Today is my 68th birthday! Therefore, I'll need to type rather quickly or else I might lose interest and dose off.
Years ago God changed my world. He transformed it, remodeled it, and still supplies it. One of His greatest impacts upon me is when I began to absorb Philippians 4:4-9.
My earlier years were filled with two main threads; excitement and depression. Although wide-eyed about life, I found much discouragement. Bummer days seemed to come from two main sources; what others said to me that were negative and then what I said to myself that was equally pessimistic.
It's weird really. We do not like others criticizing us; but we seem to have a heyday at chastising ourselves for our failures.
Finding God entailed much, much more than going to church, participating in church, and eventually engaging in the leadership of the church. He taught me the way of escape from depression that harangued me day and night.
That Philippians passage calls for us to make a significantly major change; the direction upon which we choose to concentrate. Think on these things we are told. This was my downfall.
Blame for others. Disappointment in others. Frustration with my own inadequacy. These three and a multitude of others were pulling me under. My mind needed a kick-start in the direction and the Bible gave it to me. An authentic upbeat life comes about; not by getting the good breaks but by thinking favorable thoughts.
Yes, it is that simple. And the passage promises that the peace of God which surpasses understanding shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
An upbeat life is not about others getting open doors while we drew the short straws. No. Such a life is base on no one else and no circumstance. It is based upon how we think. Do we think about the good, the excellent, the lovely? Are we filling our minds with the people who support us or those who discourage us?
The good news about all of this is we have a choice. Romans 5:1-5 might encourage you...about you, your days, your colleagues, and your opportunities.
Knowing God makes a difference because He reprograms us to think in entirely different ways. Should you be having a frustrating time in your life, I speak with complete sympathy. Be definitely encouraged. Life changes when we change our thinking.
As a side note, you might find Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is the Way to be very valuable in gaining momentum in this powerful and transforming zone.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
SOMETHING MORE THAN BEER IS BREWING IN ST. LOUIS
Breaking news reported yesterday that the FBI is investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for violations of hacking the Internet systems of the Houston Astros. Long on questions and short on answers, the baseball world is in a coffee-shop clamor this morning. Pros and cons are offered with a bit of dependency as to which team is your team.
Could it be? Are such allegations warranted? Time will tell.
For now we can know that it is no time for the birds to fly off of the bat handle. One would trust that the FBI does not toy with menial disturbances. Likely a breach is believed serious enough to demand thorough investigation. The next few weeks will tell if this story has merit.
This looks so much like church. Many are mere fans as long as the church is winning. Let there be disruption and some will be quick to shift allegiance to another congregation. What I like about it, admire about it, is that I have found church not to be about smooth sailing as much as it is meaningfully about walking atop the rough seas as the winds of threat gain force.
Who doesn't prefer trouble-less life? Who has such? Name me one.
Life is full of ups and downs. True, Jesus extended his hand toward Peter who had successfully negotiated walking on water for just a few moments. Too, He lives to pull us from the depths of our ultimate and sinking failures.
So the breaking news in the baseball world today is the chatter of many including several who aren't sports fans. It's serious. It could be devastating. But in the midst of this I would join the voices of faith who believe that even in the treacherous times it is such a moment as this where one can believe the best in people and determine to stand beside those who may be in their worst of moments.
If innocent, apology will need to be offered by those who jumped to very vocal and judgmental conclusions. If guilty, we will extend our hands in supportive rescue because we love people over performance.
At the end of the game, because of the drastic nature of our powerful God, blessings will arise from the ashes of suspicion...or even guilt. Due to the Cross....victory targets us.
Could it be? Are such allegations warranted? Time will tell.
For now we can know that it is no time for the birds to fly off of the bat handle. One would trust that the FBI does not toy with menial disturbances. Likely a breach is believed serious enough to demand thorough investigation. The next few weeks will tell if this story has merit.
This looks so much like church. Many are mere fans as long as the church is winning. Let there be disruption and some will be quick to shift allegiance to another congregation. What I like about it, admire about it, is that I have found church not to be about smooth sailing as much as it is meaningfully about walking atop the rough seas as the winds of threat gain force.
Who doesn't prefer trouble-less life? Who has such? Name me one.
Life is full of ups and downs. True, Jesus extended his hand toward Peter who had successfully negotiated walking on water for just a few moments. Too, He lives to pull us from the depths of our ultimate and sinking failures.
So the breaking news in the baseball world today is the chatter of many including several who aren't sports fans. It's serious. It could be devastating. But in the midst of this I would join the voices of faith who believe that even in the treacherous times it is such a moment as this where one can believe the best in people and determine to stand beside those who may be in their worst of moments.
If innocent, apology will need to be offered by those who jumped to very vocal and judgmental conclusions. If guilty, we will extend our hands in supportive rescue because we love people over performance.
At the end of the game, because of the drastic nature of our powerful God, blessings will arise from the ashes of suspicion...or even guilt. Due to the Cross....victory targets us.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
WILL WE EVER GET THIS THROUGH OUR THIN HEADS?
Do you ever feel just about yo-yoed out?
I mean do you ever get weary of feeling at times that you are better than others while, simultaneously, feeling worse than others day in and day out?
Words.
Words come at us and cause us to soar or to be sore. This upsy/downsy routine keeps one astir. Fluctuating between what feels like good days and bad days, we find the oddest of scenarios. For one, our downer days can still offer assurance that hope is around the corner. Too, on our upper days, the uneasiness that pins might puncture our balloons seem to always be lurking.
How shall we approach such moody extremes? Is there a solution?
Jesus is our righteousness.
Jesus is who makes any person right in the sight of God. We don't have such a capacity. We are devastated, weak, and a mess. There is one hope that we would be enough. Jesus is that hope.
He took our sins (past, present, future) on at the Cross. He hit them head on. He was neither vague nor passive. As nails held him tightly, he nailed our deepest need; the Yuck of us was absorbed into his shell, his soul. Darkness was so thick that it blocked out the sun in mid-afternoon.
Will we ever get it through our thin heads that we are okay in the sight of God due to how un-okay Jesus became (taking our place) on that hill? Will we ever dismantle our egos so that we can admit we need a Savior? And will we ever escape our depression because those same egos take such big hits from our obsessive failings?
Yes.
We will.
Because....we believe Jesus did what we cannot do from our very best efforts. He gave us his "good enough"...II Corinthians 5:21.
I mean do you ever get weary of feeling at times that you are better than others while, simultaneously, feeling worse than others day in and day out?
Words.
Words come at us and cause us to soar or to be sore. This upsy/downsy routine keeps one astir. Fluctuating between what feels like good days and bad days, we find the oddest of scenarios. For one, our downer days can still offer assurance that hope is around the corner. Too, on our upper days, the uneasiness that pins might puncture our balloons seem to always be lurking.
How shall we approach such moody extremes? Is there a solution?
Jesus is our righteousness.
Jesus is who makes any person right in the sight of God. We don't have such a capacity. We are devastated, weak, and a mess. There is one hope that we would be enough. Jesus is that hope.
He took our sins (past, present, future) on at the Cross. He hit them head on. He was neither vague nor passive. As nails held him tightly, he nailed our deepest need; the Yuck of us was absorbed into his shell, his soul. Darkness was so thick that it blocked out the sun in mid-afternoon.
Will we ever get it through our thin heads that we are okay in the sight of God due to how un-okay Jesus became (taking our place) on that hill? Will we ever dismantle our egos so that we can admit we need a Savior? And will we ever escape our depression because those same egos take such big hits from our obsessive failings?
Yes.
We will.
Because....we believe Jesus did what we cannot do from our very best efforts. He gave us his "good enough"...II Corinthians 5:21.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
THE STRONG NEED FOR STRONG MEN
No one longs for love or feels more loveless than an addict. Wanting to stay in control can keep us human beings from knowing---experiencing---God as desperate lover. As Robert Bly explained in his book Iron John: A Book About Men, "Some women want a passive man if they want a man at all; the church wants a tamed man--they are called priests; the university wants a domesticated man--they are called tenure track people; the corporation wants a...sanitized, hairless, shallow man."
But we addicts know that we need a wild man. A man who will love us when we wander, when we drink too much, eat too much, spend too much...or try to drink our own urine. The God-man who has gone to the absolute extreme for us.
Sharon A. Hersh
But we addicts know that we need a wild man. A man who will love us when we wander, when we drink too much, eat too much, spend too much...or try to drink our own urine. The God-man who has gone to the absolute extreme for us.
Sharon A. Hersh
Saturday, June 13, 2015
THE WIDE-EYED IMAGINATION OF A CHILD
Children are the fascination of the world. Indeed, they also seem to be the most fascinated. One easily finds Jesus in their corner when he spoke, Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Why?
What is this mystique about a child that seems to draw even Jesus' defense?
There is a valuable characteristic of a child that increasing age seems to unintentionally sand off the effective edges. Think about it with me. What is one of the earlier-year trademarks of Johnny or Samantha? They ask questions! Often, momma feels, too many questions.
Herein lies a possible treasure that our maturing process lets slip away; the ability (even hunger) to inquire. In Warren Berger's A More Beautiful Question, a staggering note from the publisher is logged within the inside cover flap.
Berger's surprising findings reveal that even though children start out asking hundreds of questions a day, questioning "falls off the cliff" as kids enter school. In an education and business culture devised to reward rote answers over challenging inquiry, questioning isn't encouraged--and is, in fact, sometimes barely tolerated.
Questioning falls of the cliff as they enter the education process and then more so entering the business world? Does this not strike you as profoundly backwards?
God is constantly pulling us to the new. We are called to be born again. We are to be found new day by day. The call is consistent. The call cannot be ignored for this newness is to be framed within the flexible, questioning mindset...of a child. Again Jesus remarks, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Berger's findings offer a very strange and perplexing matter. At the point of education the information mind increases as the imaginative mind decreases. This is disturbing. When we quit asking, we decrease our interaction with as well as dependence upon God. Over time we gradually begin to develop understanding over mystery, control over the unknown, and a building of ego over an exploration of what has yet to be discovered.
The wide-eyed imagination of a child goes on in some laboratories and research centers. It does not seem to be as welcomed in the very place where it should be the trademark; the church.
Our beloved Restoration Movement was hijacked decades ago. While it began as a restoration of the things of God centered upon the thrill of the Word of God, it soon sank into an anemic Preservation Movement where sluggish traditions and mortal fears increasing hover to this day.
No, I'm not pushing for entry of more aggressive women's roles, different kinds of music, improved views of gays (which will always call for our loving consideration). These are not in the ballpark of my immediate concerns. I'm talking about becoming more of a church that is what God has in mind than what history has handed down.
And what are we expected to do with this information? It might be a blessing to the world and to ourselves if we increasingly become as children in the church Jesus is building by asking a lot more questions about why we believe what we believe where we believe.
I'm crazy about being in the church. I love it. I eat, drink, sleep it. It is within this outlandishly wonderful entity that I still find the call of God to be what it has always been; the impossibles becoming possibles. The only way we are going to hit upon these next wonders.....is to have the wide-eyed imagination of a child....so it seems that Jesus clearly asserts.
Why?
What is this mystique about a child that seems to draw even Jesus' defense?
There is a valuable characteristic of a child that increasing age seems to unintentionally sand off the effective edges. Think about it with me. What is one of the earlier-year trademarks of Johnny or Samantha? They ask questions! Often, momma feels, too many questions.
Herein lies a possible treasure that our maturing process lets slip away; the ability (even hunger) to inquire. In Warren Berger's A More Beautiful Question, a staggering note from the publisher is logged within the inside cover flap.
Berger's surprising findings reveal that even though children start out asking hundreds of questions a day, questioning "falls off the cliff" as kids enter school. In an education and business culture devised to reward rote answers over challenging inquiry, questioning isn't encouraged--and is, in fact, sometimes barely tolerated.
Questioning falls of the cliff as they enter the education process and then more so entering the business world? Does this not strike you as profoundly backwards?
God is constantly pulling us to the new. We are called to be born again. We are to be found new day by day. The call is consistent. The call cannot be ignored for this newness is to be framed within the flexible, questioning mindset...of a child. Again Jesus remarks, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Berger's findings offer a very strange and perplexing matter. At the point of education the information mind increases as the imaginative mind decreases. This is disturbing. When we quit asking, we decrease our interaction with as well as dependence upon God. Over time we gradually begin to develop understanding over mystery, control over the unknown, and a building of ego over an exploration of what has yet to be discovered.
The wide-eyed imagination of a child goes on in some laboratories and research centers. It does not seem to be as welcomed in the very place where it should be the trademark; the church.
Our beloved Restoration Movement was hijacked decades ago. While it began as a restoration of the things of God centered upon the thrill of the Word of God, it soon sank into an anemic Preservation Movement where sluggish traditions and mortal fears increasing hover to this day.
No, I'm not pushing for entry of more aggressive women's roles, different kinds of music, improved views of gays (which will always call for our loving consideration). These are not in the ballpark of my immediate concerns. I'm talking about becoming more of a church that is what God has in mind than what history has handed down.
And what are we expected to do with this information? It might be a blessing to the world and to ourselves if we increasingly become as children in the church Jesus is building by asking a lot more questions about why we believe what we believe where we believe.
I'm crazy about being in the church. I love it. I eat, drink, sleep it. It is within this outlandishly wonderful entity that I still find the call of God to be what it has always been; the impossibles becoming possibles. The only way we are going to hit upon these next wonders.....is to have the wide-eyed imagination of a child....so it seems that Jesus clearly asserts.
Friday, June 12, 2015
WHY WE NEVER GIVE UP ON ANYONE
For every ten people who bug the tar out of us, there are ten who are equally bugged by us. We have such a knack to turn a blind eye to our own offenses. This allows us, of course, to operate with a more critical eye toward the errors of "their" ways.
When we begin a committed walk with God, one of the first assignments He issues is that we receive individual crosses to carry. This is not a suggestion. It is a requirement.
The church's reputation today sags because we outspokenly have powerful convictions; but we do not have the endurance power to take offenses while deeply loving the offenders. Thus, our crosses aren't real; but are mere themes from which church hymns are developed.
Humanity is equipped to never give up on anyone. There is an inbuilt free-space afforded each of us that is designed to believe that even the edgiest of acquaintances can find our acceptance. We surely need it from them. It is called forgiveness.
Sneerers and jeerers of Jesus day pleaded for him to come down off of his cross and duke it out with them. He refused because he was on mission to die for them. They had no hope without him. They needed him. But they didn't need him to write them off. They needed him to be maturer than they.
Jesus is different. He would not give up the hope that even his enemies would one day pick up their crosses in His name as converted disciples. These would be found to have new mission. Even rigid and rebellious Saul of Tarsus is now known as the infamous Apostle Paul. Never give up on anyone.
Never give up on anyone...especially yourself.
Failure can either sink us or build our determination. We can pout in frustration or learn in incremental steps toward the endurability as found in Jesus. Never give up on anyone including yourself.
One of the things I treasure most about knowing God is His remarkable "Start Over" policy. We are called to begin life again day by day. We can and we get to.
