TRY NOT TO WASTE YOUR TIME WASTING YOUR TIME

Just when is it that a person gets to like the moment?  I mean, when will the steady gnarly interruptions to our negative thoughts toward others stop?  Are not life's intended grand procedures pelted with distraction which keeps us from liking several of our days?  It seems this is the case.

And what are we to do?  Can we do anything that would curb the frustration of an irritating time-frame?  Indeed, there possible avenues and I'm convinced you all know of many more to build a solid list of hope.

First, do what you can to recall that all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God.  We seem to conveniently forget (or else disregard) this when we have been the target of some one's ultimate failure.  Yet, no person is exempt.  And sins aren't categorized into lesser, really bad, and absolute worst.  Sin is sin and it took the torturous Cross of Jesus to put a dent into it.

Sin is devastating to the inner man at any level and of any dimension.  Self-justification, however, wants to balk at this truth in order to always allow some sort of self-made exemption before God for "my tiny" sin.  That dog won't hunt.  We are all alike...and doesn't that just bug you?

Rather than wasting our time trying to live comparatively to others, might we find our time better spent praising God that He would deem us salvageable?  Instead of disgust toward another, wouldn't we find our time better spent living in gratitude that the blood of Jesus "reaches me"?

Yes, we must not waste our breath in resentment, irritation, nor disgust toward one other person when we are individually ranked (lumped) into the sinners group with any whom we would choose to criticize.  We are all alike.  And this does not mean that we, therefore, pull all others down with us; but that we allow Jesus to pull of us up to him.  This...would be another matter worth reflecting upon the glorious idea that we are most grateful to be forgiven.

Try not to waste you time being disgusted with one other person...for in God's eyes...we are all like.  In God eyes, due to the extensive work He did from the Cross...we are made whole.

WHY CHRISTIANITY HAS VIBRANT HOPE!

There is a developing void in the very center of the Christian realm.  It's subtle.  It's gentle.  It seems to be acceptable.  And, it's devastating to the very cause of which we believe/assume we promote.  Christianity seems to operate from the hub of sight; not the flow of faith.  There is a difference; an honest world of difference.

Faith is the dynamic of God-led/God-backed power.  It defies logic and promotes risk.  It promises without predetermined proof.  By it great things happen that can't.  Without it, activity scrambles to wear some sort of fake faith-mask which would lead one to believe that there is an actual walk of faith; when in reality, it is merely a trek of humanisticly sightful calculation.

Christianity has vibrant hope when we set aside the lure of things working because we see how such could come about.  And then, when we walk out on limbs of conviction (even when there is no physical format of support), the stage is set for God to do His thing.  He has always led this way.

Jesus (CHRISTianity) baffled and still baffles the odds-makers.  Yes, this Son of God/son of man, ruined all of the earthly cause and effect rules.  Jesus doesn't call us into a better humanity mode.  Rather, he promotes us to an increasingly higher spirituality which breaks down barriers of fear, and control, and over-bearing personalities.  Jesus introduces an entirely new way of operating as a human being....and, oh, how he led the way!

Christianity has vibrant hope because His grave is empty and our dreams are given reason to rise.  Short-"sight"edness will perpetually operate from fear's domain.  Yet, we are to walk by faith..and not by sight.  Really?  Then, why do we dare allow our sight at the table of propositions, decisions, and conclusions based upon what is clearly an inferior mode?

In my own life, faith isn't natural; it is spiritual.  Thus the battle rages within as to which gets the final vote; flesh or spirit.  We must try not to be deceived.  Much of our efforts are energized by what we can calculate according to our limited imagination.  Ephesians 3:16-21 insists that it is our faith that thrusts us into His realm of working beyond our greatest fathomilistic concepts.

This...this working, engaging arm of God...is why we have vibrant hope!

FAITH: THE GIGANTIC FALL FROM GRASPABILITY!

Ephesians 3:20 is ungraspably graspable!  We are to get it; to understand it.  Yet, its content and context is so magnificent that not only can we not grasp it, we aren't supposed to.  That's the point of the verse.  We are to get it that we can't get it.  We can only believe it.

Yes, we are to believe it.  This is a wild train wreck to the minds who only believe God as far as we can throw Him (explain, understand, express Him).  In essence church has become the product of the best, or most respected, thinkers among us.  Yet, leadership must be presented under the mantle of faith--a purely unprovable, unexplainable, unthinkable dimension of which usually bugs the spiritual tar out of us.

The key to faith is to yield into it being graspably ungraspable!  Faith truly is one gigantic fall from graspability.  It is within these unborders that the impossible becomes possible; that the can't become actually becomes.

The Spirit of Christ reigns over a systemic factuality that will not submit itself to the highest scientific borders nor the strongest mathematical restrictions.  He does this through one quality available to all mankind; faith.  Read the Word.  Story after story after story; what couldn't possibly happen did.  What held His people in fierce bondage couldn't.

Church is destined to be platitudinously dull?  Oh....I don't think so!  Not with a beyond our imagination God like ours!

CONSERVATIVE-ITES AND LIBERAL-ITES ARE CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH

There is such a strangeness about you and me.  We have our likes and dislikes.  There are those topics we find controversial on one hand while others note the same discussion is loaded with intrigue.  The strangeness is how we seem to assume that we are in one camp or another when, in reality, we are very much alike.  

Liberals view conservatives with a rolling of the eyes.  Conservatives squint through theirs as they smirk the Liberalites.  Yet, truth be told, we are all exactly alike.  We are correct in our judgment in places.  And then, we (all of we) hold errant positions....of which we do our best to deny.

Each group thanks God they are not like the other.  Profoundly, God says we are just alike; that we seem to plod through this wonder called life with a bee in our bonnet at how off-base they are.

Here's the sticky wicket.  Liberals are conservative in areas.  These may be open to new ideas yet stingy in their giving.  Conservatives are liberal in areas.  These most likely hold to strict view of scriptures while liberally dismissing those teachings which don't float their boat.  This goes on day by day...in both camps.

God declares that we are to drop the perpetual drive to live by comparison.  Our position is never to be how well we are doing compared to another for we are all alike.  Each of us possesses both tendencies; liberal and conservative.  It just depends on the topic at hand.   

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

Yep!  Conservative-ites and Liberal-ites are just like each other...and this really seems to get under our skin.  But if we could see it (admit it) about ourselves, the harmony and unity driven by the Spirit just might be significantly refreshing....for all of us!

HOW TO OVERCOME THE "QUITTERS" MENTALITY

Much damage is done, it seems, everywhere we turn.  From natural disasters to human casualties, pain reigns in, oh so many, hearts.  The toughest is death; not just the physical death of a loved one, but the relationship death when we walk away from one another.  One of the strongest destructions within the framework of humanity is the "Quitting" factor where we give up on others and walk away.  Family?  Church?  Goals?  Career?

