TO LOVE OUR ENEMY WOULD INCLUDE WHAT?

Mark Hodges So what does a Christ like love of enemies look like in this case? Not, what do we not do but how do we love this enemy?

Of all of the lively chatter following yesterday's post, Mark's question led me to ponder possibly an undercurrent to our discussion.  Did I make a poor point by targeting who it is we should love too soon?  By that, did I create a storm of controversy when I chose the topic of loving an extremist organization when, in reality, Christians struggle with the sheer topic of loving those who oppose and offend us?  I think I did.

I've lived with me for quite some time now.  And in that process I've lived among us.  I've lived among us in the secular segment and then in the Christian format.  When it comes to those who oppose us, there is stark difference in Sunday School/Sermon presentation as to loving any and all enemies in theory.  Yet, transforming such a belief system into our behavior seems to be quite another story.

So from Mark's question, just how are we to love any enemy?

First, who are our enemies?  To ponder possibilities might open our hearts as to who it is we are called to love.  
(Side note: If the fruit of the Holy Spirit includes love we can be assured we are being called into a zone where love is needed and we CANNOT produce it on our own.)  We are called to love God, love our families, love those who like us....and love those who don't.  Thus, this post's task.

Spouses may find the other one to be the enemy on certain days (weeks?).  Office interaction could be a great strain to some because bosses or colleagues seem to oppose.  School systems, families, and neighborhoods are currently riddled with anger.  Vengeance broods. Tempers boil.  Accusational mortars are fired continually.

It is upon this turf that we have our own mini-ISIS Crisis.  And, what are we to do with it?

The Christian world has been permitted to get by with far too much selectivity as to whom it is we will find acceptable.  Just like the world who knows not God, we too are found to love some and despise some and even hate some as if that is just the way it is and we just can't help it.

Yes....we can help it.  By the Holy Spirit power and lavish fruit, we can help it.

So maybe I brought the Isis Crisis to the forefront too soon.  Maybe we should first consider who it is among us individually who seems bent on terrorizing our families and friends; these whom we subtly and possibly unconsciously have tagged "enemy".

The world grows dark not because enemy population increases.  No, from watching Jesus walk and talk, the responsibility lies upon the shoulders of Bible-toting, Bible-quoting Christians as we develop an increasing bent upon the handy, the convenient, and the comfortable.

How do we love any enemy?  We see the good in them; as Jesus does us.  We believe they can become; as Jesus did us.  We see possibility beyond their injurious ways; as Jesus did us.  We take the blame for their behavior by paying a most uncomfortable price; as Jesus did us.  This isn't Sunday School time.  Life calls us to be saved in order to save others.  The cross isn't a necklace around a collar.  It is an execution tool slaying our personal preferences strapped across our backs.

We will do our best to move from a distant perception of the cross to a more close-up of being attached to it.  For me, I have work to do, growing to do, expanding my love-range to do. As far as discipleship goes, I'm still in kindergarten.  How about you?  

WHAT ARE CHRISTIANS TO DO WITH THE ISIS CRISIS?

Christianity faces some of its greatest days.  We best not miss them.  I'm not being Pollyanna nor am I being naive.  In these very treacherous, threatening, and perplexing days of militant-striking global news, the stage is set for believers in God to shine on this very stage which has such a stark, dark background.

If ever there was a time for God's children to arise, it would not be in knocking doors to set up Bible studies.  Neither would it be to send food to a mission sight.  While these are surely effective and valuable, there is an ultra-necessary call for those of us who carry our Bibles.  We must learn to authentically, seriously, honestly love our enemies.  

It is here we drop the ball (faith in the Word) and take on a fleshly system of religion of sorts.  We will engage in many things, seemingly everything doctrinal as best as we can interpret , except...loving those despicable people we know as...enemies.  It is here that all denominational flavors who parade our differences join forces....in shame.  

Jesus called for us to love those who wish to do us harm.  He did and does. We somehow dismiss such a divine charge.  We go to church.  We conduct home Bible studies.  We work hard at good deeds.  Yet, the Christian world has no voice when it comes to absolutely loving and being deeply concerned for the welfare of our enemies; whether across a vast ocean or across a property-line fence.

We.  Have.  Gone.  Silent.

Instead, we have joined the ranks of bitterness; even hatred for this segment of society.  God loves these people.  Their deeds are injurious. Their souls are dear.  We must expand our belief system from strong preference as to what goes on inside of our church buildings; worship experiences we prefer or mission efforts we like.  We must adhere to His dynamic call to deeply love those who oppose us; else our words and efforts are wasted breath.

I spend time in prayer asking God to bless these barbaric leaders who appear to take us out.  These have not gotten to know the One who laid his life down for them; for us.  We are all, says the Bible, enemies to God at one time.  God is in the enemy-loving business.  And...we love Him for it.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:10).

May the church wake up in order to practice what it has preached; yet, most likely never regarded it as a reality.  Now is the time for our enduring love to go public for our enemies to be both seen and heard.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men (Luke 6:35).