We never give up on anyone, including ourselves, because forgiveness which flows from the cross is now the identical process which flows from the crosses we carry. These crosses are not jewelry around a neck. They are sufferings, deeply wounding injuries, so that those of us who don't deserve a second chance get that one and sixty-nine more...endlessly.
Jesus' bold and daring rescue of us, very personally, is why we will never give up one another. Jesus absorbed the guilt...of each of us. We will never give up....on anyone.
When we begin a committed walk with God, one of the first assignments He issues is that we receive individual crosses to carry. This is not a suggestion. It is a requirement.
The church's reputation today sags because we outspokenly have powerful convictions; but we do not have the endurance power to take offenses while deeply loving the offenders. Thus, our crosses aren't real; but are mere themes from which church hymns are developed.
Humanity is equipped to never give up on anyone. There is an inbuilt free-space afforded each of us that is designed to believe that even the edgiest of acquaintances can find our acceptance. We surely need it from them. It is called forgiveness.
Sneerers and jeerers of Jesus day pleaded for him to come down off of his cross and duke it out with them. He refused because he was on mission to die for them. They had no hope without him. They needed him. But they didn't need him to write them off. They needed him to be maturer than they.
Jesus is different. He would not give up the hope that even his enemies would one day pick up their crosses in His name as converted disciples. These would be found to have new mission. Even rigid and rebellious Saul of Tarsus is now known as the infamous Apostle Paul. Never give up on anyone.
Never give up on anyone...especially yourself.
Failure can either sink us or build our determination. We can pout in frustration or learn in incremental steps toward the endurability as found in Jesus. Never give up on anyone including yourself.
One of the things I treasure most about knowing God is His remarkable "Start Over" policy. We are called to begin life again day by day. We can and we get to.
We never give up on anyone, including ourselves, because forgiveness which flows from the cross is now the identical process which flows from the crosses we carry. These crosses are not jewelry around a neck. They are sufferings, deeply wounding injuries, so that those of us who don't deserve a second chance get that one and sixty-nine more...endlessly.
Jesus' bold and daring rescue of us, very personally, is why we will never give up one another. Jesus absorbed the guilt...of each of us. We will never give up....on anyone.
Sunday, June 07, 2015
WHEN YOU GET READY TO BELIEVE IN GOD
Reality doors:
I encourage you to watch for future occasion to change your mind whether you are blatantly opposed to God/church stuff or you simply have no leanings. Pay attention to life, your life, as it is rolled out before you. It is very possible that you will volunteer in the days ahead to give serious consideration to the spiritual side of....yourself.
Don't tell me. You are an eye-witness to Christian jerkism. You know of testimonies of hundreds who carry the Christian banner with behavior as if their underwear is too tight. I get it. Oh, how I've heard it. Uh-huh. I bet you can be just as spiritual sitting on your back deck with a cup of coffee on Sunday morning as you could with all those many hypocrites who go to church.
Well, maybe you can't.
Christianity is about many things. Faith in things not seen. Forgiveness of enemies and of self. Dying to self. And, not getting your way to where you always come off feeling good about things. Its trademark is the Cross and an empty grave; two things humans are too small to handle.
Hear me well. I'm not saying that believers like me are squeaky clean. Of course not. We were baptized for such a reason; we cannot save ourselves. Even our do-good efforts failed us..and some of you. Believe me, we know failure. Enter Jesus, the one who is known as Savior.
He is the only one good enough. He is the only who can/would/did pay the price of my sins/yours as well. Jesus is the name above all names because he is the only religious leader who died and rose from the dead. This documentation is embossed into every gravestone testifying that the deceased were born and then died x-amount of years from Jesus' birth.
Go ahead. Hang out the church-goers' dirty laundry all you want. Brag. Sneer. Joke. Have a big time. I'm just saying there's more to you than this. I'm saying you have an inner awareness that maybe--just maybe--there really is a God and you could humble yourself a bit just to consider that these thoughts you are experiencing may be His call.
I believe that so many who regard God as a silly figment of church imagination will one day reverse these thoughts. People are good. Every person is valued; by God and by neighbor. Whims and attitudes; yes they may rule for a term or two. But after awhile it finally occurs to us that we can't do life, let alone death, on our own steam.
Blessings to you even if you simply begin to begin to wonder about the reality of God. Of course I'm biased. You get that. But I'm biased as well toward those who don't quite know how to assess the spirit life; is it real/is it not? My main thing is to encourage you not to dismiss the possibility even if you don't understand it.
Many don't understand why a key would cause an engine to start, but we drive cars anyway. We actually believe that turning a key forward causes something to make something else do something. Hmmm...I wonder why some are so willing to go by faith each morning as we open the car door, engage in a process that most of us have extremely little grasp of understanding, and, yet, believe that people who believe in God are ridiculous?
Doesn't quite square up, does it?
- Many believe that God truly is.
- Many feel convinced of just the opposite.
- Many others don't know quite yet what they think.
I encourage you to watch for future occasion to change your mind whether you are blatantly opposed to God/church stuff or you simply have no leanings. Pay attention to life, your life, as it is rolled out before you. It is very possible that you will volunteer in the days ahead to give serious consideration to the spiritual side of....yourself.
Don't tell me. You are an eye-witness to Christian jerkism. You know of testimonies of hundreds who carry the Christian banner with behavior as if their underwear is too tight. I get it. Oh, how I've heard it. Uh-huh. I bet you can be just as spiritual sitting on your back deck with a cup of coffee on Sunday morning as you could with all those many hypocrites who go to church.
Well, maybe you can't.
Christianity is about many things. Faith in things not seen. Forgiveness of enemies and of self. Dying to self. And, not getting your way to where you always come off feeling good about things. Its trademark is the Cross and an empty grave; two things humans are too small to handle.
Hear me well. I'm not saying that believers like me are squeaky clean. Of course not. We were baptized for such a reason; we cannot save ourselves. Even our do-good efforts failed us..and some of you. Believe me, we know failure. Enter Jesus, the one who is known as Savior.
He is the only one good enough. He is the only who can/would/did pay the price of my sins/yours as well. Jesus is the name above all names because he is the only religious leader who died and rose from the dead. This documentation is embossed into every gravestone testifying that the deceased were born and then died x-amount of years from Jesus' birth.
Go ahead. Hang out the church-goers' dirty laundry all you want. Brag. Sneer. Joke. Have a big time. I'm just saying there's more to you than this. I'm saying you have an inner awareness that maybe--just maybe--there really is a God and you could humble yourself a bit just to consider that these thoughts you are experiencing may be His call.
I believe that so many who regard God as a silly figment of church imagination will one day reverse these thoughts. People are good. Every person is valued; by God and by neighbor. Whims and attitudes; yes they may rule for a term or two. But after awhile it finally occurs to us that we can't do life, let alone death, on our own steam.
Blessings to you even if you simply begin to begin to wonder about the reality of God. Of course I'm biased. You get that. But I'm biased as well toward those who don't quite know how to assess the spirit life; is it real/is it not? My main thing is to encourage you not to dismiss the possibility even if you don't understand it.
Many don't understand why a key would cause an engine to start, but we drive cars anyway. We actually believe that turning a key forward causes something to make something else do something. Hmmm...I wonder why some are so willing to go by faith each morning as we open the car door, engage in a process that most of us have extremely little grasp of understanding, and, yet, believe that people who believe in God are ridiculous?
Doesn't quite square up, does it?
Saturday, June 06, 2015
OUR GREATEST THREAT IS OUR GREATEST OPPORTUNITY
I make myself very vulnerable to criticism in this post. I feel, though, that some will be touched by His call as we all make effort to develop as believers in and for God.
I am convinced that there is a secret code which unlocks beautiful, wonderful mysteries to life. It is so secret that the mere mention of the topic causes bells, whistles, and alarms to go off. One can't approach the subject without immediate and impulsive rejection....just at the name of the topic.
Why is that? Why has this door to impossible-wonder-becoming-possible so ultra-intimidating. How can those who fail to abide by it feel such confidence that they are an authority on it? Why?
The answer, I believe, is that because it actually cracks the code of flesh control there are mighty opponents against the hearts of mankind to keep us from knowing about such a power. God teaches us to trust it. He emphasizes its technique. Yet, we have a way of ignoring it without disturbance of conscience.
And what is this matter? Our giving. (Did someone just now set off an alarm?)
The spirit wants to give. The flesh wants to keep. The Bible says to sow. The fearful want to store. God calls for us to trust Him for provision. We, on the other hand, are sucked into the temptation of believing from our own understanding.
I am not charging you. Rather, I'm revealing my struggles in this matter. I've been convinced; yet afraid. I read that His grace is sufficient. Too, the Word says that when we give that this grace of His is the big supplying element.
There hasn't been a time that Mary and I have increased our contribution that I haven't wondered if we could complete the financial year at such a pace. The last time we raised our giving my words to her were, Let's try this until the money just isn't there and then we will know we can't do it at this level. Yet, weeks and months have passed and we seem to be ahead.
However, the threat still looms. It pulls at me; tempting me to doubt and making me wonder if I really believe this stuff. And then, after doing battle in my mind, it seems that I really do.
I have put a bit aside for retirement. It's very meager for I have always felt my giving was my retirement investment (and I still believe it on my faith days). This week I learned that the income from this little amount set aside (due to kick in at 70) will be immediately swallowed by an increase in my life insurance at age....70.
This was one of those knock the wind out of me moments.
And it's been very good for me. The question is whether I believe God can handle retirement days. He has handled my non-retirement ones with much higher provision than I could have ever afforded on my own. I live an amazing life.
So now I face yet another test. Does God know how to do retirement years as well as He did working ones? I'm saying He surely does. His grace does not wilt at age 70 (I'm 68 next month by the way). And I share this personal trek with you because I believe many of you face moments where you question God, your faith, even yourself.
Our greatest threat, I am convinced, is our very greatest opportunity. I want to see God do more with my money than I could do on my own. I simply wish at the moment to encourage you in your struggle. Giving is not about building the church banking business. It is about trusting God's talent over ours. We actually believe that the giving away of what we need the most will show up in the strangest and most mysterious ways.
Together may we not fear what we cannot fathom nor calculate. Instead, may we trust the Creator to do His stuff for God still has this creative knack of making something out of nothing. We love to experience Him working...and it does seem that each new day He surely must just be getting started.
I am convinced that there is a secret code which unlocks beautiful, wonderful mysteries to life. It is so secret that the mere mention of the topic causes bells, whistles, and alarms to go off. One can't approach the subject without immediate and impulsive rejection....just at the name of the topic.
Why is that? Why has this door to impossible-wonder-becoming-possible so ultra-intimidating. How can those who fail to abide by it feel such confidence that they are an authority on it? Why?
The answer, I believe, is that because it actually cracks the code of flesh control there are mighty opponents against the hearts of mankind to keep us from knowing about such a power. God teaches us to trust it. He emphasizes its technique. Yet, we have a way of ignoring it without disturbance of conscience.
And what is this matter? Our giving. (Did someone just now set off an alarm?)
The spirit wants to give. The flesh wants to keep. The Bible says to sow. The fearful want to store. God calls for us to trust Him for provision. We, on the other hand, are sucked into the temptation of believing from our own understanding.
I am not charging you. Rather, I'm revealing my struggles in this matter. I've been convinced; yet afraid. I read that His grace is sufficient. Too, the Word says that when we give that this grace of His is the big supplying element.
There hasn't been a time that Mary and I have increased our contribution that I haven't wondered if we could complete the financial year at such a pace. The last time we raised our giving my words to her were, Let's try this until the money just isn't there and then we will know we can't do it at this level. Yet, weeks and months have passed and we seem to be ahead.
However, the threat still looms. It pulls at me; tempting me to doubt and making me wonder if I really believe this stuff. And then, after doing battle in my mind, it seems that I really do.
I have put a bit aside for retirement. It's very meager for I have always felt my giving was my retirement investment (and I still believe it on my faith days). This week I learned that the income from this little amount set aside (due to kick in at 70) will be immediately swallowed by an increase in my life insurance at age....70.
This was one of those knock the wind out of me moments.
And it's been very good for me. The question is whether I believe God can handle retirement days. He has handled my non-retirement ones with much higher provision than I could have ever afforded on my own. I live an amazing life.
So now I face yet another test. Does God know how to do retirement years as well as He did working ones? I'm saying He surely does. His grace does not wilt at age 70 (I'm 68 next month by the way). And I share this personal trek with you because I believe many of you face moments where you question God, your faith, even yourself.
Our greatest threat, I am convinced, is our very greatest opportunity. I want to see God do more with my money than I could do on my own. I simply wish at the moment to encourage you in your struggle. Giving is not about building the church banking business. It is about trusting God's talent over ours. We actually believe that the giving away of what we need the most will show up in the strangest and most mysterious ways.
Together may we not fear what we cannot fathom nor calculate. Instead, may we trust the Creator to do His stuff for God still has this creative knack of making something out of nothing. We love to experience Him working...and it does seem that each new day He surely must just be getting started.
Friday, June 05, 2015
MIRACLE OR NOT TO MIRACLE
Churches want people to join us. We yearn for others to know Father the way we believe we know Him. Fortunately, many walk toward us and eventually with us. Unfortunately, too many never look our way. And more unfortunately, some among us take the same trek....away.
We aren't in the business of personal force toward anyone. There is genuine love and interest for all. Each individual is and should remain free to make individual choices from personal preferences. So let's talk about those who never give a glance in our direction.
One of the whys may be that Christianity has dumbed down. In places we have fought off the ridiculous look because we so yearn for society to accept us. This has resulted in congregations focusing on organizational technique from man's best knowledge. And this is killing us.
When I moved out of religious indifference at age 20 into Christian commitment, I quickly learned why several things of the Bible had ceased. I was given proof-texts and bought into the lingo. And yes, I do believe that there are certain things of the beginning church that are not effective today.
However, we threw the Spirit out in the baptism water.
Boldly standing against miracle, we settled for information management. If we couldn't explain it, we didn't believe it. Yet the virgin birth can't be explained. Jesus taking on mankind's sins can't be explained. How he was raised from the dead...cannot be explained. These, my friend, are the basics to faith and yet we somehow accepted the decent without the wowing mystery of the very church we entered.
We have become a people long on answers and short on Spirit confidence. The effective debater became the congregational hero when those who believed that God could do the impossible were regarded as fanatical.
Religion, true religion, moves by faith. Faith is convinced that what doesn't appear to be anything is just the opposite. Faith is the miracle. Yet, for many churchers, faith is an initial step for some doctrine or formula.
I've been very discouraged lately. Yesterday I reached a point where I told Him I that I was at the end of my productive rope and that I needed to see Him in movement. Twice, at the end of my ability, God showed up with testimony from others that was relievingly affirming.
Our lives get bogged down with our responsibility combined with our talent. After a bit or a long-haul, we eventually wear thin. This is life on the non-miracle side. Quite mistakenly we buy into the idea that if it is to be it is up to me; my stance, my understanding, my skill.
This approach has led me to believe that faith is all about my control; not about God's intervening and active grace. We have tried to tie His hand behind His back and replaced it with two of ours.
I encourage you that to live by faith is something more than an occasional good deed here and a smattering of forgiveness there. It is a real person walking a real road believing our real God can do things we can't imagine nor muster.