Something happened along the way of my walk at the Memorial Drive congregation that turned my world upside down...in a positive way.  Before Tulsa, I'd been at my first church one year.  My next two years.  And then Tulsa forty years.

Memorial was significantly discouraging in 1977.  Having just fired the preacher in a brutal battle within the congregation, I found myself to be the target of much congregational Hatfield vs. McCoy-isms....caught in the middle of a church whirl I knew nothing about.  An unlikely scenario came into simultaneous play.  I began receiving multiple inquiries as to whether I would consider relocating with other churches.  (I joked that if any such invitations for me to move were to come from outside of Memorial, I might consider it!)

In the middle of church hostility, I made a decision that has turned out to bless my heart deeply.  I share it should such do the same for you.  I decided two things: to stop the pattern of quitting and moving on, plus I determined to learn what it was God was trying to teach me with all of these trials.  My conclusion was that I wasn't going to learn what I was supposed to learn in year three of a local work if I kept moving away by year 2.  I made the decision to learn what it was that hadn't developed within me yet.

Here's one thing I saw unfold.  Endurance is a biblical theme which carries a sober message much needed by all of us every day.  I learned things in year ten at one church that I wouldn't have learned in two five-year terms elsewhere.  I experienced the revealing of God in year thirty-six that I may not have seen within nine-year terms at four different congregations.

Do not misunderstand.  I'm not saying that one does not naturally learn simply through the measure of time as we age.  But what I want to convey is that I began to wonder if I were to move on after two years, would I carry to the next job two years worth of sermons and experience that would not afford me the insights gained from longer tenure.

Now, for those who have served ten churches in ten years, I'm not saying your labor doesn't matter.  The Apostle Paul never lasted a whole year and he served God fairly well, don't you think?  No, my emphasis is not in the number of years one rings up at one location.  My goal is to get you to personally make a correction in your walk that is a threat to every one of us; stop the quitting.  Learn, rather to learn when under fire.  You may choose to move on (for God may be calling you to such); but learn from your struggles rather that run from them.

Throughout the Scriptures, the disciples encountered rough stuff.  Such is the core design of the church.  We are called to "take up" our crosses.  I'm watching too many throw them down in frustration.  The Cross IS frustration...the intentional pain for which we volunteer so that the hurting ones out there can find reason/hope to come alive.

We are to die that others might live....so don't quit.  Learn to learn what it is you lack in order to reach the whole dying world.

GOD'S LOGIC IS DIFFERENT THAN OUR LOGIC

Now when God as "Logos", meaning, or logic (not logic in the rational sense, but logic in the patterns of reality) is missing, there is no meaningful direction or purpose in our lives...To put it plainly, change, death, and transformation are part of the deal!  Resurrection and renewal are the final goal and results...There is no renewal without loss.
                                                                        Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance

Have we not turned the fabulicity of God on its head?  Have we not reversed His intention and logic to fit man's lower genius?  Do we not spend much of our time fighting change, dreading death, and blocking transformation?  These opportunities are all around us everywhere we turn.

I urge you to dare enter the throes of death that He could lead you to emerge in the powers of life.  The great stuff is usually threatened head on by the the dreaded stuff.

One of my fiercest battles was leaving Quincy, Illinois and moving to preach for Memorial Drive in Tulsa.  I died a thousand deaths.  But looking back on the past forty years, I was rebirthed a thousand times.

And yourself?  You are facing what?  Uncertainty?  Fear?  Dread?  In the words of Jesus, Do not be afraid.  It so often turns out that we are not the boss of self.  Fear is.  Fear not only imposes itself upon us personally, but we even transfer it over to those around us.  Our counsel to our loved ones is oft to be found, not in the realm of logic defying faith but, within the scheme of luring dread.

Logic is the way to go.  But, it must be of God for His....is different than ours.

WHEN THE "IM" IS TRIMMED

The world around us contains incredible fascination; immeasurably so in numerous places.  Too, our very same world suffers disarray due to the insyncrinization of oh so many simultaneous conflicts.  We have reason to celebrate on one hand and to be dismayed on the other.

What is one to do?

One is to learn of the game-changer, the difference-maker, which is the simplicity of faith.  Faith has been reduced in our culture to wait n see.  If what we had hoped happens, then we label it faith.  If it doesn't happen, we call it a lack of faith.  But faith is to be in the lead; not trailing from the back of the activity, result-oriented, pack.

Romans 4:17 is one of the difference-maker passages.  Faith believes.  Faith believes that even dead and hopeless settings can possess life within.  Too, it firmly believes that something can come from nothing.  This is profound!  Awesome!  Unordinary!

Much of what we call faith may be nothing more than a working rote.  Faith blows the mind of the practical for it effectively reaches into the impossible and eliminates the im.

I have no idea how many times I face the perfect opportunity to exert faith only to fail due to my own timidity and fear.  Yet, I cheer you on (me on) to grow in faith that we might change the things needing change; that we might dream beyond our short-sighted habits of religious routine.

Jesus changeS the world.  He isn't just historical.  He is legitimate Creator of new possibility!

ExerShopping: Working Out the Body while Building the Economy

ExerShopping is a combinationalistic workout that's just too fun, too easy, and all-the-while eliminates the dreads of getting started on any given day.  ExerShopping is the new trend to put enthusiastic pep in your step.

Here's how it works.  First of all, this workout can be done in any store or may also be acclimated to a mall.  The good news is that the expenditure of energy is not restricted to the walking portion; of which there is a great amount of such.

In addition, ponder the stretches involved.  The core workout of reaching and lifting the item one may, indeed, want to purchase eats away the calories.  Simultaneously, muscle mass is on the increase.  Next consider the stretches of reaching for your billfold, handing the clerk your money and, of course, reaching again for the receipt.  The limber-effect is maintained.

ExerShopping is more than merely maintaining flexibility as well as stamina via walking the entire range of the mall.  It builds more than the body.  It builds the economy.  Yes, ExerShopping extends employment to sales personnel and stock boys and janitorial services not to mention manufacturing jobs and delivery requirements.  The impact that an ExerShopper has on the welfare of the local economy is certainly in domino effectivity.

Get your workout.  Spend money.  You'll be happy while you make others so happy.  It's yet another win-win situation.  Go.  For.  It.  You'll be in better physical health.  Your community will be in better financial health.  And, you will enjoy every moment of it to the extent that you'll want--you will want--to ExerShop multiple times per day.

You are welcome.

THE ART OF HELPING OUR CHILDREN LOSE

Parenting is a tedious, glorious, heart-warming, and tedious privilege.  And, did I mention tedious?  I wish to encourage parents to reclaim a grace in the family system that is ordinarily tossed out on its ear as useless; as a loser with no value.  I speak of when matters do not go the way the child wanted whether grade report, gift received, or rejection in general.

