS IN LIFE

Regardless of how much we talk the talk, for a person to operate at high efficiency in the kingdom, great and costly strain will be factored.  The only winners in God's system are those who can lose well.

Climbing the ladder may be for corporations, but not for churches.  God sent His Son....downward.  We are to follow.  God's Son suffered.  We are to follow.  God's Son died.  We are to die to ourselves.  God raised His Son.  We are to be raised in similar fashion.

Resurrection life means more than there must have been a burial; it means that there was first a death.

Everyone I know lives beneath the umbrella of strain, stress, and struggle. Unbelievers spend their time trying to escape such days.  Believers, on the other hand, know something about the kingdom life; it flourishes when under fire.

The church was never stronger and more productive in Acts than when persecution hit. This is an amazing equation; death to the disciple means life to others.  Our problem is we program our every waking hour to see that we live in such safety that we push back the imposition of death.

One will only really live by dying; dying to self, dying for others.

The happiest upon earth tend to be those who have given themselves away.

Strains in life?  Simply authentic blessings.  Treasure them.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CHURCH

There is robust debate as to the exact truth regarding the global climate. Protests abound only to be dismissed by the rolling of the eyes.  The effects or non keep the present culture engaged in discussions; each group believing they wield the stronger argument.

There seems to be (admittedly my personal view) a climate shift from the spiritual life found in Bible revelation compared to the climate of the church today.

The beginning of the church in the book of Acts was vibrant with community.  Sacrifice and surrender overrode self.  Devotion to the certainty that Jesus was not only God's Son; but had resurrected from the dead as well, was a stunning doctrine that changed the climate of religionists.

What is known by historians as the Age of Enlightenment sprouted in the 1700s. Knowledge and reason become both prominent and dominant.  From noting key developments from this field, it seems that the church, simultaneously and unknowingly, enter an Age of Endarkment.

Faith was continued to be called faith.  But it seems it was interpreted in the church to mean logic; human logic.  Journeys became steps.  Community was reduced to fundamental individualism.  The fruit of that age may be more than we can overcome.

I'm far too frail to grasp even this which I write.  So know that while you endure this or any discussion of mine.  Yet, it seems that Individualism cuts against the grain of the Community church because the Age of Enlightenment brought about a sense of individual power which meant a new kind of aggressive climbing of the ladder.

Our doctrinal challenges of this present climate have as much to do with our view of power as much as His revelation in Scripture.  Devoted Individualism keeps us on the hunt for the church that pleases me when the Scriptures call us to be on the hunt for those many in number who know not the name of Jesus.

Will we be able to survive us?  Will communities of seekers be able to survive us as well?

There has been a strong climate change in the church; one of commitment to self.  This must be reversed; yet, I have no idea how far gone I am in this swirl of humanistic spirituality.

What are we to do?  My estimation is that we become aware that God created us lest we serve a god that we have created.  Bending the Bible to fit our pet slants is nothing new.  Yielding to its call is, also, what men and women have tried to do for centuries.

We want to be in on the latter.  And if we are to be, the challenge will be steep and costly.  Dying that others might live is always the pattern of the Jesus format.  That others get what they need over what I prefer is easily typed onto a blog post.  It is also easily read.  But, it contains a risky depth that will surely, but very necessarily, press us.

Climate change is very needed in the church.  Pray for our ability to have the courage, the faith, and the stamina to do this well that others may come to believe that God is not just a Higher Power; but is a personal living Father.

LIFE: COULD WE HAVE DO-OVERS?

Years ago our church took out ads in two Hollywood papers offering contact information for any in the celebrity industry who might be seeking God.  One call came in from a very kind woman who said that she could not tell me her name; but she wanted to visit with me about finding peace in God.

Everyone is on the same level when it comes to the question of whether the spiritual is a reality.

Life is a swirl of success and failure; conquering and faltering.  Our spirits lift only to sink while searching for recovery of the lift experience...repeatedly.  What will it take to help us realize this life is temporary; yet there is the true eternal aspect of each which begs for our attention?

I want you to know that I seem addicted to loving/caring/reaching out to people.  I believe every person is treasured by God for each is His personal design.  He is crazy about us...about you...about each.  Our problem is that we sense our own worthlessness and assume God feels the same.

Some don't believe God exists.  Others think He might; but the way to Him seems blurred with confusion; religious distractions and infractions.  Still others would like to know Him but feel they are too far gone, sin-wise, to be redeemed.  My heart goes out to all with the deepest sympathy.  I understand our hesitation.

I'm far too inadequate to do a very good job of communicating God's absolute desire to care for every one of us.  Yet, I will continue to try.  There has yet to be a day without a new listing in the obituary columns.  None are immune to physical death.  We must get serious about plans for the Future!

The afterlife life is a true...very true...reality.  One can see it in small seedlings that die in order to become some living entity much brighter, more alive than it was before succumbing to its garden grave.  A next life after first life is factual.  It isn't guess-work nor is it hope-so-ness.

And just as the seed is buried in the ground in order to come to (new) life, Jesus calls us to be buried (in a watery grave of baptism) in order to be raised up into an entirely new order.  I was.  I did.  And the new life I have found is remarkable...stunningly, surprisingly remarkable!

So why do very good people hesitate; even hesitate with seeming good excuses?  Well, thoughts would vary.  Some balk from injury by we God-professers who discourage them by our in-your-face evangelism tactics.  Others from self-protection due to not sure what to ask, what to do, nor how to do it.  Add to this list several more legitimate reasons of restraint.

Therefore, I want to be one of those who extends an understanding hand.  I want to talk with you, if you wouldn't mind, about what it means to reconnect with God via the new birth.  We are all alike.  There is no other kind of person in the church other than a redeemed sinner who gets a second chance at life...day by day.

Jesus really is a Place to Start Life Over.  Do-overs; yes!

We each battle the pull to do life the best we can on our own.  Eventually (I hope), we will run out of gas.  We will reach a point that our self-assertive efforts just can't cut it any longer.  We are sunk unless this thing about God....is....actually true.

I want you to say to me (or any like me), Hey, I wonder if you could carefully and patiently give me spiritual direction because my self-made efforts seem to fade far too quickly.  Go easy for I don't know what I'm asking; but I am beginning to believe there is more to life than chasing after this earthly stuff that seems to atrophy in remarkable illusion.

I don't have all of the answers.  But I know Who does.  Together, maybe we can help each other move into a new sort of life that will never fade.  I had to do it (with hesitation I might add) and I'm stunned at the new world I found...to be true as promised.

Contact me privately at trush@memorialdrive.org,  or call 918-519-7474, or see me.  I know how to listen in complete confidence.  Others won't know of your inquiry.  I and others are safe places for you to privately inquire as to the hope that is to be yours.

Ponder seriously that you might want to approach the new year with a new you.