Faith....is the miracle for modern day. Control less. Believe bigger. Watch more happen.
We aren't in the business of personal force toward anyone. There is genuine love and interest for all. Each individual is and should remain free to make individual choices from personal preferences. So let's talk about those who never give a glance in our direction.
One of the whys may be that Christianity has dumbed down. In places we have fought off the ridiculous look because we so yearn for society to accept us. This has resulted in congregations focusing on organizational technique from man's best knowledge. And this is killing us.
When I moved out of religious indifference at age 20 into Christian commitment, I quickly learned why several things of the Bible had ceased. I was given proof-texts and bought into the lingo. And yes, I do believe that there are certain things of the beginning church that are not effective today.
However, we threw the Spirit out in the baptism water.
Boldly standing against miracle, we settled for information management. If we couldn't explain it, we didn't believe it. Yet the virgin birth can't be explained. Jesus taking on mankind's sins can't be explained. How he was raised from the dead...cannot be explained. These, my friend, are the basics to faith and yet we somehow accepted the decent without the wowing mystery of the very church we entered.
We have become a people long on answers and short on Spirit confidence. The effective debater became the congregational hero when those who believed that God could do the impossible were regarded as fanatical.
Religion, true religion, moves by faith. Faith is convinced that what doesn't appear to be anything is just the opposite. Faith is the miracle. Yet, for many churchers, faith is an initial step for some doctrine or formula.
I've been very discouraged lately. Yesterday I reached a point where I told Him I that I was at the end of my productive rope and that I needed to see Him in movement. Twice, at the end of my ability, God showed up with testimony from others that was relievingly affirming.
Our lives get bogged down with our responsibility combined with our talent. After a bit or a long-haul, we eventually wear thin. This is life on the non-miracle side. Quite mistakenly we buy into the idea that if it is to be it is up to me; my stance, my understanding, my skill.
This approach has led me to believe that faith is all about my control; not about God's intervening and active grace. We have tried to tie His hand behind His back and replaced it with two of ours.
I encourage you that to live by faith is something more than an occasional good deed here and a smattering of forgiveness there. It is a real person walking a real road believing our real God can do things we can't imagine nor muster.
Faith....is the miracle for modern day. Control less. Believe bigger. Watch more happen.
Thursday, June 04, 2015
COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING
A sure-fire way to miss the wonder and glory in life is to live by comparing ourselves to others. Yet, this is an ongoing process that goes fundamentally unnoticed. We will make personal progress if we can lean into the understanding that goes with this seems-to-be a secret walk.
Comparing to another is an odd issue. One will tend to compare himself to another and find opposing results. Compared to one we elevate our stock by feeling superior. Yet, to another we are likely to find discouragement because we don't meet UP to their performance or their looks or their education.
God makes it clear. When we compare ourselves to ourselves we are without understanding; II Cor. 10:12. For certain, we are often without understanding.
Our tendency is to feel better about ourselves or worse by looking at someone else and noticing their success or failure. James, however, slays us by making this charge: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in point, he has become guilty of all. Sin by gossip? Same guilt as stealing. Sin by laziness? Equal to adultery. When we sin in one place we are guilty of all sins because....all sin is devastating.
Comparatively speaking, we don't know what we are talking about. We have a way of condemning others for their awful sin while we explain ours away as something we are working on....or it's not that bad...or everybody struggles with it.
We tend to be critical of sinners who commit acts which give us absolutely no temptation. It's easy to be vocal about those involved in same-sex attraction when I have never had such an inclination. It's quite another to dismiss jealousy because...well...that's rather an ordinary dilemma. Yet, jealousy isn't a problem to those who are never tempted by it.
When we melt away our trait of comparing ourselves to others we begin to find a new kind of mental/emotional health. First we realize we are all crummy without exception. Second we find the grace of God found in Jesus to be fascinating because it was not longer they who need it...but myself as well.
When we move through life aware of our own sins first we become sympathetic to everyone around us. We may not struggle with the same things; but our battles are similar. I'm at some of my worst days when I comparatively find myself better or worse than another.
The best days, the strongest days, the most encouragingly truthful days are to realize my nothingness. His everythingness is a gift for each of us plagued by our own clear weaknesses as He has given His all to all of us in order to make us into some kind of brand new wonder of a person.
Comparing to another is an odd issue. One will tend to compare himself to another and find opposing results. Compared to one we elevate our stock by feeling superior. Yet, to another we are likely to find discouragement because we don't meet UP to their performance or their looks or their education.
God makes it clear. When we compare ourselves to ourselves we are without understanding; II Cor. 10:12. For certain, we are often without understanding.
Our tendency is to feel better about ourselves or worse by looking at someone else and noticing their success or failure. James, however, slays us by making this charge: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in point, he has become guilty of all. Sin by gossip? Same guilt as stealing. Sin by laziness? Equal to adultery. When we sin in one place we are guilty of all sins because....all sin is devastating.
Comparatively speaking, we don't know what we are talking about. We have a way of condemning others for their awful sin while we explain ours away as something we are working on....or it's not that bad...or everybody struggles with it.
We tend to be critical of sinners who commit acts which give us absolutely no temptation. It's easy to be vocal about those involved in same-sex attraction when I have never had such an inclination. It's quite another to dismiss jealousy because...well...that's rather an ordinary dilemma. Yet, jealousy isn't a problem to those who are never tempted by it.
When we melt away our trait of comparing ourselves to others we begin to find a new kind of mental/emotional health. First we realize we are all crummy without exception. Second we find the grace of God found in Jesus to be fascinating because it was not longer they who need it...but myself as well.
When we move through life aware of our own sins first we become sympathetic to everyone around us. We may not struggle with the same things; but our battles are similar. I'm at some of my worst days when I comparatively find myself better or worse than another.
The best days, the strongest days, the most encouragingly truthful days are to realize my nothingness. His everythingness is a gift for each of us plagued by our own clear weaknesses as He has given His all to all of us in order to make us into some kind of brand new wonder of a person.
Wednesday, June 03, 2015
SOLDIERS OR PICNICKERS FOR GOD?
I have no desire to overstate this. It seems, however, we are a people (America) in trouble. While many of us can sneer at those "others" who clearly want to live on Easy Street, we surely want to be a significant part of the neighborhood. We can see the slothfulness in others while explaining those traits in ourselves as deserving for we have worked hard to get where we are.
Have we grown to a willingness to serve others as long as we are cared for first? Is our benevolence springing from selfish abundance? Are we semi-engaging in a sacrificial comfort zone where it at least looks like we are doing something for others?
Understand, I really do believe that many have abundance because these have trusted God in His call; give and it shall be given to you without measure. I speak, however, of our touchiness where we insist that things be done our way (always the right way, by the way). Our sacrifice tends to be in hand-outs but no so much in endurance of others' weighty opinions.
We tend to want what we...like.
The days of exorbitant need by others is not diminishing. We are called to give our lives away. This would include our time, our money, as well as our pet peeves and our most feared threats. The Cross of Jesus is to be carried; not just remembered at the communion table. When we sing Soldiers of Christ Arise do we really mean Picnickers of Christ Arise?
The church is under great persecution; not from the without, but from within. We tend to want what we want and if we don't get what we want, we have options. Other congregations await our very presence which might offer just the mediocrity which would satisfy the heart. Do we recall that strain is very much a kingdom style as is endurance?
Consumeristic religion is a sham. Many of us labor desperately as to whether we do the things which truly lead people to Jesus or are we doing what we can to keep the attendance count up. This consumerism can often be found to keep the present consumers coming back without realizing there is a great failure to present the hope of Jesus to a dreary and seeking community.
I don't mean to be sounding as an expert. I'm not. Neither do I wish to badmouth us. I've proven that I'm not running. Yet, I do wish to bring to our attention that we continue to be much more touchy about trying to improve and increase than we are about blatant neglect of personal responsibility to reach and teach the lost.
We talk big; even spout in bold statements of where we do and don't stand. But lack of prayer along with habitual refusal to personally carry out the Great Commission is a testimony against our basic stance of we want what we want....with God's endorsement of course.
Have we grown to a willingness to serve others as long as we are cared for first? Is our benevolence springing from selfish abundance? Are we semi-engaging in a sacrificial comfort zone where it at least looks like we are doing something for others?
Understand, I really do believe that many have abundance because these have trusted God in His call; give and it shall be given to you without measure. I speak, however, of our touchiness where we insist that things be done our way (always the right way, by the way). Our sacrifice tends to be in hand-outs but no so much in endurance of others' weighty opinions.
We tend to want what we...like.
The days of exorbitant need by others is not diminishing. We are called to give our lives away. This would include our time, our money, as well as our pet peeves and our most feared threats. The Cross of Jesus is to be carried; not just remembered at the communion table. When we sing Soldiers of Christ Arise do we really mean Picnickers of Christ Arise?
The church is under great persecution; not from the without, but from within. We tend to want what we want and if we don't get what we want, we have options. Other congregations await our very presence which might offer just the mediocrity which would satisfy the heart. Do we recall that strain is very much a kingdom style as is endurance?
Consumeristic religion is a sham. Many of us labor desperately as to whether we do the things which truly lead people to Jesus or are we doing what we can to keep the attendance count up. This consumerism can often be found to keep the present consumers coming back without realizing there is a great failure to present the hope of Jesus to a dreary and seeking community.
I don't mean to be sounding as an expert. I'm not. Neither do I wish to badmouth us. I've proven that I'm not running. Yet, I do wish to bring to our attention that we continue to be much more touchy about trying to improve and increase than we are about blatant neglect of personal responsibility to reach and teach the lost.
We talk big; even spout in bold statements of where we do and don't stand. But lack of prayer along with habitual refusal to personally carry out the Great Commission is a testimony against our basic stance of we want what we want....with God's endorsement of course.
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
LIFE WITH THE RUPTION FAMILY
It is such a challenge being a person. Have you ever noticed?
One of the strongest difficulties is a family who seems to live on every one's street.
Meet the Ruption twins, Dis and Inter.
These two are not easy to handle. They are truly a hand full. Their cousins are of the Un family; Ruly and Grateful. What a mess!
Just about the time we think we've got them groomed, Dis will jump from a tall building and then Inter screams for assistance from a totally unforeseen circumstance. Their stresses are constant. Their challenges? Relentless.
We are forever on our toes, so it seems because these two don't seem to understand the rules.
Yet, God has the solution. Philippians 4:4-9 is a mind-saving text. Thanksgiving is the process and peace is the result.
I encourage you that every person is directly related to the Ruption twins. If Dis is here on Monday, we can watch for Inter to show some other day. We must not believe that these two run the show. They don't.
The Spirit of God does.
Give thanks. Live in peace. God knows how to provide the abundant life He has promised each of us.
One of the strongest difficulties is a family who seems to live on every one's street.
Meet the Ruption twins, Dis and Inter.
These two are not easy to handle. They are truly a hand full. Their cousins are of the Un family; Ruly and Grateful. What a mess!
Just about the time we think we've got them groomed, Dis will jump from a tall building and then Inter screams for assistance from a totally unforeseen circumstance. Their stresses are constant. Their challenges? Relentless.
We are forever on our toes, so it seems because these two don't seem to understand the rules.
Yet, God has the solution. Philippians 4:4-9 is a mind-saving text. Thanksgiving is the process and peace is the result.
I encourage you that every person is directly related to the Ruption twins. If Dis is here on Monday, we can watch for Inter to show some other day. We must not believe that these two run the show. They don't.
The Spirit of God does.
Give thanks. Live in peace. God knows how to provide the abundant life He has promised each of us.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
IN-TENSION-AL LIVING
To be physically and mentally loose takes no talent. That's just recklessness. To be physically and mentally tight? That's called anxiety. It doesn't work, either. Eventually we snap. But physical looseness combined with mental restraint? That is powerful.
Ryan Holiday
Tension.
There seems to always be a need within and around us of tension. Don't care? Not good. Obsessed? An opposingly not good. Tension between the two extremes brings about effectiveness.
To care without being anxious sets one into freedom motion. Timidity is not transformed into idiocy; but, into courage. It must be guarded against conforming to what some like to call balance which may be simply an excuse for mediocrity. No. We desire to get a productive and meaningful grip.
Everyone wants to matter. Everyone does.
No one, though, will experience being a difference-maker if we either shrug with Who cares? or live paralyzed by fear. These are failures of the same extreme. The other extreme is to live in-tension-ally.
In-tension-al may call for aggressive mobility; action. Too, it may call for the action of waiting. These can be done (are to be done) without the unraveling effect of both careless worry or care-less-ness.
In-tension-al living takes responsibility; hearing from God, noting His call, and acting regardless of reasonable opposition. Faith is in constant tension. What is it that we are expected to do which has neither tangible assurance nor visible conviction...Hebrews 11:1? We are to live by faith in-tension-ally.
Some in the church are indifferent. These have no care about much it seems; just hoping that at last breath there turns out to be a heaven. The other side of the same ineffective coin is to be one who serves with no joy; no life. These carry constant fear that we have inadvertently believed error and Hell is one slip-up away.
Jesus would call us to in-tension-al living. Our striving is to believe him. Or confidence is to be in his Spirit. Our faith is filled with assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Now this...this is where tension fits; not indifference and not in fear, but in confidence that God runs an entirely new kind of operation.
Ryan Holiday
Tension.
There seems to always be a need within and around us of tension. Don't care? Not good. Obsessed? An opposingly not good. Tension between the two extremes brings about effectiveness.
To care without being anxious sets one into freedom motion. Timidity is not transformed into idiocy; but, into courage. It must be guarded against conforming to what some like to call balance which may be simply an excuse for mediocrity. No. We desire to get a productive and meaningful grip.
Everyone wants to matter. Everyone does.
No one, though, will experience being a difference-maker if we either shrug with Who cares? or live paralyzed by fear. These are failures of the same extreme. The other extreme is to live in-tension-ally.
In-tension-al may call for aggressive mobility; action. Too, it may call for the action of waiting. These can be done (are to be done) without the unraveling effect of both careless worry or care-less-ness.
In-tension-al living takes responsibility; hearing from God, noting His call, and acting regardless of reasonable opposition. Faith is in constant tension. What is it that we are expected to do which has neither tangible assurance nor visible conviction...Hebrews 11:1? We are to live by faith in-tension-ally.
Some in the church are indifferent. These have no care about much it seems; just hoping that at last breath there turns out to be a heaven. The other side of the same ineffective coin is to be one who serves with no joy; no life. These carry constant fear that we have inadvertently believed error and Hell is one slip-up away.
Jesus would call us to in-tension-al living. Our striving is to believe him. Or confidence is to be in his Spirit. Our faith is filled with assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Now this...this is where tension fits; not indifference and not in fear, but in confidence that God runs an entirely new kind of operation.
Friday, May 29, 2015
WE SHOULD HOPE WHEN THERE IS NO HOPE
Never quit.
Never give up on a family member, a close friend...or even yourself.
Never quit.
Even when matters seem hopeless, these very moments are pregnant with definite hope.