Anyone can cheer their children on in victory.  It's the ugly defeating moments which are also impregnated with value; extremely useful.  Usually, though, such moments are quickly covered up with some smoke-screem reward so that hopefully son or daughter doesn't remember long the suffering of their disappointment of being rejected.

But what if these moments are, instead, useful?  What if we don't rush to cover up so that the defeated will soon forget?  What if, rather, points of victory are found in the center of defeat?  Isn't that what Israel encountered when they were being driven toward the sea with assumed ultimate drowning?  Isn't that what Jesus discovered upon the Cross?  Isn't that what Peter found when he failed the Son of God?  Isn't that what Paul found when imprisoned?

In each case, God did the remarkable to the extent that if in these four occasions there had not been turbulantic stress and confusion, there would have been no occasion for elaborate and perpetual celebration...to this very day!  So it is with our children's bad days.  Each experience is infused with life-lessons of awaiting wow and awe for the next God-story.

I cringed, often wept, at each of my three kids' demise.  But I also learned that such moments were opportunities for timely training.  Find the value in suffering.  Yes, your heard me.  God doesn't waste any moments and neither must we.

We must for the Kingdom trek is all about---all about--suffering according to the pattern.  When we don't train in the midst of trial, we may rear a bunch of talk-big, attend-a-lot-of-things quitters.  If not groomed to suffer and keep on going, stresses and disappointments will likely quench the fire in what was supposed to be strong and vibrant hearts.

In general, today's society doesn't do struggle.  We excuse.  We cover.  We blame.  We run.  I know the temptation.  I know the pain.  I have failed and been failed.  I have hurt and been hurt.  Yet, I always somehow knew to go to school during the rough times...and learn...learn deeper the ways of Jesus.  It is in the, what we would call, trenches that anyone grows.

It isn't in the squeaky-clean atmosphere of sweet church; but in the crushing blows of hurt feelings and deeper offences that our boys and girls become men and women who refuse to tuck tail and run.  Rather, these learn bravery through the training...the repeated training of spiritual endurance.

When your child has a bad day, try to remember that he or she is in a special school learning how to reach the multitudes of rejected ones who are have their bad days and will one day could be their converted friends; their neighbors.  We don't win souls by lecture....nor convenience.  We win by living from the Cross He handed us...and it must not be projected as an easy, no-bother path.  Children are to be trained as children not to just go to church...but be the church where it isn't always a ballgame of sorts; nor a picnic.

Therefore life in the church will be both troublesome and rewarding....both...not just the one we prefer.  May we be attentive to the specifics of training our children to experience victory...even in the losses.

HOW CONFIDENCE AND HUMILITY CO-EXIST

Question: Are we to be confident or not?  If we are, how then does this align with humility?

Answer: Perfectly.

At first glance, one could develop personal confidence in self to soon evolve into an ego trek of being self-assured, self-directed, and self-provided.  Self-confidence has an initial sound of health and stability.  Yet, it isn't because eventually the self reaches the end of its ultimately weak rope.  

Enter humility.

Humility is the game-changer.  Humility leads, in a way, from the back of the human concentration pack.  The secret to it is its remarkable answer to the "confidence" question.  Humility is not a quiet self-confidence; but rather it is a steadfast visionary confidence in Jesus.  Our assurance of strength, supply, and accuracy of life is based upon the ever-funding work of the Spirit of Christ; not of our calculating, always refiguring selves.

We find ourselves to be faced with one unreachable hurdle after another.  Personally, we are sunk...when on our own.  But....but we are not on our own.  We are on His own.  Jesus isn't just the theme of songs nor the topic of Bible studies.  Jesus is the New Life residing within....within us!  Jesus has knocked on our doors and asked if he could rent out our spaces.  

We....say yes!  Enter in!  Soon!

Life pops when confidence--a new kind of assurance--is based upon Jesus rather than our own talents or good breaks or wishful thinking.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; so he says.  We are not; so we eventually discover.  We need him to get all of this done for us.  Confidence, when based upon Jesus and not the self, is the perfect partner to humility as the two walk down the corridors hand in hand.

Yay Him....and, therefore yay for us!  Confidence and humility co-exist when the directives of God are established.  And...we like it!

THE WAKE-UP CALL TO AMERICA

There is a glorious thing going on in the United States at the moment.  Disaster has hit a segment of us with might and power not recently known until now.  Texas was recently pounded only to note Florida's more recent slug fest.  Our hearts are corporately awakened to the wonder of what really matters...others.

While we do not wish misfortune upon any segment of our brotherly/sisterly human family, we certainly find that usual distractions of me, me, and more me have a tendency to fade.  Our wake-up call blesses us for we actually hurt with deep sympathy toward sufferers of life's interruptions rather than the scores of our local sports teams.

Today it is Texas and Florida who encounter hurricane muscle.  Tomorrow?  Tomorrow may be an earthquake in the West or an ice storm in the Central states.  Regardless, the results will be similar; devastation and blessings.  People will share rather than hoard.  We will tend to those in desperate need rather than hunker down in some sort of self-preservation.

The wake-up call to America has always been a moment of wonder.  Presidents have been assassinated, space shuttles have exploded in mid-air, and mountains have caved in.  In these, and other catastrophes, a thread continued....America pulled together like it should have always done.

Blessings upon those who have hurt in the past.  Blessings to those who are in the throes of deep stress now.  And may blessings be prepared for those who are slammed next by suffering too deep for words.  We seem to live wide awake in normal life.  Yet, when tragedy hits we awaken even more as we will not waste such moments.  No, we will rather roll up the sleeves of our hearts and reach out to serve one another.

We all take our turns....at serving...and at being served.  Blessings to all was we walk through this day with hearts grateful to God that He's got this.

HAVOC OR HEALING?

Watching the aftershock of Hurricane Harvey and the introduction to Hurricane Irma, devastation x devastation mounts.  The death and the damage are so enormous, it is surely unknowable.  Who could ever gather the cost factor alone to such supreme wreckage?

With repeated scenes of destruction embedded into our minds, consider something astoundingly beautiful.  God sees our personal lives in even worse disarray than the turmoil we see on the evening news.  Mankind is strewn to the point of even unrecognizable levels from coast to coast; border to border....day after day.  Reports are endless.  

Set that massive devastation for every person in your mind.  And then ponder....consider what God does for us.  The healing he offers to the deeply ripped and sorely ruined masses is exactly His will.  

How would you feel if there were a Divine Hurricane that could breezed through Florida right now?  What would it be like if this DH swept through the wreckage; but this kind of hurricane is the opposite of the harsh one?  This particular one put wreckage back together.  This Hurricane strikes at the edges of plastered cities and leaves behind newly constructed houses, resurrected office complexes, and restored people healed from both injury and....even death.  This would be beyond fascination, huh?

And this is precisely what Jesus does for us.  His spirit sweeps through our sufferings from acute demolition and brings back the new (even newer) that we had earlier lost during repeated storms.  Father God has hit broken, ruined mankind with a punch like no one has ever seen.  His punch doesn't finish us off...but starts us up!