SHALL WE LIVE DEAD OR SHALL WE LIVE ALIVE?

No one is exempt from conflict.  It presents itself moment by moment.  One of the more stronger ones is the contest between the flesh and the spirit.  I speak not of a matter of doing what's right vs. what's wrong.  Rather I address the war of aging.

II Corinthians 4:16 presents one of man's greatest divides; outer man decaying vs. inner man getting newer day by day.  Note: this is simultaneous; not either/or.  Both are a common part of our daily routine.  The Outer vs. the Inner is the fiercest of all competition.

Count on it; we will go 15 rounds.  There is no need to assume exemption.  And...the contest will be inescapably stormy.

The flesh ages while the spirit invigorates.  Fact. One will tend to decline.  The other is to move onward and upward.  Fact.  Both want to run the show.  Fact.

This truth should/could/must serve as Church Alert.  Every generation will fight the aging process; locking down the flesh's preferences and comforts.  It is no easy contest to release ourselves from the flesh soaked in fear and into the flotational promises of spirit wonder.  The flesh will selfishly preserve while the spirit will be inclined to explore.

Some who are engaged in what is known as the Restoration Movement have very strongly shifted into the Preservation Movement having forgotten our forefathers seemed more engaged in the Exploration Movement.  There is a difference.  One slant will kill.  The fruit will be shrinking churches.  The other will give life resulting in growth; both inwardly and numerically.

There are many wonderful biblical blessings which have flowed from our past.  We have learned how to praise, how to connect, and how to serve.  Yet God is most clear, that He has things awaiting in the storehouse of blessings that man hasn't even thought about yet (I Cor. 2:9).  Sometimes when these blessings are discovered, we find that we are faced with a solemn decision.  Are we to remain unmovable from what we attained in the past are shall we grow into the newness He seems to adamantly present?

This is no easy task.  On the contrary, it is deeply sobering.  Of all of the conflict management one faces, whether, family-job-or-profession, this one is major because it separates whether one lives dead to the promises of God or lives alive to His radiant and ungraspable creativity .

WALKING IN OUR OWN SHOES

Tell God how much you love Him....constantly.

Don't flinch when things don't go the way you had hoped.  Advantageous training is buried within.

May your tears fail to drown you in misery; but rather may they be used as telescopes for discovery.

Tell God how much you love Him....constantly.

OWNING A FAITH THAT BREATHES

F. A. I. T. H.

Faith is to be a lavish, even outrageous, element of the human fabric.  By it one peers into those gigantic oceans of possibility and potential.  Our physical sight (whether actual eyes or fleshly-curbed imagination) cannot walk into the arena of the God-stuff and succeed without the armor of deeply believing.  Otherwise, life will always wither in fear.

We are just too weird.  No one likes fear; yet we often hide beneath its canopy for assumed protection.  This is a stifling and unconscious move which aborts the High-Powered thrust of what can be; what could become.

Mediocrity becomes the norm when belief is forced to sit down and be respectfully quiet.  Dreams die in this room.  Hopes fade.  Progress is lost....all in the name of not appearing absurd or out of step.

Francis Schaeffer spelled this out decades ago when he referenced the activity of the Spirit within us.  The fruits are normal; not to have them is not to have the Christian life which should be considered usual.  There are oceans of grace which wait. Orchard upon orchard waits, vineyard upon vineyard of fruit awaits.

There is only one reason why they do not flow out through the Christian's life, and that is that the instrumentality of faith is not being used.  This is to quench the Holy Spirit.

When we sin in this sense, we sin twice; we sin in the sin, and this is terrible, as it is against the Law and the character of God himself, our Father; but at the same time we sin by omission, because we have not raised the empty hands of faith for the gift that is there.

Faith that breathes takes work.  I feel badly for those of us who have a church; yet seem to have very little stirring of faith while either sitting or serving.  These have opted for hoping for the best in life without connecting to the dynamic of God; His Holy Spirit.

Owning a faith that criticizes others is to drive into one dead-end alley after another of nothing more than kindergartenish one-up-manship.  To possess a vision of courage and bravery to dare enter passageways of conviction regarding the strong productive arm of God is surely fresh air to the heart-lungs of believers.

May we dare to take the boat of faith out to the raging, even exhilarating, tempests of the sea rather than polishing it while always anchored in timidic safety along the shore.

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL OF THE CRAP IN LIFE

Some days fare pretty well for all of us.  Some days, though?  Not so much.  I've spent too many days in my past faked out by the bad and negative and hurt-feelings scenarios.  These can pester us into submission if not informed as to how to offer productive redirection.

My earlier days found me retreating via an inward and withdrawn pouting.  Within this zone I could not only take refuge, I could tell the world off...in my mind, of course.

So what shall we do with those bad days; those annoying, injurious, and dreaded moments of pain and anguish; of irritation and frustration?    Well, for one, we will not waste them.  We will, instead, find ways to redirect them to serve us rather than pull us under.