Referencing great-grandfather-aged Abraham in Romans 4, when faced with God's promise that he and Sarah would yet have a child, the apostle Paul penned, In hope against hope be believed in order that he might become the father of many nations. Abraham did become that father to baby Isaac.
Quickly Paul then wrote in Romans 5:1-5 that there are two places for hope to be found; when things are going well and....when things aren't. That just about wraps it up! Hope can breathe possibility and probability when there would seem to be ample legitimate reason to give up.
We live in a world of give-uppers. We've had it. We tried. We saw no improvement. We quit. We give up.
And God says, Stop it!
To believe in God is more than going to church and sitting in rows. When I was a kid I went to church ever watching the clock to see just how soon it would be over. Over was the best part of church for me...as a little kid who would rather be on the ball diamond.
But I've grown up. And I've learned what adults knew all along. God isn't just about church attendance. He is about training us to never give up hope. Just as in the movies, Rocky, you can't put those who believe in God away. The continued reading of Romans chapter four stresses this truth by pointing to temporarily dead Jesus only to be the found as the once again alive Jesus.
Whenever you feel that life has turned hopeless, think again. Because Jesus broke the cemetery bonds, we carry the lively power to have rock-solid hope when all accounts seem to chant that there is none.
In all cases in all situations in all relationships, positive or negative, we hear all kinds of advice. Surely none can be better than to hope when there doesn't seem to be any. God will unfold tremendous surprises. He did so by emptying out the grave which was initially intended to end the existence of His Son.
When one begins to believe that everything is hopeless, it is at this precise moment that we need to think again. With God, even the impossible becomes possible.
Never give up on a family member, a close friend...or even yourself.
Never quit.
Even when matters seem hopeless, these very moments are pregnant with definite hope.
Referencing great-grandfather-aged Abraham in Romans 4, when faced with God's promise that he and Sarah would yet have a child, the apostle Paul penned, In hope against hope be believed in order that he might become the father of many nations. Abraham did become that father to baby Isaac.
Quickly Paul then wrote in Romans 5:1-5 that there are two places for hope to be found; when things are going well and....when things aren't. That just about wraps it up! Hope can breathe possibility and probability when there would seem to be ample legitimate reason to give up.
We live in a world of give-uppers. We've had it. We tried. We saw no improvement. We quit. We give up.
And God says, Stop it!
To believe in God is more than going to church and sitting in rows. When I was a kid I went to church ever watching the clock to see just how soon it would be over. Over was the best part of church for me...as a little kid who would rather be on the ball diamond.
But I've grown up. And I've learned what adults knew all along. God isn't just about church attendance. He is about training us to never give up hope. Just as in the movies, Rocky, you can't put those who believe in God away. The continued reading of Romans chapter four stresses this truth by pointing to temporarily dead Jesus only to be the found as the once again alive Jesus.
Whenever you feel that life has turned hopeless, think again. Because Jesus broke the cemetery bonds, we carry the lively power to have rock-solid hope when all accounts seem to chant that there is none.
In all cases in all situations in all relationships, positive or negative, we hear all kinds of advice. Surely none can be better than to hope when there doesn't seem to be any. God will unfold tremendous surprises. He did so by emptying out the grave which was initially intended to end the existence of His Son.
When one begins to believe that everything is hopeless, it is at this precise moment that we need to think again. With God, even the impossible becomes possible.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
GOD MISUNDERSTOOD
For me to write about God, or for me to live in a church role for that matter, is contrary to what I envisioned when I was setting out to be whoever I planned to be. I had many talents in baseball and comedy. My problem was that I was never discovered.
Bummer.
And then God ran into me. As though I weren't paying attention, He approached me with a plan that still carries wild potential. The retirement package is out of this world.
Today....today....my heart yearns for those who may be suspicious about religion to get to have the same opportunity to meet Him, His style, His call. I know. Some are reading this with the feeling that God would never engage you in His work. But oh how you need to rethink.
God used the cowardess of Moses to lead the entire nation of Israel. He used the beauty of Esther for His cause rather than her self-serving interest. Our God called fumbling Peter and hesitant Thomas and too-young Timothy. On and on a vast array of classifications roll out the wonder that God truly invited the never-in-a-thousand-years-would-we-have-expected-God-would-call-that-one perfect system of effectiveness to reach the world.
The clincher as to whether this be true is the start-to-finish of His Son's earthly venture. Born of a virgin, Jesus' beginning days were from a cattle trough in a Jerusalem suburb. He grew so weirdly wise that at times even his family stood at a distance. Eventually, Jesus was executed at the hands of what would be regarded as church leaders.
The empty grave still can't be explained. But, neither can a bulb arising to become a beautiful flower, huh?
Why can't we understand God?
Several reasons could be weighed:
Bummer.
And then God ran into me. As though I weren't paying attention, He approached me with a plan that still carries wild potential. The retirement package is out of this world.
Today....today....my heart yearns for those who may be suspicious about religion to get to have the same opportunity to meet Him, His style, His call. I know. Some are reading this with the feeling that God would never engage you in His work. But oh how you need to rethink.
God used the cowardess of Moses to lead the entire nation of Israel. He used the beauty of Esther for His cause rather than her self-serving interest. Our God called fumbling Peter and hesitant Thomas and too-young Timothy. On and on a vast array of classifications roll out the wonder that God truly invited the never-in-a-thousand-years-would-we-have-expected-God-would-call-that-one perfect system of effectiveness to reach the world.
The clincher as to whether this be true is the start-to-finish of His Son's earthly venture. Born of a virgin, Jesus' beginning days were from a cattle trough in a Jerusalem suburb. He grew so weirdly wise that at times even his family stood at a distance. Eventually, Jesus was executed at the hands of what would be regarded as church leaders.
The empty grave still can't be explained. But, neither can a bulb arising to become a beautiful flower, huh?
Why can't we understand God?
Several reasons could be weighed:
- The image of admitting to seeking God is too big of a cost for the famous.
- Christianity has become viewed as a meek dull people who sit in rows on Sunday.
- Church doctrine has been hijacked by control-freaks who run the show their way.
- The Kingdom is invisible and the flesh has a need to see where things are going.
- The church is not seen as adventurous; but rather, argumentative.
- We have avoided His grace; thus operating from our best will-powers.
- On and on the list could blossom.
These are erroneous sign-posts. Yes, they are having negative impact. But it is exciting to know this isn't the story. Furthermore, it isn't the story of a vast amount of believers.
God isn't about the dull. He is about the creative wonder; so magnificent that thousands upon thousands of years of science research are still making discoveries regarding matters He spoke into existence from Genesis One.
God is about impossible becoming possible. He takes nobodies and makes them CEOs of missions. Our Lord is the one who figured the best way to make a daring rescue of mankind was to infiltrate humanity by becoming one of us. At Jesus' birth, placed in a manger with his blanket for warmth, one could say he was sorta under cover.
God is about thrill; like feeding 5000 from a young boy's picnic basket. He isn't restricted to walking on land if water is not as busy of a freeway. The clincher to His wow-ism is sheer intrigue and suspense. At the Cross it wasn't just Jesus hanging there, it was the Light of humanity. Upon his last breath, it turned dark in mid-afternoon. They had just killed the Light of the world.
By Sunday God, in His incredible and unchartable powers, crushed the permanence of death. He killed death. That, my friend, is a good day's work. If you will fall into His system, your pending death will find that it was killed as well. The grave cannot keep us.
God is misunderstood. He is neither distant nor imaginary. He bowed to our human form that we could arise to His eternal glory.
Listen. No, be still and listen. He is calling all of us to enter into marvel and awe and wonder and luxurious hope. You, my friend, really can believe such Love and Light. It isn't rocket science. It's bigger....much bigger.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
WHY THE WORST FEELING IS THE BEST POSITION IN LIFE
It isn't easy being us. Right? Constant strain tugs bull-doggedly at every heart. Not some. Not most. All. The strain is sin of the flesh doing battle with the desires of the spirit. No one is exempt. No one is given Free Space.
So what shall we do?
Well, we try harder. We become more determined. Self-discipline seems to be a draw toward improvement. Yet, failure looms...persists...annoys...presses.
It's weird in a surprising sort of way that the apostle Paul had such insight (well, more like such faith) to our demise. Romans 7:14 begins what seems to be almost an inner self-discussion between Paul and himself. His inner conversation could have gone something like:
I know to do better. Want to really. Not only do I not, I seem to decline.
The good is in me to improve but something keeps knocking me off course. It is sin that wages war in my heart...in my members.
I want to do good; to be good...really. But I find I'm worse; not better. I've declined, not improved.
Verse 22 nails him for hope; any hope that could possibly arise from this quagmire of humanity.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The one who traveled land and see in devotion to the causes of God continued to carry the turbulent inner battles of flesh versus spirit. Yes, even as an apostle who did great things knew exactly how to be of legitimate assistance to us; followers of the same ideal.
Paul's conclusion is our solution to every sin and encumbrance that so easily pushes us downward. It is not to be found in man's corrective efforts for even these are subject to frailty and eventual demolition.
No. The solution is not a program. It is a person. His name is Jesus. Wretched are we. Honest evaluation. Who can rescue us? Jesus. Only Jesus. Just know he can, he will, he does...he has.
Wretched. The worst feeling in the landscape of emotion. The perfect position to know God.
So what shall we do?
Well, we try harder. We become more determined. Self-discipline seems to be a draw toward improvement. Yet, failure looms...persists...annoys...presses.
It's weird in a surprising sort of way that the apostle Paul had such insight (well, more like such faith) to our demise. Romans 7:14 begins what seems to be almost an inner self-discussion between Paul and himself. His inner conversation could have gone something like:
I know to do better. Want to really. Not only do I not, I seem to decline.
The good is in me to improve but something keeps knocking me off course. It is sin that wages war in my heart...in my members.
I want to do good; to be good...really. But I find I'm worse; not better. I've declined, not improved.
Verse 22 nails him for hope; any hope that could possibly arise from this quagmire of humanity.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The one who traveled land and see in devotion to the causes of God continued to carry the turbulent inner battles of flesh versus spirit. Yes, even as an apostle who did great things knew exactly how to be of legitimate assistance to us; followers of the same ideal.
Paul's conclusion is our solution to every sin and encumbrance that so easily pushes us downward. It is not to be found in man's corrective efforts for even these are subject to frailty and eventual demolition.
No. The solution is not a program. It is a person. His name is Jesus. Wretched are we. Honest evaluation. Who can rescue us? Jesus. Only Jesus. Just know he can, he will, he does...he has.
Wretched. The worst feeling in the landscape of emotion. The perfect position to know God.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
GOD IS NOT OUT TO GET US. HE IS OUT TO GET US.
I am highly sympathetic to any individual who wonders if this stuff about a real and living God is true. How are we to know? I've been in that position. Truly, I'm glad I struggled because I know many of the inner workings of some who might be pondering His reality.
So much understandably intimidates us.
What does it mean to know God? Can a plain person really know Him? Will it make me turn weird like the grumpy lady down the street who never misses a Sunday; but gripes at her neighbors constantly? Will my good friends who don't like church now rail against me in the mockery we together have dished out about others?
Be encouraged to set aside the distractions to knowing God. Begin by reading Matthew or John. Just read it. The Bible will speak to your heart. You just patiently read it.
Tell God you want to know whether this stuff is legit. He will create the oddest and most wonderful scenarios to open your heart. He is not out to get us. He is out to get us.
What? God is not out to get us like kill us. He is out to get us...like claim us as His children.
More than eventually dying and going to heaven, life from above is intended for our right-now day by day walk. I love that! I love it that life in Jesus is more than hoping this life-after-death stuff is true. It's the life-during-living things that also impact us.
I propose that God wants to be an intricate part of your life/my life. We sometimes allow distractions to turn us into critics of the religious rather than seriously focus on the greatest walk on earth; knowing God.
Anybody can find Him, know Him, love Him. No one is too ignorant, too backward, or too sinful. God is so crazy about everyone that He sent His lone son to the Cross. Jesus paid a huge debt. He did it for everyone.
Please, if you are hesitant about thinking toward God things, would you consider making an adjustment? I never would have guessed church would be for me. I had baseball to play; work to do. But He broke in.
I'm nuts about ministry. The thing that helped me turn the corner was when I found that God cared about discouraged, lonely, and hurting people, I could not/still cannot get enough. If you would be still a moment and reevaluate your role in life, it just might be true that God is calling you simply to believe Him forevermore.
God is not out to get us. He is out to get us.
So much understandably intimidates us.
What does it mean to know God? Can a plain person really know Him? Will it make me turn weird like the grumpy lady down the street who never misses a Sunday; but gripes at her neighbors constantly? Will my good friends who don't like church now rail against me in the mockery we together have dished out about others?
Be encouraged to set aside the distractions to knowing God. Begin by reading Matthew or John. Just read it. The Bible will speak to your heart. You just patiently read it.
Tell God you want to know whether this stuff is legit. He will create the oddest and most wonderful scenarios to open your heart. He is not out to get us. He is out to get us.
What? God is not out to get us like kill us. He is out to get us...like claim us as His children.
More than eventually dying and going to heaven, life from above is intended for our right-now day by day walk. I love that! I love it that life in Jesus is more than hoping this life-after-death stuff is true. It's the life-during-living things that also impact us.
I propose that God wants to be an intricate part of your life/my life. We sometimes allow distractions to turn us into critics of the religious rather than seriously focus on the greatest walk on earth; knowing God.
Anybody can find Him, know Him, love Him. No one is too ignorant, too backward, or too sinful. God is so crazy about everyone that He sent His lone son to the Cross. Jesus paid a huge debt. He did it for everyone.
Please, if you are hesitant about thinking toward God things, would you consider making an adjustment? I never would have guessed church would be for me. I had baseball to play; work to do. But He broke in.
I'm nuts about ministry. The thing that helped me turn the corner was when I found that God cared about discouraged, lonely, and hurting people, I could not/still cannot get enough. If you would be still a moment and reevaluate your role in life, it just might be true that God is calling you simply to believe Him forevermore.
God is not out to get us. He is out to get us.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
WHEN WISDOM GETS IN A TIZZY
Author Larry Crabb reflects upon a time when he was struggling to know what to do with a rebellious son. He finally screamed at God, Tell me what to do and I'll do it! Just tell me what to do!
Like Larry, we simply want instructions, directions, or a steady combination of the two. Yet, clarity isn't readily available if it is the flesh making these demands. We want to do life without the headache. Such clearly is not the pattern of Jesus.
The very reason faith is called faith is that one cannot see the way. We go by faith and not by what we can see; insisted the apostle Paul. Still we want what we want and if a lot of others (like a majority) want the same thing then it seems rational that this is what should be. One of the things we should have learned long ago is that God does not operate according to majority agenda.
Therefore, there is a strong strain to faith. It isn't easy. Neither is it comfortable.
Faith will take us places the eyes of rationality and clarity dare not/cannot tread. This blatantly affects our every effort of Kingdom activity. Do we like our worship because we love God deeply and want Him to hear our yearning for Him? Or do we/must we have the right lighting, the right singing, the right proclaiming lest we find it hard to get on board?