Four times the Bible uses a most incredible word: propitiation.  Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, First John 2:2, and First John 4:10 offer Good News that's too good to be true.  Mankind, stumped by our own misery and sin, is slammed with the Hurricane of Healing.  God sweeps across our worried and confused hearts and rebuilds us into beautiful and unexplainable wonder!

Romans 3:25...Jesus was displayed as propitiation; taking our place on the Cross in order to free us.

Hebrews 2:17...Jesus was made to be like us in order to pay for our misdeeds, our misjudgments.

First John 2:2...God's Son swept through, paid our debt, and restored our hearts.

First John 4:10...God sent His son to pay for our sins.

Propitiation is the key to this most sweeping wind which is straight out of Heaven.  It's a word that one can hardly pronounce; let alone grasp.  Try to get the picture.  If a Heavenly Hurricane could sweep over devastation tonight and would reveal total reversal of rebuilding and robust enthusiasm for the people by morning...this would be the cause and effect of propitiation.  

This doesn't happen to our worldly goods.  It does happen intentionally to our souls.  God doesn't wreak havoc with us as we try to follow Him.  Rather, He wreaks healing!!!  The world barks, gnaws, and storms at us by landing rudely directly in our paths.  And then God...our powerful Father...will not allow such interruption to have the last say.  He shouts, "Propitiation!".....

.......and we all say, "Wow!  Look at how new everything is!"

TWO OPPOSING, YET SIMULTANEOUS, REALMS OF REALITY

You do know that we experience two worlds in any given moment.  Right?  One walks by faith.  Or, one walks by sight.  Yet, quite oddly, both realms exist for immediate experience based upon one's chosen perspective.

Faith is the call of God.  Faith has taken a pretty significant hit in the Christian realm because we tend too often two switch it over to sight...yet, only to continue call it faith.  Quite often the faith-walk has been transferred back to a more of a wait and see operation.  The undermining word to the spiritual process is see.

Present seeing is reality at any given moment.  Present faith is reality at any given moment.  But one is not to be assumed to be the other for oddly both realms, in fact, see.  Sight sees.  Faith, however, sees during the very same situation; but with an opposing perspective.  This surely keeps us on our toes as at the reading of this we are likely saying, Huh?  This may verify the challenge of which I speak.

Peter was in the boat.  Storms were a-brew.  Jesus came walking on the water.  Peter was floored.  Jesus called upon him to get out of the boat and walk toward him...a very opposing, yet simultaneous realm of reality existed for this common fisherman.  Both avenues are present; not just one.  Opting for Jesus, Peter actually walked on the water; which at the moment was a very authentic realm of opposite reality.

However, the sight-matter changed.  Peter shifted from seeing Jesus to seeing threatening waves; the very intimidators that had always been present when he walked looking to Jesus.  At that point, the waves indeed existed; but Peter was giving them no mind.  Once he split his attention (sight), an immediate sinking feeling inserted itself into the lineup.

So it is with our walk.  We tend to reduce faith to be a matter of how things work out.  We tend to believe that they just happened with little dependence upon or responsible perspective.  But all faith is awaiting our assertive perspective.  That's what faith is.

The faith term has been reduced to handy-ism, thoughtless-ism, and shrug-ism.  It either happens or else it doesn't.  But, not true.  Faith isn't a hurried-past step in the plan of salvation.  Faith opens the windows of the working heavens, the hand of God, at the very simultaneous moment of when opposing situations crowd in to intervene.

(I awakened just now this morning.  And this is what He told me.  It's all a sight issue.  We select what we prefer to see.  So I send it your way.  Have a new kind of day!)

TRY TO BE HERE

When you read such a title, do you get the impression that you are being called to go somewhere?  That you are being summoned to move; to be on the move to get to another destination?  Yet, what if...what if...it is a call to the opposite?  What if this is a motion to be present....where you are...now, like in trying to be alert to the wonder of the moment?

That's precisely the intended call.

Have you ever been talking to one across a table and, while they were facing you, you sensed their minds were off in another world?  (Sorry men.)  This is the tendency of daily mankindness; ever wandering off into another moment of past conversation or another future event while seldom present for the here and now.  This is a blatant waste of yourself.

Why would you imagine and dream for improvement if you know that you will not give attention to the destined accomplishment of which you had envisioned because, when you get there, your mind will be off attending to another moment; past or future?   This would be the way I lived for decades.  Seldom did I treasure the moment for I was imaginarily engaged in other moments.

Should we be appreciative of the glory found in recall?  And wouldn't we want to be visionaries of what can be?  Of course.  Of course.  Of course.

However, living in the past and future without noting the profound blessings of the now is to miss out on a part of the strongest fabric of living.  Try to experience now.  It seems Jesus was continually calling the disciples into the moment.  See the lilies of the field.  Note the grass.

Our days are not trouble free, admittedly.  But to listen to some, one could conclude that they must be blessing free (meaning they have no blessings).  They are not.  Our days are full of riches, and glory, and thrill, and joy.  Let your mind dwell on the multiple things going right.  Fill your hearts with appreciation for what is....now.

Wouldn't it be quite an accomplishment for many of us to stop the chatter, close our ears to the whining, and take note of the privilege of being alive...now...at-the-moment kind of right now?  The truth could be that often the glory of God's grace is knocking at our door...but we aren't home.  Instead we are out roaming around in the maze of elsewhere, all the while forgetting to live in the present.

Try to be here.

EPIDEMIC HESITATION: Many Want to Know About God But....

I am focusedly sympathetic to a specific kind of individual who lives among us.  I speak of the one(s) who inwardly wonder if this God-stuff could have any legitimacy, yet they don't know how to go about inquiring safely.  By safely, I mean these aren't sure that they want their friends to know that they are having second thoughts about God's reality.  Too, there is incredible uncertainty as to what believing in God might actually entail.

The thought by so many is to stand back and remain unnoticed by colleagues.  Yet, what if?  What if this God-Bible-Church idea isn't a hoax afterall?  What if you and your cronies' constant jokes about churches and those in them are way off base.  That's what I discovered to be the case.

In John chapter 3, there is a story of a man named Nicodemus.  He sought out Jesus privately by night.  This one just already happened to be a significant religious leader in his own right.  Yet, Jesus was quite a challenge for this leader as many in his neighborhood assumed that he already spoke clearly for God.

He went by night to talk with Jesus?  That must be significant else it wouldn't need to be inserted into the text.  Was Nicodemus afraid of what he might hear?  Did he make such move because he didn't want colleagues seeing him?  The point I wish to make is that not everyone is immediately ready to rush out in public with their vocal enthusiasm for following God.  And such a one is, indeed, still very able to learn of Him...in private if such a climate would give the seeker room to ponder, consider, weigh.