Crappy days can either stink up the place or be used for fertilizer to make our fields even greener and more productive.  One seems to be a curse while the very same substance can prove to advantage our situations.

It isn't that some have it rough and others don't.  No.  The difference is determined in the use of this product.  We can either shut down because of the odor or we can lighten up because of even the greater hope.

Even regarding this article, some will be encouraged by the possibility of new direction while others will be miffed because I used the word fertilizer.  We have a choice. Spend it productively.

WHY SHOULD ANYONE WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN?

Let's get real.  Is there really a need for Christianity anymore?  Or, has this system ridden the rails so very long that it no longer reflects direction or meaning?  Are our communities uselessly expending human energy to keep the church organization afloat via a few transfers and conversions here and there?

Would it be fairly accurate to say that those sitting in churches are no different than those who never attend?  Is the charge of hypocrisy sticking; thus the throwing up of our arms in disgust?  Why should anyone want to be a Christian?

The "better than" doctrine assumed by the Christian world is finally coming back to bite us...big time.  Neighbors are sick of us with our parading pseudo-holiness that has no curtains.  We are easily perceived as fake.  The charges are strong.  The violations are blatant.

So, why should anyone want to be a Christian?  It's just so easy to toss out verbal emptiness of I can be a Christian at the golf course.  But there is a profound truth being overlooked by these excusers.  Jesus died to make us right with God because we could not get right on our own.

To be a Christ-ian is to admit our flaws; not deny them.  To be a Christ-ian is to proclaim to the world that we realize our sheer lack of holiness.  We could not muster such on our own goodness; but oh how we've tried.

The reason anyone would want to be a Christian is because we finally realize we cannot save ourselves by our own goodness, our own sacrificial giving, nor our own striving to improve.  We are too far gone to pull ourselves up.  Only Jesus can do it because he took on all of our sins on the cross.

Go ahead.  Have a heyday mocking certain Christians.  Point to our lack, our ignorance, even our sin.  But you need to have a more defining perspective as to why we believe in Jesus.  We found ourselves inadequate to handle the sin-charge.  Only he can cover our sins.  Only he has arisen from the grave to prove it.

Why should anyone want to be a Christian?  Because there is no other means by which one can have legitimate hope of pleasing God.

THE STRANGE WORLD OF BEING A PREACHER

Being a preacher is just the weirdest thing in the whole world.  Well, maybe that's an exaggerated statement; so let it suffice to say that it is very different than what I had assumed as I went into it.

I love the work.  I love God.  And I'm crazy about the people.  Who wouldn't want to get to do what I do?  Furthermore, I'm so grateful for the tasks before me.

So what's strange?

I am never good enough.  Do you realize that?  We of this position are never adequate.  I had assumed I would turn Inadequate corner and onto Adequate Avenue.  Finally I realized, it isn't going to happen.

Yes, the Bible makes it clear that we are never adequate in ourselves.  Oh, I don't have to be reminded.  But somehow I had wished, hoped, guessed, and thought that I would finally be elevated to....at least adequate.  Well really, I was hoping for superior in places...but surely adequate.

Nope.  It isn't there.

This leaves me/those in similar roles quite vulnerable.  Once again I have my sermon ready for this morning; yet due to my serious lack it isn't done and won't ever be done.  I'll just finally stop verbalizing this morning.  It's weird.  It's just so strange to live an exciting venture of preaching when you never sense that it is enough.

Only God holds those accolades.  I am confident that He will use my inadequacy to give attention to His Spirit during the process.  Yay Him!

CHRONIC MARTHANITIS

Her sister claimed that Martha was busy with so many things when only one really mattered.  The what mattered was sitting, listening, being, acknowledging Jesus in their midst.

Little has changed since that Luke 10 text was transmitted for the entire world to view. It seems that as modernity rolls in, Marthanitis accompanies it.  The church God is building through His Son Jesus is hamstrung with the age-old fatiguity of being attentive to so many things.  These many things have evolved into little gods themselves.

From the talent of the speaker, to the Sound of Music, to the programs available, to the attraction for children, to the style, to the decor, to the timing, to the location, to the atmosphere, to the mission, to the version, we are assaulted by distraction from engaging with the Master.  Replacements have bullied their way into the God-system under the umbrella of personal preference.

As leaders we must become acutely aware of such distraction which erodes development of the Spirit among us.  We must fight off the envy and the lust to be someone else some place else.  Our God can, does, and will use variations of people and settings to fulfill His will.

Wherever we are and whoever we are, when Jesus is our centerpiece, the track is right and the mission is secure.  In this zone, therefore, we are in the greener pasture regardless of where and how others find release to serve.

Chronic Marthanitis misses the beauty of the moment; it always has and it always will. When constantly striving for more, we must be on total alert lest we find ourselves full of ambition while empty of a Savior who provides the ultimate in purpose and meaning.

THE MORE I AM THE MORE I'M NOT

Life continues to take strange turns.