We churches are in danger of trying to be found appealing to the demands of consumerism rather than to be found lost in praise to God. It isn't that we are deceitful. It's just that the flesh clearly desires to override the spirit. It is a war....within each of us.
I think this is correct that faith never tells us where we are going but believes God will lead us as to where to go. Our problems of discontent arise when we trade our connection with Him for control of our own destiny. Faith can be scary. Control is usually full of misery.
There is an appropriate strain to faith. It is the workout gym of yielding, submitting, trusting God.
Fleshly talent insists that we are smart enough on our own to do this. Give me enough tools, studies, and reports plus the latest analysis; things should go as planned.
Faith, though, can't see the forest or the trees.
It can only trust that God who let the only perfect man die in torture, and then stun the world forevermore with his resurrection, can make sense out of imperfect people whose love for Him insists upon finding His driving hope.
The foolishness of God will always throw the wisdom of the world into a tizzy....
I Corinthians 1:18-31.
Like Larry, we simply want instructions, directions, or a steady combination of the two. Yet, clarity isn't readily available if it is the flesh making these demands. We want to do life without the headache. Such clearly is not the pattern of Jesus.
The very reason faith is called faith is that one cannot see the way. We go by faith and not by what we can see; insisted the apostle Paul. Still we want what we want and if a lot of others (like a majority) want the same thing then it seems rational that this is what should be. One of the things we should have learned long ago is that God does not operate according to majority agenda.
Therefore, there is a strong strain to faith. It isn't easy. Neither is it comfortable.
Faith will take us places the eyes of rationality and clarity dare not/cannot tread. This blatantly affects our every effort of Kingdom activity. Do we like our worship because we love God deeply and want Him to hear our yearning for Him? Or do we/must we have the right lighting, the right singing, the right proclaiming lest we find it hard to get on board?
We churches are in danger of trying to be found appealing to the demands of consumerism rather than to be found lost in praise to God. It isn't that we are deceitful. It's just that the flesh clearly desires to override the spirit. It is a war....within each of us.
I think this is correct that faith never tells us where we are going but believes God will lead us as to where to go. Our problems of discontent arise when we trade our connection with Him for control of our own destiny. Faith can be scary. Control is usually full of misery.
There is an appropriate strain to faith. It is the workout gym of yielding, submitting, trusting God.
Fleshly talent insists that we are smart enough on our own to do this. Give me enough tools, studies, and reports plus the latest analysis; things should go as planned.
Faith, though, can't see the forest or the trees.
It can only trust that God who let the only perfect man die in torture, and then stun the world forevermore with his resurrection, can make sense out of imperfect people whose love for Him insists upon finding His driving hope.
The foolishness of God will always throw the wisdom of the world into a tizzy....
I Corinthians 1:18-31.
Friday, May 22, 2015
FAITH. WHAT IS IT?
I love faith. Really.
Faith changes things.
It gives hope when there isn't any. It assures we are safe in the midst of destructive experiences. Faith is that invisible game-changer for everything in life.
The flesh has it's common rules. It feels comfortable in setting the stage for our day. And, then we hear flesh's clear bossy inner voice; do it my way. Our flesh fights with our spirit. That's why we have ongoing discussions in our head. The spirit and the flesh don't see things alike at times.
But faith....faith has this knack of betraying the rules. Water has been walked upon as if it were a mere neighborhood sidewalk. Promises of impossibility become true. Death oughta get nervous because it's about to die so that life can arise.
Faith isn't a Sunday morning ritual. Rather it is a Monday morning assurance which will last all week long. Sure life hiccups with hic at times; but faith is our spiritual sergeant beckoning us to never give up.
Faith is that invisible inner conviction that what isn't, yet, can be. We are to believe that God participates in what we might determine to be our routine lifestyle. People with faith have just as many things go wrong as those who have none. The difference is that the faith factor sheds new light on possibility and hope.
Faith doesn't just call us to be the church on Sunday mornings. It nudges us to believe value is in the midst of our bad moments. It calls us to trust what we can't see (God and His working Kingdom) over what we can see (injury and frustration).
So how does it work? He gave us no formula. It is a developed combination of assurance and conviction. This may seem simple, but one either believes it or he doesn't. Each person is free to choose. The one with faith, regardless of pressures and disappointments, will live in perpetual hope.
The one without it? This one will act only with attitudes of hope if the day has gone well. Their days of joy are dependent upon what happens or doesn't happen to them.
The Spirit of God is available to assist every person when we hit those rugged times of setback. Faith isn't about sitting in rows for an hour. It is about standing on promises from above when the harshness of routine life wants to convince us otherwise.
Faith? It's that strange element of the heart which insists that nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
Romans 5:1-5.
Faith changes things.
It gives hope when there isn't any. It assures we are safe in the midst of destructive experiences. Faith is that invisible game-changer for everything in life.
The flesh has it's common rules. It feels comfortable in setting the stage for our day. And, then we hear flesh's clear bossy inner voice; do it my way. Our flesh fights with our spirit. That's why we have ongoing discussions in our head. The spirit and the flesh don't see things alike at times.
But faith....faith has this knack of betraying the rules. Water has been walked upon as if it were a mere neighborhood sidewalk. Promises of impossibility become true. Death oughta get nervous because it's about to die so that life can arise.
Faith isn't a Sunday morning ritual. Rather it is a Monday morning assurance which will last all week long. Sure life hiccups with hic at times; but faith is our spiritual sergeant beckoning us to never give up.
Faith is that invisible inner conviction that what isn't, yet, can be. We are to believe that God participates in what we might determine to be our routine lifestyle. People with faith have just as many things go wrong as those who have none. The difference is that the faith factor sheds new light on possibility and hope.
Faith doesn't just call us to be the church on Sunday mornings. It nudges us to believe value is in the midst of our bad moments. It calls us to trust what we can't see (God and His working Kingdom) over what we can see (injury and frustration).
So how does it work? He gave us no formula. It is a developed combination of assurance and conviction. This may seem simple, but one either believes it or he doesn't. Each person is free to choose. The one with faith, regardless of pressures and disappointments, will live in perpetual hope.
The one without it? This one will act only with attitudes of hope if the day has gone well. Their days of joy are dependent upon what happens or doesn't happen to them.
The Spirit of God is available to assist every person when we hit those rugged times of setback. Faith isn't about sitting in rows for an hour. It is about standing on promises from above when the harshness of routine life wants to convince us otherwise.
Faith? It's that strange element of the heart which insists that nothing shall separate us from the love of God.
Romans 5:1-5.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
WE DON'T SEEM TO GET IT
How can the feelings of inferiority dampen our hearts so strongly when we, simultaneously, feel we are a bit sharper than most others? It almost seems like an ego-down, ego-up scenario of sorts.
One day I can be pouting because I alone live in this shell of mine. And the reviews that I give to myself about myself aren't very favorable. In the very same day irritation can arise because of how stupid I think others are. Of course I keep my misaligned ego quiet so that I can sit in steep judgment without any of my comments tipping my hand.
I don't seem to get it. We don't seem to get it. We are somebodies made by God. Yet, we forget that His created somebodies were not created to judge others. When we judge we either put ourselves down or build ourselves up. These conclusions can only come about by comparison.; how we are doing against another's performance.
For we are not bold, states the insightful apostle, to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. This is why we don't seem to get it. Our value, up or down, is not legitimately gauged by placing one against another.
A breakthrough for me was when I finally quit comparing myself to any others. When I did I was usually coming up short. But in the maze of inferiority, I seemed to carry a perpetual snubbing toward some who seemed to me to be ridiculous; as if I weren't. Obviously, I am also one who didn't seem to get it.
So what is it we want to get?
II Corinthians 3:4-5 defines what wimpy egoists like me need to consider to sort through this quagmire of brainwave interference. We are all inadequate in the sight of God. Yet, these same inadequate ones fortunately find adequacy in the Spirit. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves as considering anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. The next verse informs us that it is the Spirit in this equation who gives life.
Hang with me on this. When we don't seem to get it, we are on the right track. How God can use us when we are useless and dumb seems "ungettable". It is believable. This takes trust....of Him. Personal inventory insists "we can't". Personal faith argues, "He does...through us."
One day I can be pouting because I alone live in this shell of mine. And the reviews that I give to myself about myself aren't very favorable. In the very same day irritation can arise because of how stupid I think others are. Of course I keep my misaligned ego quiet so that I can sit in steep judgment without any of my comments tipping my hand.
I don't seem to get it. We don't seem to get it. We are somebodies made by God. Yet, we forget that His created somebodies were not created to judge others. When we judge we either put ourselves down or build ourselves up. These conclusions can only come about by comparison.; how we are doing against another's performance.
For we are not bold, states the insightful apostle, to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. This is why we don't seem to get it. Our value, up or down, is not legitimately gauged by placing one against another.
A breakthrough for me was when I finally quit comparing myself to any others. When I did I was usually coming up short. But in the maze of inferiority, I seemed to carry a perpetual snubbing toward some who seemed to me to be ridiculous; as if I weren't. Obviously, I am also one who didn't seem to get it.
So what is it we want to get?
II Corinthians 3:4-5 defines what wimpy egoists like me need to consider to sort through this quagmire of brainwave interference. We are all inadequate in the sight of God. Yet, these same inadequate ones fortunately find adequacy in the Spirit. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves as considering anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. The next verse informs us that it is the Spirit in this equation who gives life.
Hang with me on this. When we don't seem to get it, we are on the right track. How God can use us when we are useless and dumb seems "ungettable". It is believable. This takes trust....of Him. Personal inventory insists "we can't". Personal faith argues, "He does...through us."
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
THREATENING WORDS TO THE CHRISTIAN; DYNAMIC TO THE KINGDOM
For those engaged in life's stream who feel deeply attentive, we must ever be on guard against letting a molecule of God's brilliance slip by. Yet, how shall we not do anything but fail? He is so beyond description. His works are as well.
I direct your attention to two very valuable words; words which one can easily dismiss, yet deserve sober consideration. Flexible and vulnerable have an ability to offer serious threat. Flexible betrays at times our clarion call to take a stand. And few that I know are thrilled about being vulnerable.
The first calls for ready adjustment. The latter calls for risk. Both betray comfort. I personally would rather not find myself, especially in front of others, uncomfortable.
Flexible and vulnerable are heavy duty words needed in every church leader and every Jesus follower. John 3:8 insists upon flexibility and the Cross commands vulnerability. If we are failing in the church, these two culprits need to be evaluated.
Flexibility keeps us young in the System of God's hand. We are able to make adjustments, admit some of our doctrines have been wrong, and reframe our practice of discipleship. Age seems to deter flexibility unless intentional effort is made to stay loose. Community churches know this; they see our age. And most likely these congregations will find themselves aging unless they really focus on the flexibility of the Spirit.
Vulnerability is where we draw the line. Yes, we regard ourselves devoted. Too, we have so much to cover we don't need the nonsense of serving in areas that make us targets for weakness or even failure. Oh, this is a grand mistake.
Vulnerability finds self no longer in control. The church, very mistakenly and very costly, has trained her members to hold tight to the power. Egos expand when control is issued and fulfilled. We like being in the say and in the know. Vulnerability sets us on edge where our emotions and inadequacies are poised for scrutiny.
Jesus was both of these. So was Peter. So was Paul. So was anyone who followed God.
There is no escaping the great need in our day. Scholars are valued. Missionaries are brave. Attributes of praise can and do go so many appropriate directions. Yet, without flexibility and vulnerability being exercised, the church cannot win against this lack.
The kingdom of God will always call us to adjust as well as risk....regardless of our pet druthers.
I direct your attention to two very valuable words; words which one can easily dismiss, yet deserve sober consideration. Flexible and vulnerable have an ability to offer serious threat. Flexible betrays at times our clarion call to take a stand. And few that I know are thrilled about being vulnerable.
The first calls for ready adjustment. The latter calls for risk. Both betray comfort. I personally would rather not find myself, especially in front of others, uncomfortable.
Flexible and vulnerable are heavy duty words needed in every church leader and every Jesus follower. John 3:8 insists upon flexibility and the Cross commands vulnerability. If we are failing in the church, these two culprits need to be evaluated.
Flexibility keeps us young in the System of God's hand. We are able to make adjustments, admit some of our doctrines have been wrong, and reframe our practice of discipleship. Age seems to deter flexibility unless intentional effort is made to stay loose. Community churches know this; they see our age. And most likely these congregations will find themselves aging unless they really focus on the flexibility of the Spirit.
Vulnerability is where we draw the line. Yes, we regard ourselves devoted. Too, we have so much to cover we don't need the nonsense of serving in areas that make us targets for weakness or even failure. Oh, this is a grand mistake.
Vulnerability finds self no longer in control. The church, very mistakenly and very costly, has trained her members to hold tight to the power. Egos expand when control is issued and fulfilled. We like being in the say and in the know. Vulnerability sets us on edge where our emotions and inadequacies are poised for scrutiny.
Jesus was both of these. So was Peter. So was Paul. So was anyone who followed God.
There is no escaping the great need in our day. Scholars are valued. Missionaries are brave. Attributes of praise can and do go so many appropriate directions. Yet, without flexibility and vulnerability being exercised, the church cannot win against this lack.
The kingdom of God will always call us to adjust as well as risk....regardless of our pet druthers.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
THE COWARDLY ART OF SCAPEGOATING
Who hasn't heard of the world-wide game called BLAME? Oh surely you've played the Blame game or know of others who are so addicted they can hardly put it aside.
The game is played using real people as pawns. When a person fails others in some way, the guilty party is to quickly point at a game colleague and place the blame on them; he didn't tell me, she didn't remind me, or they changed the plans. The goal is to escape personal shame.
Society is like this. We are like this. Okay...I am like this; always on the hunt for a legitimate sounding excuse hoping our self-defense takes the fault-monkey off of our backs. And, this is a despicable cowardly act.
It went on in Jesus' time. The gospel narratives make it clear that Jesus filled the role of scapegoat. The innocent lamb was slain. His blood shed. He took the blame. He bore the sins. Our sins seemed to translate Jesus from lamb to goat...scapegoat.
Brian Zahnd penned, On the cross Jesus took the blame. All the blame. Our sinful addiction to blaming others--Jesus took upon himself. He was innocent, but he took the blame away. Caiaphas blamed Jesus; Pilate blamed Jesus, Herod blamed Jesus; the crowd blamed Jesus---and Jesus took the blame.
The art of scapegoating continues to break out in passing the buck here and there.
The game is played using real people as pawns. When a person fails others in some way, the guilty party is to quickly point at a game colleague and place the blame on them; he didn't tell me, she didn't remind me, or they changed the plans. The goal is to escape personal shame.
Society is like this. We are like this. Okay...I am like this; always on the hunt for a legitimate sounding excuse hoping our self-defense takes the fault-monkey off of our backs. And, this is a despicable cowardly act.
It went on in Jesus' time. The gospel narratives make it clear that Jesus filled the role of scapegoat. The innocent lamb was slain. His blood shed. He took the blame. He bore the sins. Our sins seemed to translate Jesus from lamb to goat...scapegoat.