So consider an assortment of ideas regarding the inner desire of oh so many who secretly want to know/wonder about God and His legitimacy.

  1.  God gets it.  He inserted the story of Nicodemus in a way to signal that He understands hesitancy.

  2.  All who are devoted to God live in the church in some form of hesitation.  We hold back, even after we are committed to following Him, because we are each crammed full of uncertainties about...ourselves.  Therefore, you are free to join the crowd!

  3.  To enter the Kingdom of God is to be born again.  Think about birth for a moment. When we are born we know nothing!  We don't even know that we are alive!  Yet, what's more precious than a newborn who eats, sleeps, and poops at random?  Frankly, being born again in the spirit has many similar traits including fumbling with the new concepts, ideas, and approaches.  Join in!

Newborns in the church are our happiest moments!

I'm one who knows that there is an epidemic of hesitation going on.  Good people, very awesome, genuinely great people, want to know God; but don't know where to begin.  I get it because I was one of those.  So many of us in the church were one of those!

Relax.  Fumble in learning; but what's new?  You've most likely done that in every venture of your growing/maturing life.  Get over it.  Come out of the epidemic hesitation...even if you have to approach someone in the dark about matters of faith that you are beginning to weigh.  You are a good person....so valuable that God (The God) died on the Cross for you (torturously so) in hopes that you would one day risk giving yourself a fair shake at just learning of His potential toward you.

Break the bonds of Epidemic Hesitation....shall we?  Refuse to keep the intimidating crowds from letting you learn about one of the most important truths of your entire life....your personal, hopeful eternity.

A LITTLE BIT LOST; A LITTLE BIT SAVED

Christianity has developed a thinking that is crucially wrong as well as subtly deadening to the heart.  It seems that we may have taken the extremes of life and neutered them to be somewhat momentary samples rather than living experiences.  This constant struggle of believing that we are only a little bit saved is a direct backfire due to a falsely coordinated belief (self-imposing doctrine) that we are only a little bit lost.

Oh sin is sin; do not forget.  Yet, insistent middle-of-the-roaders interpret such strenuous fact for others; seldom for self.  Judgment of others is easier this way.  We don't know how they can dare do what all they do.  All the while, our (my) particular sins?  Well....well they are indeed toughies that will require patience and understanding (of me, with me, toward me).

Here's the Truth.  We are found in the eyes of God to initially be very extremely lost.  This, therefore, elevates salvation as moving us from being deeply lost to become, rather, very Good News!

Extremes?  Oh, we churchers say we don't believe in extremes.  We see ourselves as more...well as more stable.  And, we have a name for thosens; R A D I C A L S.  But what would be more extreme/more radical than transitioning from eternally lost to forever saved?

Extremes?  Jesus beaten to a bloody pulp before and during the Cross only to be raised in a clean bill of new health seventy-two hours later.  That.  Is.  What.  One.  Would.  Call.  Extreme.

So here's an area that creates incredible sluggishness in the body of Christ; the church.  Our sins should more than strand us.  They should break us.  Yet, there's more...much more.  Upon realization of one's personal sins is the stunning belief that we who have been buried in baptismal waters are experiencing a resurrected new life!  This is the message from Heaven; cleansed by His blood day by day.

When one shifts into this mode of much lost to much saved, a new person(ality) develops.  Gratitude reigns.  Criticism of others diminishes.  Relief becomes prominent for self...and certainly for others.  Life seems to transfer from drudgery in the Kingdom to abundant joy, hope, and opportunity.  One actually takes on the world of Heaven while here on earth!

The truth is that everyone is very MUCH LOST.  When one encounters Jesus, we become very MUCH SAVED; not a little bit, not just a scent of such, but over-the-top actuality.  When the church moves from going through the motions created by a false standard of a little bit lost/a little bit saved, the True Standard will arise from hiding.  Hearts will be relieved...as well as refreshed.

Jesus didn't suffer excruciating pain on the Cross so that followers could walk with a hesitating limp known as nebulous faith...whatever that is.  No.  Jesus was raised that we tip our eyes toward the wonder and the glory and the awe of the present moment and all future present moments.  That's what we could call being "all in".

Become new.  We were a lot lost.  We are a lot saved.  The latter changes EVERYTHING!

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS: HITTING HOMERS FOR HURRICANE HARVEY

St. Louis Cardinal infielder, Matt Carpenter, declared Monday that he would donate $10,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.  But...not so fast.  It wouldn't be a one-time $10,000.  That would be $10,000 per home run that he hits from now until the end of the season.

Pitcher Adam Wainwright joined Carpenter stating that he, too, would donate $10,000 per Carpenter's home run slugging ability.  Soon the Cardinal owner, Bill Dewitt, Jr. declared he would join the ranks at the same financial participation.

So it wasn't long until Cardinal Nation knew that anytime from now until the end of the season that Matt Carpenter would hit a home run, "$30,000 would be making its way toward recovery efforts in Texas.

In his very next game, which was last night....the slugger homered!  More games are to follow!

Thank you Matt Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, and Mr. Dewitt.  We are excited to see just how many more homers Matt can rack up!!

HELL'S FUTURE IS TOAST

Jesus broke the dominating rule of death being the final straw.  He challenged it.  He fought it.  He experienced it on its own turf.  And then...he embarrassed death to death when he broke its intended terrifying bonds and did away with its vow to be permanent.

This has to be the most fascinating truth of all...death was no match for the always lively, continually living Son of God.  Furthermore, he offered us stock in the promise.  If we would invest in Him, He would see that we could participate in receiving shares of hope, joy, and perpetual life.  And, he wasn't kidding.

Death stings.  But the Doctor takes the sting away.  It isn't a matter of "hope so".  Neither is it an emotional game of pretense in hopes that this worrisome matter might eventually fade.  Due to Jesus being dead, and then in the next breath not, we have every reason to believe.

We believe he did it!!!  Jesus came back from the dead!!!

We are called to place our intentions, our hopes, and our future into the very fact that his grave is empty.  The Bible isn't a book off the shelves of a toy store.  Neither is it in the fashion of some cartoon strip.  The Bible lives and teaches living truths about the rebirth of every individual who will simply buy into it.

This isn't Rocket Science.  It's deeper, higher, and much, much farther than anything science can muster.  It isn't an educational level of accomplishment nor attainment.  It isn't ownership of material goods.  It isn't about how many books one has written...or read.  Real life isn't about astounding feats, goals reached, nor feats of personal power.  Life is about investing in the One who beat the fire out of death!

Ours isn't the call to make a good showing for what we get done here on earth.  No, ours is the call to buy into God's promises that death can't keep its vow.  He's right you know.  He proved it by volunteering His Son to march into Hell and take over its power.

Hell's future is toast.  Death will beat on us, weary us, and threaten us.  But...it will not keep us!

Thank.  You.  God.