In my teens I wanted to be a big deal.  Because I thrived on imagination anyway, my destination was surely going to be simply and wonderfully awesome.

In my 20s and 30s I was on my way via energetic striving to become...become whatever it was that I thought would equal notable success.

By my 30s and 40s it was my assumption that destiny and fame would be reached and I would have captured the unknown by having taken it hostage in the known world.  My answers were supposed to increase.  Correspondingly, my guestimate was that my questions would decrease because I would have garnered solutions to so many things.

Yet, my 50s didn't seem to endorse such a grand assumption.  The longer I lived the more questions I had about my questions and fewer answers availed themselves.

Now in my 60s I am realizing an obvious destiny; the more I am me the more I'm not what I had assumed I would be.  It seems that I've grown in ignorance because that which is to be known has grown to be a much larger volume than I had anticipated. Every time I learn something new, ten other things arise that I don't know.

I'm losing ground.

The older I get the behinder I really am.

It seems the more I know about God the more I seem to have increased in sin.  It is true that the more He increases in my eyes the more I decrease in my own.  While this is a good thing, it surely catches me by surprise because I had guessed that drawing closer to God increased me.  Not the case.

The more that I am alive the more that I realize how far I have to go.  That distance....is acceleratingly immeasurable.  So age is unfolding a consistent and gigantic truth.  The longer I live the less impressive I am to myself.  The more I am...the more I realize how much I am not.

Anybody with me on this?

FIXATED ON THE PAST

It's just too weird.  As much as man has available from today's land of the living, we seem bent on perpetuating the same ol' same ol'.  We have a chronic disability because religion insists on being fixated on the past.  This is debilitating.

In my segment of the spiritual world we are quite familiar with the term Restoration Movement.  When introduced to this concept, I found it to be delightfully authentic; even genius.  Yet, the movement bit itself when it became the goal; not Jesus.

Emphasis for the past several decades has been to restore the Restoration Movement; not the church.  From this mistake, we have lost our way.

Being fixated on the past demands that focus be given to what worked back then.  If one wants to go all of the way back to the Word, that's the way to go.  When this happens there will be a constant thread for the Word of God lives and is very active.

The constant?  Change.  New.  Creative.  Spirit.

Four things that we who are steeped in the Restoration Movement tend to detest.  If we set out to restore the truths of the Bible, we are on solid footing.  However, if we are bent on mimicking what the church did in the 60s and 70s, we have bailed on the advancing call of the Word.

Our fixation is to be neither past nor future.  It is to be in the Spirit of the moment.  He will teach us what we need to believe, guide us toward fruitful direction, and lead us into gigantic discovery of what has so far remained unknown.

May we always be learning, growing, and forever new.

HAVE WE FORGOTTEN WHOSE WE ARE...

...and, for that matter, what we are about?

America is experiencing a flawed and domesticated religion which does its best to function under the famed umbrella; Christianity.  Society has gone numb.  Churches have as well.  The contagioned neglectfulness of Whose we are and what we are about is taking a toll; a very hefty toll.

Ours is a scrambled society living from one significant distraction to another.  Focus has been obliterated by both heartbreak and sheer pleasure.  Almost as if completely unaware, the church has lost the Son of God.  Organizational effectiveness is popular King.  Church growth is the respected call.

And Jesus?  It's as if that nowadays that's the name which must be used to close out prayers in order that they would be authorized through the corridors of Heaven.

So believers like me must consider a stark challenge before us.  Will we pursue the robust life Jesus intends that his followers experience?  Or, will we fit acceptably into a distractive form of religion that even unbelievers can sense is going nowhere?

What shall we do about it?  This is a significant question worth probing.  I can only offer one weak man's opinion.

• Read the Word of God.  Read Matthew if you don't know where to begin.  Don't try to understand it, but rather simply watch Jesus act and interact with community.
• Pray.  This is a tough assignment; even for the most ardent followers.  The reason prayer is one of the hardest things to actually do is because it is so high on the list of Kingdom effectiveness.  Many complain.  Few pray.
• Make a shift from human reason to godly faith.  This, again, is not that simple because we would rather go by what we can see than what we can imagine.  The former appears sensible.  The latter is regarded as foolish.  Read I Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. 

May we join forces to perpetually remind us that the thread of the Cross is what leads all to amazing victory.  Life has its challenges which can overwhelm.  Friends are giving up.  They can't sort this maze of distraction.  We must and can set aside these dead-end avenues of promising life in order to intentionally keep on the Higher Calling road that leads to everlasting and authentic hope.

THE SHEAR STRAIN OF BEING A PERSON

As much as we should be used to being a person, it seems that we don't.  Yes, celebrations abound.  But so do challenges to the heart.  It is a struggle being a person.

We are not robots.  We have ideas, directions, feelings; oh, and did I mention feelings? Colliding feelings toward others can conclude in much damage at the intersections of MyWay and TheHighway.  It seems that life unfolds with much consternation as a result of the shear strain of personal conflict.