Brian Zahnd penned, On the cross Jesus took the blame. All the blame. Our sinful addiction to blaming others--Jesus took upon himself. He was innocent, but he took the blame away. Caiaphas blamed Jesus; Pilate blamed Jesus, Herod blamed Jesus; the crowd blamed Jesus---and Jesus took the blame.
The art of scapegoating continues to break out in passing the buck here and there.
- Our day is bad because of others.
- My health is bad because of another.
- I would have made it farther; but someone interfered. It's their fault.
- I woulda/coulda/shoulda if it weren't for the neglect of insert name(s) here.
Instead, may we find that expressing words of hope, potential, and possibility ring from our conversations. May we no longer imaginarily hide behind others by transferring our inadequacy over to another in the name of assumed ill-intent. Let us burrow in with determination to be strong and courageous....and not be afraid.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
PATIENCE: HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT?
One of the great fruits of the Holy Spirit is patience. Recalling that the fruit of the Spirit is available because we can't pull it off from the flesh will-power, we will do well to be disciplined to step back and wait. Let God run this show.
Impatience is not the fruit of the Spirit. It is the fruit of those of us who wish to be in control. Keep the schedule. Hold up the agreement. Function on all eight. In other words, suck it up and get going.
Action is assumed to be verification of our commitment even if it is rough, awkward, and oft times questionable. Waiting is seldom regarded as action; but oh it is very much so.
The very lack of patience is why some devoted Christians don't reach to their neighbors. They want to see action now; quick response to an invitation or a Bible study. These want to see results; otherwise, not to bother. And it's here, this moment of hurry-because-I'm-impatient that our efforts fail.
The work of God does sometimes develop quickly. Many times, though, it takes years if not decades to evolve into the productivity we had hoped.
Impatience says that if things don't change, I'm outta here. Patience says I'm not leaving for God will work. Impatience says others are ignorant. Patience says I, too, was lacking and as God has helped me He will surely be faithful to others. Impatience snaps fingers of law. Patience willingly waits for the God-sized produce to be seen.
In this age of instant--and it didn't start with Instagram but with instant oatmeal--we have become a society of the quick. Quick bows its neck against wait.
I see this in grocery stores. Long lines cause some to break out in a rash. I was once one. But I've learned to like right now; even in long lines.
Look at the wonder of right now. I get to stand in line; not sending my kids because I can't stand on my own. I'm looking at the long line; not blind because I lost my eyesight a few years back. And I've got money to pay for these items; where so many others wish they had the money and the eyesight and the stamina to wait in long lines.
There isn't much that ails us that Holy Spirit patience wouldn't cure. Upset with another? Patience will help. Discouraged with plans? Patience will prove your friend. Distracted by interference and interruption? Patience is our fruitful born-out-of-the-holy colleague.
There seems to be a steady flow of items which run past my mind; uncertainty, stress, personal violation, disappointment in others...or self. Precisely at these valuable moments we can be confident that patience is one of the holy factors that will make our day!
How long do we have to wait for patience? It is here now in Holy Spirit form. Our problem is that we thought we were to control our patience. Rather we are expected to yield to His....Gal. 5:22-23.
Impatience is not the fruit of the Spirit. It is the fruit of those of us who wish to be in control. Keep the schedule. Hold up the agreement. Function on all eight. In other words, suck it up and get going.
Action is assumed to be verification of our commitment even if it is rough, awkward, and oft times questionable. Waiting is seldom regarded as action; but oh it is very much so.
The very lack of patience is why some devoted Christians don't reach to their neighbors. They want to see action now; quick response to an invitation or a Bible study. These want to see results; otherwise, not to bother. And it's here, this moment of hurry-because-I'm-impatient that our efforts fail.
The work of God does sometimes develop quickly. Many times, though, it takes years if not decades to evolve into the productivity we had hoped.
Impatience says that if things don't change, I'm outta here. Patience says I'm not leaving for God will work. Impatience says others are ignorant. Patience says I, too, was lacking and as God has helped me He will surely be faithful to others. Impatience snaps fingers of law. Patience willingly waits for the God-sized produce to be seen.
In this age of instant--and it didn't start with Instagram but with instant oatmeal--we have become a society of the quick. Quick bows its neck against wait.
I see this in grocery stores. Long lines cause some to break out in a rash. I was once one. But I've learned to like right now; even in long lines.
Look at the wonder of right now. I get to stand in line; not sending my kids because I can't stand on my own. I'm looking at the long line; not blind because I lost my eyesight a few years back. And I've got money to pay for these items; where so many others wish they had the money and the eyesight and the stamina to wait in long lines.
There isn't much that ails us that Holy Spirit patience wouldn't cure. Upset with another? Patience will help. Discouraged with plans? Patience will prove your friend. Distracted by interference and interruption? Patience is our fruitful born-out-of-the-holy colleague.
There seems to be a steady flow of items which run past my mind; uncertainty, stress, personal violation, disappointment in others...or self. Precisely at these valuable moments we can be confident that patience is one of the holy factors that will make our day!
How long do we have to wait for patience? It is here now in Holy Spirit form. Our problem is that we thought we were to control our patience. Rather we are expected to yield to His....Gal. 5:22-23.
Friday, May 15, 2015
THE MAGNIFICENT RIDDLE
There are things we should know; but don't know how to know. Too, there are those things we should see; yet can't while looking straight at them. Of all of the truths that seem to hide in plain sight; I write today of the two (what I believe) biggest riddles.
1) The immeasurable and wonderful size of God and (2) the lowly state of man. When these two can be openly and honestly evaluated, one's faith is enhanced.
We as people are not a god. Life isn't about me. Life is about God providing authentic life in me...and in you. Self is to be sidelined as glory/credit is to be given to God. When self is sidelined and God is the star on the playing field, self is never in better position to experience awe and wonder.
What a riddle!
What has caused this magnificent riddle to go unnoticed?
First, man has a constant inclination, however innocent, to reduce God to our level of thinking. We believe He thinks like we think. We inadvertently bring Him down to being just a hair above our equal. The result is that we think very little of our trimmed-down God for He must be nearly as limited as we.
When this occurs we tend to avoid studying the Bible and prayer for we lack confidence in Him being able to make a difference.
Second, we have a mistaken view of our own sin. We have an immediate knack of comparison which is selfishly designed to alleviate our own guilt. We can think we know how despicable we are. Yet, when we can judge another as worse, this superficially soothes our consciences.
The truth is that we are so naturally deplete of goodness that the Son of God was crushed upon the Cross taking on our sins. They were so deep and heavy that the lights went out in mid-day. Darkness hovered to signal to the whole world forevermore that Jesus had become the kitty-litter of man's sin. He absorbed each of our violations against God.
What a magnificent riddle. God is more than we can imagine. We are far more lousy that we can imagine. Yet, He through His Son traded places and He became sin-ravaged and we got to turn over a new leaf.
Incredible. Immeasurable. Delightful. Realistic. Needed. Necessary. All of this for each of us.
Jesus solves the riddle. He went to hell in our stead that we could go to heaven. Learn of Him.
1) The immeasurable and wonderful size of God and (2) the lowly state of man. When these two can be openly and honestly evaluated, one's faith is enhanced.
We as people are not a god. Life isn't about me. Life is about God providing authentic life in me...and in you. Self is to be sidelined as glory/credit is to be given to God. When self is sidelined and God is the star on the playing field, self is never in better position to experience awe and wonder.
What a riddle!
What has caused this magnificent riddle to go unnoticed?
First, man has a constant inclination, however innocent, to reduce God to our level of thinking. We believe He thinks like we think. We inadvertently bring Him down to being just a hair above our equal. The result is that we think very little of our trimmed-down God for He must be nearly as limited as we.
When this occurs we tend to avoid studying the Bible and prayer for we lack confidence in Him being able to make a difference.
Second, we have a mistaken view of our own sin. We have an immediate knack of comparison which is selfishly designed to alleviate our own guilt. We can think we know how despicable we are. Yet, when we can judge another as worse, this superficially soothes our consciences.
The truth is that we are so naturally deplete of goodness that the Son of God was crushed upon the Cross taking on our sins. They were so deep and heavy that the lights went out in mid-day. Darkness hovered to signal to the whole world forevermore that Jesus had become the kitty-litter of man's sin. He absorbed each of our violations against God.
What a magnificent riddle. God is more than we can imagine. We are far more lousy that we can imagine. Yet, He through His Son traded places and He became sin-ravaged and we got to turn over a new leaf.
Incredible. Immeasurable. Delightful. Realistic. Needed. Necessary. All of this for each of us.
Jesus solves the riddle. He went to hell in our stead that we could go to heaven. Learn of Him.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
MAXIMIZING YOUR LIFE
As usual, I sit facing this blank screen with deep desire to be a tool of encouragement to your day. So I think about you--not a specific person mind you--but in generalization; each of you.
What do you need? What could I say? What would offer strength, hope, delight? What?
So I ponder what I needed to hear somewhere along the way. When I tie my past with your presence, I seem to find the wording that I desperately yearn to pass your way.
Today I believe you yearn to be loved, noticed, and needed. Me, too. And I know how to satisfy this appetite. It is one of the great kingdom secrets of God. What you want you plant. If you want tomatoes, of course that's what one would plant. No cucumber plants are inserted into the ground hoping these would arise as tomatoes.
If you sow weeds you get weeds. Far too many have sown weeds of self-centeredness. We want. We need. We expect...without doing any of this for others. Life is minimized whenever it is clearly all about satisfying self.
We plant. Yet what we plant is not for self. It is simply a rule of the King that we reap what we sow. I plant encouragement. I have rows and rows of garden encouragement growing all over the world. I have fields full for I've planted such. Why? I love people; especially the strugglers.
If you want to get the most out of your life, give it away (another kingdom secret...that works). If you need to sense your importance, tell others why they are important. If you crave knowing that you are doing a good job, find someone whom you could share with them how you see their efficiency. If you continually watch for others to notice you, correct this by noticing others.
What we sow comes back. It's God's nature. If you sow to others disingenuous interest, then that what you will reap. So do not be fake just to get attention. Give attention. Before long this will be coming your way; but you will not be thinking of it because you will have become enamored with the personal joy of making someone else's day!
To maximize life we have to enter into the zone of a stringent request from God. Give ourselves to others. The reverse approach is too often the case. One will want, want, want. Someone talk to me. Someone notice me. Someone like me.
And God wants us to have all of these; but we do not acquire them by pouting and whining. We receive what we diligently give away. That, my friend, is our call. It is 100% consistent. We reap what we sow.
Maximizing one's life is experienced through giving generous attention to others. God will supply for you and me in greater proportion than if we draw attention to ourselves...of which the latter pushes people away.
What do you need? What could I say? What would offer strength, hope, delight? What?
So I ponder what I needed to hear somewhere along the way. When I tie my past with your presence, I seem to find the wording that I desperately yearn to pass your way.
Today I believe you yearn to be loved, noticed, and needed. Me, too. And I know how to satisfy this appetite. It is one of the great kingdom secrets of God. What you want you plant. If you want tomatoes, of course that's what one would plant. No cucumber plants are inserted into the ground hoping these would arise as tomatoes.
If you sow weeds you get weeds. Far too many have sown weeds of self-centeredness. We want. We need. We expect...without doing any of this for others. Life is minimized whenever it is clearly all about satisfying self.
We plant. Yet what we plant is not for self. It is simply a rule of the King that we reap what we sow. I plant encouragement. I have rows and rows of garden encouragement growing all over the world. I have fields full for I've planted such. Why? I love people; especially the strugglers.
If you want to get the most out of your life, give it away (another kingdom secret...that works). If you need to sense your importance, tell others why they are important. If you crave knowing that you are doing a good job, find someone whom you could share with them how you see their efficiency. If you continually watch for others to notice you, correct this by noticing others.
What we sow comes back. It's God's nature. If you sow to others disingenuous interest, then that what you will reap. So do not be fake just to get attention. Give attention. Before long this will be coming your way; but you will not be thinking of it because you will have become enamored with the personal joy of making someone else's day!
To maximize life we have to enter into the zone of a stringent request from God. Give ourselves to others. The reverse approach is too often the case. One will want, want, want. Someone talk to me. Someone notice me. Someone like me.
And God wants us to have all of these; but we do not acquire them by pouting and whining. We receive what we diligently give away. That, my friend, is our call. It is 100% consistent. We reap what we sow.
Maximizing one's life is experienced through giving generous attention to others. God will supply for you and me in greater proportion than if we draw attention to ourselves...of which the latter pushes people away.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
NOT TO THINK TOO HIGHLY OF OURSELVES
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).
Ummm. Would anyone need this other than me? I mean, isn't it almost natural to consider me first? Oh sure, I know God's druthers. Yet realistically, I weigh very much of my day by positioning how each adventure affects....you are right...me.
I would want to encourage us to abide by Paul's admonition. When we live in perpetual self-promotion, we live in blurred judgment. Our lives are affected by and hinged upon ...inaccuracies. High-minded assumption blocks the grace God provides for all of us who have bigger work to do than we can accomplish.
While we are not to think too highly of ourselves, we just can't help it (it seems) because....well....we are just so right in our assessment. Not.
The longer we live, the more we experience, the surer we become that we don't know as much as we had assumed. This is a good thing. The sooner we realize it, the sooner the world will be blessed by Him for we will finally begin to get out of the way.
Forgive me when I seem to get in the way of what God would like to get done.
DISCLAIMER: I have tried five times to post this to FB. Each time the title including "too" comes out "to". Five times! Fine. If it doesn't want to spell "too" correctly...so be it! Now...if I hit send for the sixth time and it spells "too" correctly in the title....I'm confused.
Ummm. Would anyone need this other than me? I mean, isn't it almost natural to consider me first? Oh sure, I know God's druthers. Yet realistically, I weigh very much of my day by positioning how each adventure affects....you are right...me.
I would want to encourage us to abide by Paul's admonition. When we live in perpetual self-promotion, we live in blurred judgment. Our lives are affected by and hinged upon ...inaccuracies. High-minded assumption blocks the grace God provides for all of us who have bigger work to do than we can accomplish.
While we are not to think too highly of ourselves, we just can't help it (it seems) because....well....we are just so right in our assessment. Not.
The longer we live, the more we experience, the surer we become that we don't know as much as we had assumed. This is a good thing. The sooner we realize it, the sooner the world will be blessed by Him for we will finally begin to get out of the way.
Forgive me when I seem to get in the way of what God would like to get done.
DISCLAIMER: I have tried five times to post this to FB. Each time the title including "too" comes out "to". Five times! Fine. If it doesn't want to spell "too" correctly...so be it! Now...if I hit send for the sixth time and it spells "too" correctly in the title....I'm confused.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
CONNECTED WITH THE WORLD WHILE HIDING FROM IT
We surely live in the strangest of times. Via elaborate media tools we can be instantaneously in connection with others globally. Email, phone, Instagram and (and do you recall....letters?) an assortment of other contact possibilities hover while offering choices galore.
One can hardly stay focused due to accepted/expected interruption due to our addiction to being in touch. Currently I have about two dozen reminders pop up onto my screen. They've been there so long that some of them have no meaning. I just hate to delete them in case they turn out to be significant one day.