A DAY OF ST. LOUIS CARDINAL REFLECTIONS

Three former Redbird stars were inducted to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame this afternoon.  Pepper Martin, Tim McCarver, and Mark McGwire were honored by the Cardinal Nation for their tremendous contribution of talent.  It was quite a special event as the fans gathered to see three of their favorites receive such  privileged notoriety.

Getting to view portions of the festivities, I could not help but watch in such gratitude for what God let's me get to do in life.  He lets me be in some of the most unusual settings.  I love it.  It's just so weird in a weird sort of way; but I had connections of some fashion with all three inductees.

I never met Mr. Martin.  But I was named after the captain of his team, Terry Moore.  Terry and I were close friends and he was always telling me about the antics of his colleagues.

Tim McCarver was my manager at my very first Cardinals fantasy camp; he along with Curt Flood.  I was just too thrilled to be placed on their team.  They made a catcher out of me because I was one of the youngest in the camp.  They did so because, being only thirty-six, my legs could take the punishment.

However, I didn't know there was a specific way to wear the mitt so that an incoming pitch would not jamb my thumb...repeatedly.  It hurt so badly that I brought the metal shoe horn from the hotel bathroom the next day.  Later in the game McCarver saw the shoe horn and had a fit!  He wouldn't let it drop as he had never seen nor heard of such a thing.

And then with Mark McGwire, I've never actually met him in person.  But we've done a bit of work together.  When Carole Buck asked me to write a book about her husband, Jack, she wanted Mark to write the Foreword to what eventually became Voice of Silver, Heart of Gold.

Mark isn't a writer.  My job was to have several conversations with him over the phone.  I interviewed him regarding Jack and then I would write what Mark conveyed.  Next I would send him my perspective, he would make adjustments and return the volley.  We went through this enough times that I finally had written what Mark wanted written from his perspective...through my perspective of his perspective....if that makes any sense.

Regardless, today's induction took me down three memory lanes.  Each of them still fascinates me as God just seems to have me at the right place at the right time.  You just can't make this stuff up!

AND THEN THERE'S A THIRD OPTION

Problems seem to present themselves day in and day out.  If solution is found in one area, breakdown erupts in another...fairly soon.  Because we are a responsible sort, we take on the challenge to look the puzzling moment in the eye and solve it.  Life's tenure doesn't seem to note struggles as decreasing.  Just the opposite seems to be the order as we age.

It's with the nod of the head or the shrug of the shoulders that it seems to be said, "Sink or swim."  Of course, sinkage isn't really a matter of preference.  So swim it is.  Swim always gets the vote.  Swim usually holds the trophy.  Until....

Until?  There are those times where one can find himself overwhelmed by current circumstances.  It might be a new ordeal of conflict.  Again, it could be that interferences seem to be escalating in rapid number.  It's here that we may need a third alternative; a new possibility for effectivity.

Ah, and there is that third option.  Peter experienced it.  One time Jesus came a-marching across the lake waters unphased by the laws of gravity.  The devoted disciple was flabbergasted.  He'd seen nothing like it; never even had the thought of such possibility.  Yet, there it was coupled with an invitation from Jesus to do the same.

You've.  Got.  To.  Be.  Kidding.

Getting out of the boat, Peter walked on water for a few steps.  As soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to peer upon the threatening waves, he began to sink.  For a bit, however, Peter defied logic, rules of gravational science, and his own frail faith system.

He.  Walked.  On.  Water.

Believe it.  The walk of a believer in God is perpetually pulled, even challenged, to trade the "sink or swim" motto for the "walk on water" truthful reality.  The point of Peter's brief jaunt was not to put the boating industry out of work.  No, rather it was to awaken us to be drawn into a new kind of walk that can neither be explained nor understood.  The most it can do is to be believed.

So I cheer you on.  You have hurdles in front of you; very rough seas.  The current is bold and the towering waves remind you of endless threat.  Their messages are to persuade you that there is no hope in this specific challenge; nor in the next for that matter.

Yet, faith in Jesus standing atop of our turbulence and calling us to walk directly toward him is a fascinating bid for our faithful courage to get out of the boat of security and start the trek.  The very idea of believing that God can do with us what can't be done is...well...just too exciting.

Be encouraged.  Try to stop playing faith safe.  Quit going by the norm of religious habit and dare to step onto the waters of mystery, of apparent hopelessness, and assumed failure.  Walk right into those intimidating storms.  You'll take a few steps.  Before long you'll need Jesus to carry you the remainder of the way.  He will be there as your cheerleader!

This is the third step!  Sink maybe.  Swim maybe.  Or wait, walk on top of all your troubles?  Ah, now THAT'S a real option!

SATAN DOES NOT OWN THE MONOPOLY BOARD OF OUR LIVES

We are saved by the blood of Jesus.  It is His blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  Why would we need to be told this by God?  It's obvious.  If we don't have confidence in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, we will forever be trying to earn our way to Heaven by two things, (1) our good deeds, and (2) sin avoidance.  The problem is that we will fail at both...often.

Mark this down someplace in your heart.  Jesus paid the price on the Cross.  He didn't make a down payment.  The cost has been paid in full.  Jesus is perpetually footing the bill; paying the damages and then telling us to be on our way in freedom of hope and joy.  He's got this one...and then this one...and then this one.

We struggle with this because we feel responsible...and guilty.  And we are until...until the Cross took on..."our sins"; not just our bad habits, not our enduring glitches, but the biggest category of all..."our sins".  The Son of God was beaten to an unrecognizable pulp as he was in the process of paying the Clerk for our, what would have been, eternal demise.  We now have a "Get Out of Hell" card as Satan does not own the Monopoly board of our lives.

We are called to be baptized into Jesus that he would forever cleanse--wash away perpetually--our sins.  A problem with this fantastic grace is that we repeatedly sin and we aren't sure we can trust God with wiping up our messes.  Yet, He is aware of this because His blood is in constant cleansing mode.  But we, somehow, determine later that we must be rebaptized to once again wash away our sins.

I'm not saying that no one should ever be rebaptized.  I was.  I didn't understand at my first one that my sins were to be forgiven as well as, simultaneously, receiving the Holy Spirit...Acts 2:38.  I am conveying that God knows that we are repeating offenders; habitual sinners.  He gets us.  Jesus walked earth in our shoes to explain to Father what a quagmire of naggatational (nagging) earth is at the moment due to sin.

Rebaptism...including that feeling of starting over again...is to be perpetuated; but not in repeating and repeating the cleansing act of being buried in baptismal waters.  No, the refreshing of our spirits is repeated at weekly Communion.  The broken bread and the drink serve as reminders of his being beaten upon the Cross. Jesus' body was mutilated and his blood was shed....for us.

The very place a Christian is served notice that sins are gone and hope arises is perpetually found at the Communion Experience.  It's value is the "reminder factor".  The "what we do" expands into glorification of being reminded of "what He did"!  We don't save ourselves.  Jesus does the saving.  We do the believing that He did it well.