It isn't easy being us, is it?  Sometimes not; yet we are worth the endurance!

Be encouraged.  So often in our daily routine we don't get things right.  At times some don't treat us right.  We live in the midst of the fallen; the gripey, crotchety, angry, and the moody.  Not so strangely, it isn't just them; but it can be verified it also includes us.

The shear strain of being a person can take its toll.  But I cheer you on that you are a powerful dynamo led by the Spirit and backed by God to make a faithful positive difference for others...and for yourself.

Our lives are filled with glitches--theirs, ours, mine.  I would encourage us to focus more upon supporting one another than complaining.  Our days are loaded with personal flaws.  We will get over them.  We will be victorious because we have a Hero who makes us victorious.  He paid our debts.  Live abundantly.

Admittedly, sometimes we just get things wrong...like the wrong use of shear which should be sheer.  

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT PERSONAL GUILT

Guilt is not often on one's Bucket List.  Maybe I should say, Never!  The reasons could be many; one being that with such abundant supply one doesn't have to wait to experience it.

Personal guilt is not a goal anyone wishes to attain.  Quite the reverse; we desperately wish to shed even its shadow.  Yet, there is profound and monumental value buried within this dark hole.

Personal guilt forces us to back off from our vain accusations toward others. Christianity is suffering a slow death where judgment of others is the routine of one's day.  And, my friend, it is very routine.

Contrary to how some might feel about this, backing off of targeting others about their sins does not mean we have gone soft on sin.  No.  It means we've gone hard on our own.

If we who wish to evangelize the entire world are ever going to gain serious footing in the realm of effective outreach, it will not be first found in raising funds, developing tactics, nor doing effective research.  None of these.  It will be because we first take a good look at ourselves, drop our ego-accusations toward brothers and sisters, and admit that our personal sin nailed the perfect Son to the most ugly Cross.

What I like about personal guilt is that it reminds me to dismount from my church high-horse.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT FEAR

Fear can be like cholesterol; there's the good and, too, there's the bad.  What is there about threatening, intimidating fear that would have any value?  Oh, so much!

Fear awakens us to our complete inadequacy.  This is ultra-important for, otherwise, we will assume ourselves independent; not in need of God nor of others.  This discouraging factor reminds us of how much we need assistance.  Our Lone Ranger mode will not pass the tests for eventually we are overwhelmed.

What I like personally about fear is that just about the time I begin to think I've got a handle on life, fear puts me in my place as quickly as any factor.  Fear serves papers which states that failure lurks and we better have something Larger-Than-Life leading the way into this battle of whatever moment.

I guess what I like best about fear is that it serves as a trigger-point to prompt me to remove my eyes from the lower fret to heights of the higher blessings.  Regardless of how lonely one feels or how miserable one is, fear simply loses impact when we are reminded that Jesus obliterated the greatest display it thought it possessed; that of finalizing death.

What I like about fear?  It lost.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THINGS THAT DON'T GO RIGHT

We must never miss the glory of one moment.  Not. One. Moment.

Even in moments of devastation, I know this sounds so odd to one's way of thinking, there is gold in them thar hills.  Our neglect of this zone just may be one of our biggest mistakes.  We tend to miss some of life's greatest wonder by assuming struggle is of no value.

Could it be that misery could open us to life's greatest wonder?  Embedded within every setback is a significantly available revelation.  We must try to learn to never waste a good problem for within such is buried new concepts of discovery as well as potential.  Even Thomas Edison made awesome discoveries due to repeated failures.

When encountering disruption, one can applaud or pout; be inspired or be angry.  It is a choice.  What I like about things that don't go right is that in each of these settings is opportunity for us to learn about the workings of God.  Even His Son learned obedience through the things he suffered.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MY ENEMIES

I am a despised and hated man.  Of course I'm dearly loved so many; but that first statement is no exaggeration.  Those in my field get it.  Some can't stand me because I am a pitiful failure in things of God...and they are so right.  Others?  They despise me because I don't agree with their doctrine.

One in my shoes constantly faces a very strange, often painful, terrain.

What I like about all of my enemies (and I have many) is that they are, indeed, dear and wonderful and treasured.  I will no longer be duped to hate them back.  Neither will I return sneer for sneer.  The  scene of Jesus on the Cross shows me who I truly am...nothing....more nothing than any one of my critics.

What I like about my enemies is that if they could see themselves from the viewpoint of the Cross they, too, would drop there stones of judgment.  It took me a long time so see it for my own life.  Their revelation will come to them.....and I will honestly, definitely, intentionally love them as they make that freeing trek.

What I like about my enemies is that what I receive from them negatively is what I've noticed I tend to give to others.  Wonderfully, then, my enemies are merely mirrors of myself.  The bottom line is that if we don't love even our enemies, we are far more in error than another we wish to accuse.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT PEOPLE

People are weird.  Have you not noticed?  Our egocentricity competes not only with everyone else; but even ourselves.  We have a knack of promoting ourselves while we put ourselves down more than any other(s).  Sorta weird we surely are.