However, I am wondering if something significant is developing amidst this being in contact with everyone everywhere theme. I believe that, simultaneously, these mechanisms used to reach the masses have also become tools of hiding. Possible?
One can text without face-to-face interaction. We can applaud or spout off. On the surface these brilliant tools of connection may have created a convenient distance for some. If communication is used to enhance relationships, touchdown. If, however, these tools are treasured so that one can keep society at arm's length, detrimental.
This very crowded world of ours is jammed with very lonely individuals. Crowded. Lonely. Daily truth. Jesus was a master at noticing those in his path who needed a healing word. Don't lose this social need. Yes, say it via a note here and there. But do not allow these great inventions of electronic gadgetry to keep us a safe distance from needy individuals.
I so enjoy FB and text, etc. It lets me interact with so many everyday. I want it, love it, need it.
I am also saying that this process must not replace one-on-one personal interaction. If we do not catch this, a generation(s) could develop incredible connecting skills around the world while hiding from the very personal friends and family who wish to be in meaningful relationship.
We would do well, I think, to regard with caution our obsession with the latest and greatest connection systems which, possibly, could inadvertently create a greater disconnect.
One can hardly stay focused due to accepted/expected interruption due to our addiction to being in touch. Currently I have about two dozen reminders pop up onto my screen. They've been there so long that some of them have no meaning. I just hate to delete them in case they turn out to be significant one day.
However, I am wondering if something significant is developing amidst this being in contact with everyone everywhere theme. I believe that, simultaneously, these mechanisms used to reach the masses have also become tools of hiding. Possible?
One can text without face-to-face interaction. We can applaud or spout off. On the surface these brilliant tools of connection may have created a convenient distance for some. If communication is used to enhance relationships, touchdown. If, however, these tools are treasured so that one can keep society at arm's length, detrimental.
This very crowded world of ours is jammed with very lonely individuals. Crowded. Lonely. Daily truth. Jesus was a master at noticing those in his path who needed a healing word. Don't lose this social need. Yes, say it via a note here and there. But do not allow these great inventions of electronic gadgetry to keep us a safe distance from needy individuals.
I so enjoy FB and text, etc. It lets me interact with so many everyday. I want it, love it, need it.
I am also saying that this process must not replace one-on-one personal interaction. If we do not catch this, a generation(s) could develop incredible connecting skills around the world while hiding from the very personal friends and family who wish to be in meaningful relationship.
We would do well, I think, to regard with caution our obsession with the latest and greatest connection systems which, possibly, could inadvertently create a greater disconnect.
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
THE ON-GOING NECESSITY OF LEARNING
We are victims of a fine process called being alive upon earth. It's fascinating. It's glorious. It's too much for the mind to absorb.
So I say, remain open to absorption!
We have so much to learn, so many truths to discover, and such depth to explore; and I'm merely pointing right now to the Bible.
Mankind is to be richly blessed by God, by His Son, by His Spirit, and by His Word. The riches contained are every bit as valuable, more so really, than perfect gold. Profound undoing of routine boredom sits unsurveyed in many homes between two leather flaps; the Bible.
We search the world over for the awesome and the exciting. Unique wonder is spoken within God's directives. Yet, this word-power has been fundamentally dismissed as weak and useless. Sunday Schoolish is given dismissive regard. This is a grave mistake.
One of the greatest surprises I discovered in the church is the ever-increasing, always-ongoing working nature of God. I assumed He was perched upon Heaven's balcony overseeing His creation. I mean this with beyond imagination distance as a part of the picture.
But the opposite is true. The Living God is currently active, sensitive, and attentive. He lives to be engaged with His people.
God supplies. He listens. There is actual interaction to be involved between Creator and creature. We don't send up prayers by spouting out words of helium nature. No, we express our praise and our needs in relationship to Father; the very one who invites us to accept Divine connection.
Therefore, there will be of necessity on-going learning involved. God is always more than we can imagine. As our imaginations grow as to who and what and how and when and where He works, God ups the ante for He is beyond measure. He is knowable; yet, His reach will never be captured by the minds of men and women.
Whatever man can do, God can out-do. At age 67 I enter every day as if I am in Kindergarten in the Kingdom for that's exactly how far I have arisen. Truthfully, I most likely just bragged as God would say I have not reached that stage as of yet.
We must not be discouraged with being overwhelmed at the awe of God. We are to be elated; filled with thanksgiving. Jesus displayed the nature of Father in his words and deeds. We are still trying to catch up and catch on.
There will always be among us the on-going necessity of learning about God...because He is so massively, uncaptureably, Truth in the finest rank of reality. May we enjoy...thoroughly enjoy...the search as He chooses to reveal His marvelous ideas one speck at time.
So I say, remain open to absorption!
We have so much to learn, so many truths to discover, and such depth to explore; and I'm merely pointing right now to the Bible.
Mankind is to be richly blessed by God, by His Son, by His Spirit, and by His Word. The riches contained are every bit as valuable, more so really, than perfect gold. Profound undoing of routine boredom sits unsurveyed in many homes between two leather flaps; the Bible.
We search the world over for the awesome and the exciting. Unique wonder is spoken within God's directives. Yet, this word-power has been fundamentally dismissed as weak and useless. Sunday Schoolish is given dismissive regard. This is a grave mistake.
One of the greatest surprises I discovered in the church is the ever-increasing, always-ongoing working nature of God. I assumed He was perched upon Heaven's balcony overseeing His creation. I mean this with beyond imagination distance as a part of the picture.
But the opposite is true. The Living God is currently active, sensitive, and attentive. He lives to be engaged with His people.
God supplies. He listens. There is actual interaction to be involved between Creator and creature. We don't send up prayers by spouting out words of helium nature. No, we express our praise and our needs in relationship to Father; the very one who invites us to accept Divine connection.
Therefore, there will be of necessity on-going learning involved. God is always more than we can imagine. As our imaginations grow as to who and what and how and when and where He works, God ups the ante for He is beyond measure. He is knowable; yet, His reach will never be captured by the minds of men and women.
Whatever man can do, God can out-do. At age 67 I enter every day as if I am in Kindergarten in the Kingdom for that's exactly how far I have arisen. Truthfully, I most likely just bragged as God would say I have not reached that stage as of yet.
We must not be discouraged with being overwhelmed at the awe of God. We are to be elated; filled with thanksgiving. Jesus displayed the nature of Father in his words and deeds. We are still trying to catch up and catch on.
There will always be among us the on-going necessity of learning about God...because He is so massively, uncaptureably, Truth in the finest rank of reality. May we enjoy...thoroughly enjoy...the search as He chooses to reveal His marvelous ideas one speck at time.
Saturday, May 02, 2015
"IN HOPE AGAINST HOPE HE BELIEVED"
The quote above is taken from Romans 4:18 which describes the faith of Abraham. I think the statement is confusing as if hope cancels out hope. Surely this isn't God's intention. The entire text of this chapter is to reveal faith's depth as well as range.
Consider verse :17 first. It speaks of Abraham and Sarah who are far too old (the age of great-grandparents) to have a child; yet they are believing God; specifically that God can give life to the dead (their aged bodies too old to reproduce) and call into being things that don't yet exist (their son, Isaac).
Belief targets these two zones which would ordinarily stifle hope.
Verse 18's hope against hope is not pitting one hope against another hope. No, this references both the facts and the emotions of death and nothingness (no hope). When death hits, it seems that life would be obviously over. When something doesn't exist, then why would one believe it could become?
It is on this faith foundation of death and non-existence that hope would seem to surely fade. Yet, it is at this very point that hope actually makes a renewed surge. Hope of possibility cancels the hope that nearly withered in disappointment. There is, among and for believers, to be a new refreshing vision of possibility.
This is surely one of the most powerful and influential truths of all of the Bible and all of the world. Death isn't boss and just because something isn't doesn't mean it can't come about.
This is what I so love about faith in God. The deck can be stacked against and yet the resurrected Jesus (once DEAD) ruins the opponents tactics. When things have a feel of hopelessness there is constant viable reason to believe there is uncanny hope.
Believers in God aren't people who are trying to be more saintly than the next. No, we are a group who don't buy the fact that the grave is the end. We don't even believe that bad news is empty of potential for encouragement.
Faith is not a step in a Bible class. It is the Divine-within-the-human push-back against hopelessness. We can't figure how: just as how aged Abraham and Sarah could have a child or how dead Jesus could come back to life.
We can't figure the how. We can only believe the Who. Christianity is to take ordinary life to another level; the plateau of finding renewed energy when matters seem to grind us down. Belief isn't a standard of right rules. It is daring courage to move into conflict and discouragement with valiant heart.
Hope....because Abraham and Sarah did have that baby boy and because Jesus broke the bonds of the tomb....there is always hope.
Consider verse :17 first. It speaks of Abraham and Sarah who are far too old (the age of great-grandparents) to have a child; yet they are believing God; specifically that God can give life to the dead (their aged bodies too old to reproduce) and call into being things that don't yet exist (their son, Isaac).
Belief targets these two zones which would ordinarily stifle hope.
Verse 18's hope against hope is not pitting one hope against another hope. No, this references both the facts and the emotions of death and nothingness (no hope). When death hits, it seems that life would be obviously over. When something doesn't exist, then why would one believe it could become?
It is on this faith foundation of death and non-existence that hope would seem to surely fade. Yet, it is at this very point that hope actually makes a renewed surge. Hope of possibility cancels the hope that nearly withered in disappointment. There is, among and for believers, to be a new refreshing vision of possibility.
This is surely one of the most powerful and influential truths of all of the Bible and all of the world. Death isn't boss and just because something isn't doesn't mean it can't come about.
This is what I so love about faith in God. The deck can be stacked against and yet the resurrected Jesus (once DEAD) ruins the opponents tactics. When things have a feel of hopelessness there is constant viable reason to believe there is uncanny hope.
Believers in God aren't people who are trying to be more saintly than the next. No, we are a group who don't buy the fact that the grave is the end. We don't even believe that bad news is empty of potential for encouragement.
Faith is not a step in a Bible class. It is the Divine-within-the-human push-back against hopelessness. We can't figure how: just as how aged Abraham and Sarah could have a child or how dead Jesus could come back to life.
We can't figure the how. We can only believe the Who. Christianity is to take ordinary life to another level; the plateau of finding renewed energy when matters seem to grind us down. Belief isn't a standard of right rules. It is daring courage to move into conflict and discouragement with valiant heart.
Hope....because Abraham and Sarah did have that baby boy and because Jesus broke the bonds of the tomb....there is always hope.
Friday, May 01, 2015
THINGS I LIKE ABOUT GOD
God was just too illusive for me. His bigness seemed to sorta snuff me out as there was just no way I could get my mind around the concept. Oddly, that's one of the drawing factors toward God. If He were imaginable, as well as manageable, He wouldn't be much of a God would He?
So one of the things I like about Him is that He already knew the weak minds of men like me. That's why He sent His Son to earth. Jesus came that we could get some sort of an idea as to what God would look like....and what He would look like living inside of us.
God understands everything about us. He is the one who invented us!
A thing I like about God is that He is actual.
The truth that He exists is verified on so many fronts. He isn't a figment of man's best imagination.
To my surprise, as I had little intentions of ever following a religious path, God really gets the underdog. He seems to thrive where we hurt, experience frustration, or deeply suffer. In these zones God really gets to display His beyond-Superman powers. Rescue is one of His forte`s!
God is not the Divine Boss barking out orders. He is the Sacrificial Lamb who paid His own ransom so that worms like me could more than have a shot at abundant life....we would inherit it.
Should you be pondering/questioning privately regarding this great concept, be very free to email me at trush@memorialdrive.org. I would be most happy to share with you ideas that others have shared with me...that really helped clear the spiritual fog.
Have a very upbeat day. The One who created you is very nearby.
So one of the things I like about Him is that He already knew the weak minds of men like me. That's why He sent His Son to earth. Jesus came that we could get some sort of an idea as to what God would look like....and what He would look like living inside of us.
God understands everything about us. He is the one who invented us!
A thing I like about God is that He is actual.
The truth that He exists is verified on so many fronts. He isn't a figment of man's best imagination.
To my surprise, as I had little intentions of ever following a religious path, God really gets the underdog. He seems to thrive where we hurt, experience frustration, or deeply suffer. In these zones God really gets to display His beyond-Superman powers. Rescue is one of His forte`s!
God is not the Divine Boss barking out orders. He is the Sacrificial Lamb who paid His own ransom so that worms like me could more than have a shot at abundant life....we would inherit it.
Should you be pondering/questioning privately regarding this great concept, be very free to email me at trush@memorialdrive.org. I would be most happy to share with you ideas that others have shared with me...that really helped clear the spiritual fog.
Have a very upbeat day. The One who created you is very nearby.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
LIVING IN THE LAND OF THE BOMBARDED
This fast-paced lifestyle of ours isn't good for us. Never has it been more accurate than now to say that time seems to be flying. We are bombarded with too many things to remember, too many matters to attend, and too many details to fulfill.
We are living in a land of the bombarded. We, the care-takers of our walk, have inadvertently become targets rather than trying to live on target. Our minds are in constant distraction while our responsibilities cover a plethora of variational obligation.
Should you think I'm yelling at you, I'm not. I don't intend to be the dog barking at your wheels as you drive by on your way to your next appointment...possibly running a bit late.
I'm merely saying fatigue sets in on my spirit because I live in a marvelous time of opportunity. Back from St. Louis this week. Off to LA next week. And, I love every bit of it. I'm just saying I live where some of you do.
So of course I offer the age-old warning that still must serve as a constant reminder. Live in pace with Jesus.
I told myself that when the kids were out on their own that my life would slow down. Not a whisker. When I watch Jesus (and no he didn't have an automobile, Internet, cell phone, nor a membership at the Y), he was always engaged in the most amazing moments. Yet, these seemed to consistently follow time spent with Father.
I encourage you/me/we to keep working at spending time with Father.
We can and will resist this plea. We believe ourselves too busy. Our lives look like a person whose car is about to run out of gasoline; but doesn't have the time to stop to fill it up. When running on empty, eventually parked along the roadside as stranded, one discovers it takes much more additional time and cost to do what should have been done back at the intersection with three gas stations.
But we get too busy. And our busy isn't trivial. All of it matters. Yet, Jesus warned Martha of this in the book of Luke when she was miffed over Mary lounging at the voice of Jesus when there was preparation needed in the kitchen. Too, it was this same Martha who was later miffed when discovered that her brother had died and Jesus didn't "hurry" to get there in time.
John 11:20 has an interesting take; Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming , went to meet Him; but Mary still sat in the house. Mary "still sat"? Evidently there was something within her spirit due to learning from Jesus, rather than always busy, that put the calm in her.
Before we run into our calendaric demands or even our upsetting crises, we will do well to learn what it means to spend time in the calm reflection of the presence of Jesus. He makes such a difference. This hinges on where we choose to be spending time.
We are living in a land of the bombarded. We, the care-takers of our walk, have inadvertently become targets rather than trying to live on target. Our minds are in constant distraction while our responsibilities cover a plethora of variational obligation.
Should you think I'm yelling at you, I'm not. I don't intend to be the dog barking at your wheels as you drive by on your way to your next appointment...possibly running a bit late.