Therefore, experience the powerful reminder through Communion that we are a people who are steadfastly saved...which means...we aren't people who are grappling for hope only to probably be lost.  Jesus is the Victor.  We are named by Him the Victorious.  We are saved because God owns the Monopoly Board!  If it is to be, it is up to Him!

TRANSITION: FROM DIDN'T CARE TO PRAY---AND THEN WANTING TO PRAY

It's still weird to me how something so simple seems to be so very difficult to execute.  It doesn't take much talent, energy, nor depth of education to pray.  Yet, for me this was one of the most difficult tasks of Kingdom life because...I just didn't want to do it.

Pray bugged me.  Those who prayed bugged me.  Because I was in preaching school and eventually became a minister, I was obligated to join in on times of talking to God.  But, I didn't like it...ever!  Eventually, drastic changes took place and now I pray repeatedly throughout each day and even if I awaken during the night.

What changed?

I began to see God as Father rather than Foreman.  We began to build a relationship rather than possessing a rule-oriented working arrangement.  I wasn't a hired hand.  Rather, I was family.  I was son.

As such an awareness began to evolve, I noticed that I was talking things over with Him...and He with me.  No longer did I feel that prayer was a time where I placed an order to go.  For those who "go by the Bible", yet don't believe that God responds to us in relationship, these "going by the Bible" people fail to do one of the most fundamental requirements of a believer.  They cannot, will not, do not...pray.  I know.  I didn't either.

When God becomes Father instead of Foreman, family ties begin to develop.  Connections increase.  Trust builds.  Understanding of each other comes into play.  One begins to feel a part of the team rather than a spectator in the stands (pews).

I know how you feel if you don't like to pray.

Truthfully, those who don't most likely didn't bother to read this post as soon as they saw the title.  I cheer you on, however.  Prayer is the connecting spot between Heaven and earth.  It draws the Trinity into personal Unity.  Approach God as Father and you'll see the terrain of prayer begin to become a desire...and no longer a rolling-of-the-eyes dread.

WHEN THE CASKET LIDS GIVE WAY

Jesus was originally in First Place.  When he noted the condition of man, how we were losing at the game called Life, he became one of us.  The only way we could win was for him to lose; finish in last place.

Beaten to a pulp, this one noted for being in First Place, intentionally (even voluntarily) finished in Last Place.  He did this only that we could move into First Place.  He was the original winner.  Yet, due to his extreme love, he handed over his crown to place upon the hearts of mankind.

The game called Life is not to be taken for granted.  One had to suffer greatly at the hands of extremillistic ruffians that we could be declared Winners!

Live!  Breathe!  Engage!  We win because He lost!

Look like it!  Act like it!  Reach like it!

Yet, there's more...very much more.  Jesus withstood the Cross and beat the Grave at its own game.  And then he calls for volunteers to pick up similar Cross and die for our neighbors of whom will be asked to pick up their Crosses and die for their neighbors.  This game call Life finds that even defeat brings ultimate victory.

Don't get discouraged.  Don't give up on people.  Don't quit.  Victory blows the lid off of every casket!  If you think that the Fourth of July has fireworks....just wait til he returns.

DISCRIMINATION ISN'T DISCRIMINATORY. WE'VE ALL GOT IT....AS IN ALL

Bias is messing with everyone these days.  It's serious.  It's global.  It's real.  Protests are here.  Marches are there.  Offenses are everywhere.  A day doesn't go by but what someone's rights have been violated or their platform has been shunned...so it seems to be reported.  I have my take on this and, because it's mine, I will surely have some holes in my stance.  Nevertheless, I share it with you as food for thought.

I'm saying that our daily grind is, has been, and will always breathe discrimination.  This doesn't make it right, understand, but it isn't just one class (or three) of people who are being discriminated against.  We each tend to register our complaints toward someone else, while living oblivious to our identical misbehavior and misdeeds in this very act against our neighbors.

If this aggravates us to have this brought to the table, it just might be that we live in a "them; not us" world.

Yes, there are racial claims and gender disturbances that have significant warrant for improved relations; tremendously and urgently so.  Simultaneously, there are racial and gender rattlings that are coming from self-centered, self-seeking, selfish individuals.  This goes on.

It seems to me that discrimination of inequality is rampant...just as it has always been.  Beauty wins the pageants.  Brains win the scholarships.  Fitness wins the races.  And, money makes the money.  If one happens to be plain, simple, hefty, or low on funds...well, you may not win some of the above contests.

May I share with you a discrimination that I've noted?  Walk into a room, any room of public gathering, and inform them that you are a minister.  No, really.  The firm bias can be cut with a knife.  Such a one is immediately loved by a few and despised by a few....quickly....with nothing more than sheer, pure, judgmental bias.  And...it stings a bit.

Does inequality go on?  Yes, very much so.  And should it be corrected?  Yes, quickly.  But here's the rub.  Those in one neglected category seem to give little thought to holding bias toward someone in another category.  We are all tempted to be very guilty about this idea.

A female can be quite touchy because she notes men get the breaks at work (and she may be quite correct with this assessment), while she mocks a sister across the office for being of different color or perhaps a bit hefty in weight.  Christians mock other Christians because they don't possess similar views.  Executives might be guilty of pooh-poohing labor workers.  Labor workers may mock a co-worker for his lack of education or even the kind of car she drives.

Discrimination seems to find no discriminating circumstances.  It runs freely from the top of Prejudice Mountain down the entire landscape of humanity.  Do all of these variations of individuals do all of these biased things?  No.  But every camp has those within who do.  So what's the point?

Mankind is a mess.  I lead the way.  I am the least among us.  Yet, it's within this mess that we can begin--perpetually strive--for improvement.  The key will not be when any one group gets their act together.  No.  I believe it will be when each of our groups realize we've got enough about ourselves which needs vast improvement, maturing, and detailed attention.  Remember that log thing of which Jesus spoke?  He made a serious point.

There is a lot wrong with society.  Again, there is a whole lot that is right.  Regarding the wrong, we are not to bury our heads in the sand.  But, wouldn't it be good if we would be in consistent mode to evaluate where progress and improvement is needed within ourselves before we march against another who has flaws in some fashion....which, it would seem, are merely quite similar to our own?

HAVE A BEST DAY!

Each of us has a sore spot, an axe to grind, an irritant of a person(s) in our midst.  People bug us.  Who can go through life without multiple I could do without them sorts?

For every person who causes inflammation to our attitudes, there are those whom we individually cause similar distress.  Believe it.  We are not as ideal, perfect, or sinless as we would like to persuade all others that we are.

So how shall we manage this perplexity toward others while remaining biased in our own favor?  We must be determined to develop equal bias in favor of our neighbor as well?  You don't want to, you think?  Uh-huh.  Then perhaps we just now flushed out the troublesome one in this picture.