So what I like about people is that regardless of social class, I know that each is but a little child in a grown body wishing someone would simply like them.  Do you see me? Would you find anything in me of which you would find approval?  Do you like anything about me?

People are created in the image of God.  We are creative, empowering, and fantastic. My heart goes out to every person I meet (every person I see) because my guess is that they have no idea just how majestic he or she are.

Clueless.  They may have taken/given so many hits it is likely that the sight of their own favored wonder from Father has been stolen.  Therefore, our job is to notice them, approve of them, and to....like them.

WE ARE OFF TO CHURCH TO GIVE...AND TO RECEIVE

I remind you of a fundamental tenet of following the Spirit while we are on earth.  We are to cheer others on, build others up, and most definitely love others.  Today, when you are at your favorite congregation, the strong tendency will be to encourage those whom you know and those who cheer you on.

I, therefore, encourage you.  Have eyes to see others; those to whom you don't ordinarily speak and the precious visitors.  I know of little more offensive to our guests than to have any of us look them straight in the eye and then glance away simply because we are timid.

Visitors are likely among us because they, too, need encouragement.  We must see them, look at them, and then do this outlandishly power thing....talk to them.

We are the church in order to give hope to others.  In the process we receive the same.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT FAITH

Faith is the strongest form of rebellion.

When active, it can create something from nothing as well as give life to dead issues.  If those bent on walking out-of-step with societal norms had any idea how antagonistic faith is to the flesh-system, they would jump on this wagon in a heartbeat...and well they should.

Faith is not for the timid.  It erases threat and defeats fear.  Jesus, from the manger to the cross and through the grave, is its ultimate template.  What I like about faith is that it dares to defy the voices of my inner self or the nervous herd as to what won't work, what can't be, and what will surely fail.

Faith is the ultimate bravery because it will successfully confront man's wisdom with God's foolishness... and win every time it walks onto the field....every time.  Just ask those of Goliath's family tree.

REAL TERRORISTS. REAL CONNECTION. REAL PLANS.

Threat seems to be on the rise....really.  Nations clash.  Casualties are high.  But we do this thing that keeps real terrorists and terrorism at bay.  We tend to have an inbuilt security system which promises ourselves that exposure to threat is for anyone but myself.

We know, informationally, a bit about ISIS, Putin, and Iran.  Our ears are filled with their intimidation and our eyes see color-coded maps on the evening news.  Threat is serious.  It is everywhere.  And, it is increasing.

Therefore, I ask us to get serious about the possibility that we are rubbing shoulders with terrorists who may have infiltrated our country.  Might they take our change at a local business, deliver our pizzas, or stand in our classrooms?  What should we do with a real terrorist in our midst where we are found to have real connections--but don't realize it?

Do we have a plan?

Yes.  Yes we should.  Yes we do.

We are to be sowing the seed of the Kingdom of God.  We are to believe that people want to know God; even our fiercest of enemies.  We are not called as Christians to go through life just hoping our family doesn't run into trouble.

It's more.  It's risky,  It's authentic Christianity.  We are to love our neighbors which would include enemies being embedded.  We are not to distance ourselves from community while carrying our Bibles to church.  This is a most backward picture.

Fundamentally, I get it.  We don't want trouble.  No one does.  But, dear friend, trouble is coming to us.  Like it or not, want it or not, it is not a question of whether difficulty lurks.  The question is whether we will live on mission.

I ask us to pray that we could meet/know a terrorist.  I encourage us that we might love them the way Jesus has taught us since our most elementary VBS songs.  One of the reasons Christianity is in a funk is because it has no where to go.  The reason it has no where to go is because it carriers, us, don't want to go into all the world as our Leader expressed (and we can quote his expression).

The church will be most alive when in the ditches of humanity offering assistance at the risk of losing our lives.  God didn't call us to go to church.  He called us to be the church.  Pray that you could one day meet some of these terrorists who may be infiltrating our country.  And pray that when you do you might submit to the kindness of the Spirit to the extent they will realize they may have met Jesus for the very first time.

Making a difference in the world is not restricted to a gentle and safe theory in Sunday School.

MY CAUSE. OUR CAUSE. A GREAT CAUSE

Groups, usually political is seems, salt society with strong calls for saving some portion of our great land.  Preserve the trees.  Preserve the whales.  Preserve the prairie. These groups and more are both animated and intentional about their causes.  Their voices are loud.  Their drive is firm.

Causes are valuable.  They create drive, intention, results.  These eventually define who we are, what we are about, and where we are headed.  It's what we basically eat, sleep, and drink so to speak.

While trees, whales, prairies, and other assorted causes are important, none are as paramount as those who strive to learn of God.  We are to live to preserve the people.

People.  Regardless of age, status, or lifestyle, people are suffering magnificent affliction.  We must help.  Is this not what churches are about?  Is this not precisely what separated Jesus from the religious leadership core?