I'm merely saying fatigue sets in on my spirit because I live in a marvelous time of opportunity. Back from St. Louis this week. Off to LA next week. And, I love every bit of it. I'm just saying I live where some of you do.
So of course I offer the age-old warning that still must serve as a constant reminder. Live in pace with Jesus.
I told myself that when the kids were out on their own that my life would slow down. Not a whisker. When I watch Jesus (and no he didn't have an automobile, Internet, cell phone, nor a membership at the Y), he was always engaged in the most amazing moments. Yet, these seemed to consistently follow time spent with Father.
I encourage you/me/we to keep working at spending time with Father.
We can and will resist this plea. We believe ourselves too busy. Our lives look like a person whose car is about to run out of gasoline; but doesn't have the time to stop to fill it up. When running on empty, eventually parked along the roadside as stranded, one discovers it takes much more additional time and cost to do what should have been done back at the intersection with three gas stations.
But we get too busy. And our busy isn't trivial. All of it matters. Yet, Jesus warned Martha of this in the book of Luke when she was miffed over Mary lounging at the voice of Jesus when there was preparation needed in the kitchen. Too, it was this same Martha who was later miffed when discovered that her brother had died and Jesus didn't "hurry" to get there in time.
John 11:20 has an interesting take; Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming , went to meet Him; but Mary still sat in the house. Mary "still sat"? Evidently there was something within her spirit due to learning from Jesus, rather than always busy, that put the calm in her.
Before we run into our calendaric demands or even our upsetting crises, we will do well to learn what it means to spend time in the calm reflection of the presence of Jesus. He makes such a difference. This hinges on where we choose to be spending time.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
PROTESTS, RIOTS, AND CHURCH
I watch the reports out of Baltimore with great interest. Being white, I find myself challenged by the scenes of destruction. Yet, I question what it is that I may be missing. So may I appear quite vulnerable to you all as you read on?
There was a time in my life that such scenes didn't even challenge me. They merely agitated. Ridiculous. Stupid. Ignorant. Such were my displeasured reactions.
However, I ran into a man whom I had loved as a fan; my Cardinal hero of all-time, Curt Flood. I learned. I learned a lot from being around him, his family, and his very closest of friends. I learned the other side of angst. There is another side to this story. I had never listened; never thought there was anything yet to be considered.
For now, I dare to ask, Is there something the Caucasians don't get? If so, what is it? I now believe the answer to the first question is,Yes. I weigh in with possibilities to the second. The blacks call these protests. Whites call them riots.
Destruction is everywhere and this is very bad. While a very emotional, yet calm, Maryland State Senator was trying to explain to our nation on camera from one of the chaotic streets of Baltimore, local citizens peppered the camera lens with random disruptive appearances of spouting and shouting.
The black Senator remained calm while the agitants railed on in disruption.
And this occurred to me; we whites cannot seem to understand the protests because of the over-the-top who appear to immaturely and irresponsibly enjoy the destruction. What we tend to miss is that media, of course, has a flare for the dramatic. Would we do well to remember that the most of these who are gathered may be there because they want better lives and don't know any other way to be heard; but the destruction was never in their game-plan?
Could it be that the voices of citizens who are calling for help are drowned out by those who distract in their violent, loud, obnoxious behavior?
And could it be that, similarly, this is why the gospel isn't heard in America? It isn't that the bulk of believers are money-grubbing, slick-talking, self-focused people. Could it be that too many church reps who get in front of the camera with such a disposition cause viewers to think that most of the Jesus-followers are like that?
Is there a connection between the truth of black communities being misunderstood just like the Truth of God is also maligned...by the very people who spout His positions?
It is my conviction today that mankind has a problem followed by a solution. The problem is the wrong ones get the camera time and the solution is for all of us to realize the problem. Do all blacks who take the camera appear over-the-edge? No. And not all television evangelists appear self-promoting.
We must guard against becoming emotionally distracted or we may very likely miss the underlying needs and cries....from both important groups.
And that's my point. There are abundant and tremendous causes coming from both of these camps. We must not go deaf to either field just because some most vocal have been poor representations of that which is actually in the mix of potential and possibility which would deeply bless every community.
The bottom line to all of this is that I need to do a good job of self-evaluation for I am likely to be just like those who irritate me...Romans 2:1-5.
There was a time in my life that such scenes didn't even challenge me. They merely agitated. Ridiculous. Stupid. Ignorant. Such were my displeasured reactions.
However, I ran into a man whom I had loved as a fan; my Cardinal hero of all-time, Curt Flood. I learned. I learned a lot from being around him, his family, and his very closest of friends. I learned the other side of angst. There is another side to this story. I had never listened; never thought there was anything yet to be considered.
For now, I dare to ask, Is there something the Caucasians don't get? If so, what is it? I now believe the answer to the first question is,Yes. I weigh in with possibilities to the second. The blacks call these protests. Whites call them riots.
Destruction is everywhere and this is very bad. While a very emotional, yet calm, Maryland State Senator was trying to explain to our nation on camera from one of the chaotic streets of Baltimore, local citizens peppered the camera lens with random disruptive appearances of spouting and shouting.
The black Senator remained calm while the agitants railed on in disruption.
And this occurred to me; we whites cannot seem to understand the protests because of the over-the-top who appear to immaturely and irresponsibly enjoy the destruction. What we tend to miss is that media, of course, has a flare for the dramatic. Would we do well to remember that the most of these who are gathered may be there because they want better lives and don't know any other way to be heard; but the destruction was never in their game-plan?
Could it be that the voices of citizens who are calling for help are drowned out by those who distract in their violent, loud, obnoxious behavior?
And could it be that, similarly, this is why the gospel isn't heard in America? It isn't that the bulk of believers are money-grubbing, slick-talking, self-focused people. Could it be that too many church reps who get in front of the camera with such a disposition cause viewers to think that most of the Jesus-followers are like that?
Is there a connection between the truth of black communities being misunderstood just like the Truth of God is also maligned...by the very people who spout His positions?
It is my conviction today that mankind has a problem followed by a solution. The problem is the wrong ones get the camera time and the solution is for all of us to realize the problem. Do all blacks who take the camera appear over-the-edge? No. And not all television evangelists appear self-promoting.
We must guard against becoming emotionally distracted or we may very likely miss the underlying needs and cries....from both important groups.
And that's my point. There are abundant and tremendous causes coming from both of these camps. We must not go deaf to either field just because some most vocal have been poor representations of that which is actually in the mix of potential and possibility which would deeply bless every community.
The bottom line to all of this is that I need to do a good job of self-evaluation for I am likely to be just like those who irritate me...Romans 2:1-5.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
THE FULFILLING TREK OF JESUS
We want things.
We want things for, in, and through the church.
A transfer must take place to where what we want is what he wants. This is major. This is the fulfilling trek of Jesus.
Billions have/are interested in church. Yet, at the core is a villainous doctrine of sorts which insists that we are right on interpretations; while simultaneously hiding from the pure mission. In large, the church has gone into hiding in a public format.
We just must awaken to the Holy Spirit who now abides in us for the simple focus of taking us places with a strength we find nowhere else. The church body is to be reaching to neighbors which will include strangers. The church body has a message; one of perfect hope.
We are Jesus in our communities. Every clerk, every citizen, every teacher, every politician, and every waitress is encountering Jesus when they are approaching or being approached by us. Our Sunday morning garb with smiles will not cut it. Carrying our Bibles won't either. Carrying the Spirit in our hearts for the love of others fulfills the call of Jesus.
Jesus is public. He served the public, died in public, and saves the public. We are called to care for the most, for the medium, and for the least. We are called...not they.
Here's how I perceived church in my earlier days. It was my sacrifice to attend. I was a good boy and gave up two hours of golf or of baseball in our big yard. The lure for the latter was strong. But I endured. I sacrificed. I went to church.
And, I missed the call of God.
Our nation is in need of many things. I believe the greatest is for us church people to shed the robes of what pleases me in order to wear a vulnerable heart of what would bless them.
Jesus is a different sort. Yes, he spent much time alone with Father. It could be said he was a loner of sorts. But it seems that his alone-time was to order his heart so that he would walk right into the toughest of opposing views and love them to death...his own own death.
He did it. We are called to no less.
The church is slumbering in attitudes of keep me happy or I'm outa here. This is not/does not/will not fulfill the trek of Jesus. May we be determined to reach out.
That's what Jesus...still does.
We want things for, in, and through the church.
A transfer must take place to where what we want is what he wants. This is major. This is the fulfilling trek of Jesus.
Billions have/are interested in church. Yet, at the core is a villainous doctrine of sorts which insists that we are right on interpretations; while simultaneously hiding from the pure mission. In large, the church has gone into hiding in a public format.
We just must awaken to the Holy Spirit who now abides in us for the simple focus of taking us places with a strength we find nowhere else. The church body is to be reaching to neighbors which will include strangers. The church body has a message; one of perfect hope.
We are Jesus in our communities. Every clerk, every citizen, every teacher, every politician, and every waitress is encountering Jesus when they are approaching or being approached by us. Our Sunday morning garb with smiles will not cut it. Carrying our Bibles won't either. Carrying the Spirit in our hearts for the love of others fulfills the call of Jesus.
Jesus is public. He served the public, died in public, and saves the public. We are called to care for the most, for the medium, and for the least. We are called...not they.
Here's how I perceived church in my earlier days. It was my sacrifice to attend. I was a good boy and gave up two hours of golf or of baseball in our big yard. The lure for the latter was strong. But I endured. I sacrificed. I went to church.
And, I missed the call of God.
Our nation is in need of many things. I believe the greatest is for us church people to shed the robes of what pleases me in order to wear a vulnerable heart of what would bless them.
Jesus is a different sort. Yes, he spent much time alone with Father. It could be said he was a loner of sorts. But it seems that his alone-time was to order his heart so that he would walk right into the toughest of opposing views and love them to death...his own own death.
He did it. We are called to no less.
The church is slumbering in attitudes of keep me happy or I'm outa here. This is not/does not/will not fulfill the trek of Jesus. May we be determined to reach out.
That's what Jesus...still does.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
LIFE: DON'T LET THERE BE A ROBBERY
We have every reason to be enthused about today; the "right now" of today.
Everywhere that there is pesky stress there is also serious awe.
Every time injury results, healing lurks.
When offense is taken, reconciliation whispers.
As long as we are breathing, possibility is at our elbows.
I believe that one of the greatest tragedies of our day is that we have fundamentally grown both numb and bored with ourselves. When we view our tomorrows as mere repeats of our yesterdays with little expectation for grandeur, we are likely going to miss out on the powerful rebirth of right now.
We take in money. We hand out money. We rest, eat, work; all of which results in need to rest and eat in order to work. There are only so many hellos and good-byes allotted per day. And then we need to rest in order to greet again...and then again.
My point is that we really want to be on our toes as to the threat of robbery for each right now. Do not let wonder slip into the comfortable, the routine, and the mundane.
Arise!
Arise with joy and thrill and smile; put perk in your steps. We had great yesterdays, anticipate spectacular tomorrows, and are quite impressed with the fact that we are intelligent enough to read this article right now...as some don't have the capacity. This very moment is an honor...for each of us!
We are to be wowed that we get to work, have food to eat, and then can lay down for a rest. We are pumped that we connect with a hello here and a good-bye there; we actually know people!
Tell worry to be still, to go to the back of the bus, and to sit down. Better yet, stop the bus and tell worry to take a hike. We have serious living to do. We will not be robbed of life!
Everywhere that there is pesky stress there is also serious awe.
Every time injury results, healing lurks.
When offense is taken, reconciliation whispers.
As long as we are breathing, possibility is at our elbows.
I believe that one of the greatest tragedies of our day is that we have fundamentally grown both numb and bored with ourselves. When we view our tomorrows as mere repeats of our yesterdays with little expectation for grandeur, we are likely going to miss out on the powerful rebirth of right now.
We take in money. We hand out money. We rest, eat, work; all of which results in need to rest and eat in order to work. There are only so many hellos and good-byes allotted per day. And then we need to rest in order to greet again...and then again.
My point is that we really want to be on our toes as to the threat of robbery for each right now. Do not let wonder slip into the comfortable, the routine, and the mundane.
Arise!
Arise with joy and thrill and smile; put perk in your steps. We had great yesterdays, anticipate spectacular tomorrows, and are quite impressed with the fact that we are intelligent enough to read this article right now...as some don't have the capacity. This very moment is an honor...for each of us!
We are to be wowed that we get to work, have food to eat, and then can lay down for a rest. We are pumped that we connect with a hello here and a good-bye there; we actually know people!
Tell worry to be still, to go to the back of the bus, and to sit down. Better yet, stop the bus and tell worry to take a hike. We have serious living to do. We will not be robbed of life!
Friday, April 24, 2015
THE "AH"; LIKE IN "AH"HA MOMENT
It is possible that not many noticed, but Abraham and Sarah of the Genesis account were not always known as such. Their given names were Abram and Sarai.
Why the later addition to the spelling of their names?
The part that's been added is "ah". Abram then became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah. James L. Garlow speaks of this transition:
This name change is precisely what occurred when God made covenant with Abram. The man's name changed from Abram to AbrAHam. The two letters that are added are "AH", which come from Yahwa (YAH-way), the name of God that appears approximately 6,800 times in the Old Testament. We pronounce it "Jehovah".
But originally God's name was simply four letters: "YHWH." When He made the covenant with Abram, He put the "H" from His name into Abraham's name and changed Sara to "Sarah". The Hebrew letter "H" is the sound of breath, generally signifying the breath or presence of God.
This was a strong factor; the breath of God upon the leader of faith. That the Bible is inspired carries the meaning that it is God-breathed. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is called the "Holy Pneuma" in Greek. Pneuma means wind. Literally it means the Holy puff of God.
We have what we call "AH-HA" moments. Abram and Sarai had the deepest and most significant. Today, God breaths life into us day by day through His Holy Spirit. May you and I live out our walk in strong "AH-HA" fashion.
There's more to us than us; just as there was more to Abram than Abram. There was....God.
Why the later addition to the spelling of their names?
The part that's been added is "ah". Abram then became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah. James L. Garlow speaks of this transition:
This name change is precisely what occurred when God made covenant with Abram. The man's name changed from Abram to AbrAHam. The two letters that are added are "AH", which come from Yahwa (YAH-way), the name of God that appears approximately 6,800 times in the Old Testament. We pronounce it "Jehovah".
But originally God's name was simply four letters: "YHWH." When He made the covenant with Abram, He put the "H" from His name into Abraham's name and changed Sara to "Sarah". The Hebrew letter "H" is the sound of breath, generally signifying the breath or presence of God.
This was a strong factor; the breath of God upon the leader of faith. That the Bible is inspired carries the meaning that it is God-breathed. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is called the "Holy Pneuma" in Greek. Pneuma means wind. Literally it means the Holy puff of God.
We have what we call "AH-HA" moments. Abram and Sarai had the deepest and most significant. Today, God breaths life into us day by day through His Holy Spirit. May you and I live out our walk in strong "AH-HA" fashion.
There's more to us than us; just as there was more to Abram than Abram. There was....God.
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