People.  No one is exempt from repeated injury, pain, and offense.  Not one person.

There is vast need for ministry to friends, neighbors, and strangers because each breathing person possesses an inner ache.  Some are vocal, others keep quiet, while yet others can't figure exactly why their world seems to be marked with a constant something that doesn't feel right.

The church is at its best when it is about people.  Numbers can look like people; but in the end this can be mere camouflage for appearance of concern without actually interacting with individuals.  Ministries can be about people; yet can be a cover to be engaged in something we like without rubbing shoulders with the hurting.

I believe people are THE CAUSE worth complete sacrifice.  Jesus would direct our compassion even toward our enemies because they have been a targeted, possibly abused, people whose training never included the grace-filled breaks yours or mind did.

Trees?  Whales?  Prairies?  All are significant.  Could it be that if we could build up the people that these, in turn, would be the foundational source to treat God's vast creation with even greater respect and love?

My cause, our cause, the great cause is to inform the dear hearts of a crowded people that each is valuable, important, and loved.  Millions....have yet to hear those words.

BEST BRAINS OR BEST EYES?

Working in the kingdom takes a special sort of leadership.  God makes the wise foolish; He insists.

Those of us in leadership must ever be on the alert to such a backward seeming truth. God's foolishness is wiser than man's wisdom.

What will always be a need among us is not greater insight into the dynamics of the flesh-smarts; but the eyes to see where God would choose to register outlandish effectiveness.  This awareness will come about only via the Spirit of God.

Ephesians 1:18ff; may the eyes of your heart be enlightened that we may see the hope, riches and His power toward all of us who believe!

WHY SO MANY AVOID LEARNING ABOUT GOD

Knowing God is the most fantastic experience known to man.  I'm surprised, myself, at what I have and continue to discover that I had no idea was available to our hearts. The wonder.  The curiosity.  All of these and more...simply fabulous.

Why is it that in reality so many avoid learning about the Life-beyond-possible-life order?  I offer thoughts fundamentally from observations made from living among wonderful and treasured individuals.

People-at-large avoid the pursuit of God because this is an invisible subject.  It can feel silly seeking what, in our minds, can't be seen.  Plus, such pursuit can feel far beyond one's comfort zone.  Since we never want to appear foolish, we tend to stick to our social script which would include staying away from discussing/learning about the spirit world.

This way we never look bad in front of anyone.  I find this especially true of any who are of fame.  These strongly wish to preserve their image.  The mission, then, seems to be to carry the look into the market place of one in control; certainly not a seeking of the Unknown.

This God-stuff is very real.  If we are to relate to Him and Him to us there will be a very necessary contour of vulnerability along our paths.  As flowers sprout from dead seed or bulbs into inexpressive beauty, so goes the spirit of man.  As the date is engraved upon the tombstone, there goes the public confession of x amount of years from Jesus' birth.

I urge you to avoid making a death-bed move of panic toward God.  Rather, make a life-bed action.  I, being a very frail person, was significantly intimidated to open my Bible. I didn't know where to start...as a grown man.  But God has a way of finding us when we seek Him.

I urge you to probe.  It may take exertion.  It will take patience.  But I plead with you to come out of hiding behind your images of security.  This life, death, next life thing is certainly real.  Some are reading this who have significant public image.  I understand your hesitation.

Therefore, I would say to you, "I get it."  In the third chapter of John a leader named Nicodemas went to see Jesus by night; meaning he was sneaking along hoping to go unseen.  Some of us live there.  If you want, email me at trush@memorialdrive.org. We can volley ideas at your pace...and in absolute confidence.  Others won't know.

I encourage you to drop the robes of hiding.  Step into the waters of vulnerability. Expect to learn of Christian habits that are very poor image because they are man-made.  You have already surmised such.  Yet, these serve as mere distractions to keep us from inquiring as to whether this Jesus-concept has legitimacy.  Each of us can honestly anticipate learning great things about God far beyond our greatest imagination.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DO GOD MAKE?

Oh, I know the grammar of this title is not the best.  Yet the point is what I'm after. Ron Hall and Denver Moore's great book, What Difference Do It Make?, perpetuates this morning's post.  Does God make any difference?  If so, what?

God makes a life-changing, life-sustaining, life-moving difference.

However, truth seems to be, God has been lost within and among His very own creation.  We have taken over from here.  We are doing our best to run the show.  And while there surely are great moments of victory, every person lives under the umbrella of discouragement and dark times.  There is no exception.

So....if a person is to yield to the God-concept, what difference would it make?  Is there supposed to be a difference?

I love knowing and working with God.  Here's some of the difference I see.  Because of His kind of faith--not the boring church kind that so many experience--there is an entirely new kind of life at our disposal.  Like what, Terry?

Faith believes that what isn't yet can become.  This helps me help any who are bummed; even feeling hopeless.  Jobs can end.  Couples may quarrel.  Dreams temporarily fade.  Hopes can be found dented....if not wrecked.  But faith has the courage to stare right into the center of any demise and believe that life can once again become real.

If and when one believes that Jesus arose from the dead...a live man died, was buried, and then came back to life...then such faith applied to any discouraging setting we face has reason for secure hope.

So many love life as long as it is pleasing.  What I love about faith is that if the moment isn't pleasing, there truly is an invisible power to transform such into fruitful, valuable time.  Because of the legitimacy of faith, even the darkest of days are pregnant with reason to believe that new possibilities can arise from the ashes of destruction.

Faith in the talented, skillful God is what makes the difference.  Not our ingenuity. Not our do-goodness nor our be-goodness.  Our active, functioning, creative God is the one who defies the brain-storm of the flesh.  God can make what isn't become.

What difference do God make?  He can take the celebrity or the homeless man or woman who are severely discouraged and lift them to a higher quality life.  It's fascinating to me.  Life isn't dependent on us getting things accomplished and keeping them operating at full steam.

Life is dependent on the Spirit of God for it is our inner spirits that face agony; not our elbows.  And the Spirit of God lives...yes lives...to work within us in order to get us through the rough terrain.

That's....a part of the difference God makes.

THE MASKED BLESSING

Jesus is the Savior of the world.  He is our hope.  He is our strength; our life.

To follow him has somehow, over the years, been redefined to joining a church and being considerate to a neighbor when we can.  Coupled with such a calling it can be noticed, too, that taking up our cross has unraveled; either somewhat or greatly.

Instead, demanding our personal comfort plays a bigger role than possibly any of us can imagine.

The masked blessing is that somehow a tremendous strength in the Kingdom of God remains front and center; that of suffering.  Struggle is a life-providing factor. Resistance, as in weights at the gym, are not hindrances; but rather are health inducers.  We must continually perceive interruption and interference as deeply meaningful.

Therefore, I do not speak of poor me-ism.  I do address the inherent nature of the simplest faith-walk of dying for others that they might come to life.  This dying to self has been/is being regarded more like torture; not blessing.  Thus, it is being greatly masked from the sheer power dynamic intended by our God.

When the Word calls us to serve Him it is consistently couched in the strength of resurrection power; II Cor. 1:9, II Cor. 13:4, and Phil. 3:10.  This blessing of power beyond imagination is being masked by an innate fear.  We don't like discomfort.

We will want to evaluate our approach to God's liveliest system on earth.  This may seem weird.  It can feel all wrong.  But to give up our lives that others may come to life is not only rewarding, it really is effective and fulfilling.

Unmask the blessing.  Sacrifice that others have a good day!

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

Urggh!  People!  Some people...anyway!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FAITH IS NOT-GIVING-UP DETERMINATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try it.  You'll like it.

DARE TO ENTER THE GREATEST EXCHANGE.

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

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

I speak of giving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Succeed.  Do what you can to win this war.

YOGI BERRA DOES IT AGAIN

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

Since he died, I mention it for him.

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

ANTI-RELIGION IS A RELIGION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLARITY FOR THE HUMAN HEART

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

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

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

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

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

LET YOU YES BE YES AND YOUR NO BE NO

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

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

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

I raise important questions:

• Are we over-saturated with incoming information?
• Are we losing contact with community because we are in such enormous contact?
• Have we lost touch with people because we have so many tools with which to connect with them?

What's weird is that my posting may be distracting you from something.  Not necessarily; but possibly?

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT IS "BELIEVING IN GOD"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PERSONAL SATISFACTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE THORN. THE PAIN. THE SECRET RICHES.

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

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

Weakness is a secret power which only works in the Kingdom of God.  This is fact. Read II Corinthians 12:7-11.  If we will believe it we will become remarkably--never to get over it--blessed.  Note these truths:

1. Thorns are present to keep us from believing we can do life on our own.
2. Our power is always found in our weaknesses.
3. Contentment comes, when understanding that we are nobodies, through the very things that tend to make us miserable; weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties.

Note: each of the miseries listed in #3 are the very things that usually cause us to shut down; not open up.  These are the nightmares to our otherwise decent lives...we think. We are so upside-down with God's kingdom that we believe that if we could but shed these struggles we would be...content.  

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

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

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

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

FEELING LIKE YOUR RESERVATIONS IN HEAVEN WILL BE CANCELLED?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FEELING LIKE YOUR RESERVATIONS IN HEAVEN HAVE BEEN CANCELLED?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GO TAKE ON THE DAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

QUESTIONS WE TEND TO HAVE ABOUT GOD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DON'T BE ROBBED OF THE MOMENT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HOW COULD WE HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT?

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRYING TO GRASP THE BIGGER PICTURE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A FAVORITE THING ABOUT LIFE

Don't you just love right now?

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

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

Wonderfully bizarre!!!

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

I.  Love.  Innovation.

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

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

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

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

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

HYPNOTIZED BY HABIT

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

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

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

I love the really living factor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VISIT THE CENTER OF GREAT WONDER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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