Have a good day.  Bless others...including those whom you don't like...and you'll discover you are having one of your best days yet!

BE HEALED

There is a glut of nasty waste moving through humanity on an hourly basis.  Woundedness lives on.  Our determined perpetuation of such increases as minds grow stubborn out of aggravation toward those who hurt us.  Simultaneously, hearts of hope grow dim.  I speak of the most aggressive enemy to each of us...our own unforgiveness of others...every other.

People hurt people.  People offend people.  But...hurters and offenders tend to grow up.  So why do we seemingly even enjoy carrying on the sharp and deep hurt of past offenses which may/can/are to be forgiven at moment's decision?  The reason?  We don't want to.  The result?  The carrier of lack of mercy toward another is eaten alive with ugly vengeance and hatred; all-the-while living unhealed while blaming the "other" party.

This.  Is.  Not.  Good.  Furthermore, This.  Isn't.  Even.  Necessary.

To carry on grudges or arguments or injuries over the past of ten days ago or ten years ago is a waste of one's own health; mental, social, and physical.  We can show mercy the moment we choose.  And the Word says that God will show mercy on the scale that we show mercy.  His advice is, Don't leave home without it (James 2:10-13).  Our seeming joy that we can make the offender pay is only determining the sentence we will receive at the Judgment.  We determine how ours will go--what God will say to us--by the way we treat those who offend us.

Forgiveness does not reside within the behavior of the offender; but within the heartfelt action of the offended.  Bringing an end to violators is not the solution.  The end of harboring ill feelings toward them is.  We.  Are.  All.  Just.  Alike.

Our families, our businesses, and our churches are breeding houses of animosity.  Rage, in places, rages; if not openly, then silently.  Squint-eyed animosity sets up camp within every heart; but, we are the ones who can deny it the power to affect one moment of our day.  The truth is that some seem to enjoy hating as if there is no alternative.  Yet, there is immediate cure when our own mercy is shown.

Mankind is living in perpetual tempest of insult and injury.  This can be changed in a heartbeat; when we decide to change it.  We can heal the world--our personal world--by letting go of spirit-beating resentment which takes its inner toll.  We can bring new life, new strength, and new hope to society immediately.  It will never be due to another's repentance; but due to our determined, selfless forgiveness.

Be healed.

LIVE WHELMED!

I want to inform you that your life is just pretty amazing...right now.  So many can't see; but you can.  Others have difficulties in so many other areas that would surpass the temporary stresses you face.  I don't put your struggles down.  No.  Way.  But rather, I lift your positive attributes up.

So much of life IS going your way!

You are wonder.  You live in the midst of wonder.  So...go about/be about the wonder that stands awaiting to be acknowledged and applauded.

Live whelmed.  And for those of you who wouldn't mind making more in-depth notes of the grandeur which sits upon your path...be even OVERwhelmed!!!

Way.  To.  Go.  You.

MIGHT WE GASP AT THE WONDER OF THIS TRUTH?

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
                                                         II Corinthians 5:21.  

Jesus, the one who never sinned, traded places with you/with me.  He became wrong that we could become right.  Let me reword this a bit.  He became VERY WRONG that we could become VERY RIGHT.  

Our do-good deeds don't count when it comes to sin eradication.  Such are absolutely useless.  The shed blood of Jesus is the sticking point; our spirit cleanser.  Church attendance doesn't cut it.  Good deeds are no match.  Paint thinner is useless in mopping up our trails of sin.

Note from the above text that Jesus became, not like the sinner but, the sin itself.  Hanging upon the rugged lumber formed into a torturous Cross was slander, adultery, thievery, gossip, dishonesty.  On the list of sins may grow.

Step back a moment.  Peer toward the strewn body of Jesus dangling in public view.  Emaciated, no longer recognizable as to exactly who he is, this Man took on our sins.  Get it.  Think about it.  He became our very darkest deeds themselves.  Get it.  Think about it.  

This is to be noted with incredible strength.  This moment upon the Cross is so very and deeply raw that the Father of Jesus walked out.  God walked away.  He could not fellowship....sin.  And...not coincidentally...the light of that mid-day went out.  The whole eerie scene turned as dark as night in mid-afternoon.  

Do gasp. Revisit this scene today and again tomorrow.  Realize, my friend, that this man called Jesus is more than a Sunday School term for little children.  He is the one...the only one...in history that didn't just die for the sinner; but he actually became our sin on the Cross.

What's the point?  God had it out with sin and destroyed its eternal impact.  He obliterated the penalty of sin by becoming it Himself.  This.  Is.  Surely.  Great.  Love.  

It was our sins which were nailed to the Cross.  Might we still gasp at the wonder of this truth?  It's too much to take in.  But know this...Jesus became our sin that we might become his righteousness.  

The trade has been made.  Believe it.  We are free to believe it!!

WE MUST NOT LET RELIGION GET IN THE WAY OF CHRIST-IANITY

The four gospels are consistent with repetitive pattern; religion and Jesus do not mix.
This.  Is.  Their.  Message.  Of.  Which.  We.  Are.  Still.  Learning.

The church, which is to be the body of Christ on earth today, has a fierce ongoing battle which must be faced.  Yet, basic indifference has transpired.  The light has gone out in much of the spiritual terrain for the Son of God has been placed by a religious ego of sorts known as "we do church right".

We are in desperate need for the Spirit of God to awaken us.  Awaken us; not the unbelieving world, not the thieves and robbers and swindlers...but us!  A growing picture is developing in far too many places which replicates the garden scene; Jesus praying while the disciples tip over in contented slumber.  

Religion puts one to sleep in the midst of the very process of vital activity.  The constant repeating of acts of worship gradually becomes that which is worshipped....not God....in all religions.  Christ-ianity, on the other hand, is vibrant with anticipatory enthusiasm for the worshipper senses a reality of one's spirit connected to the reality of One's Spirit.

Imagination becomes fascinated as the heart engages in bringing God honor.  One at this juncture has no taste for going through the church motions.  The craving for the Higher cannot be satisfied by the habits of the Lower.

Religion is all about motions.  We call a portion of it "acts of worship".  The question for us is, "Are we genuinely, actually, actively worshipping God?"  Indeed, this accomplishment is rewarding, renewing, and rebuilding.  We must praise something (Someone) bigger than ourselves.  Otherwise, we will continually be watching the one(s) better than us...and such a one(s) will eventually have a clay foot fall off.

It is a daily call, I believe, because it is a daily war to not let religion get in the way of Christ-ianity.  I preached Bible too many years without preaching the Christ of the Bible.  I had my slants, my perspectives, and my applauded/lauded stances; all the while, Jesus was not the centerpiece of ministry and labor.  May we gain new momentum and then renewed momentum day by day.

Christ is to be the key in the term Christ-ianity.  Religion and Jesus do not mix; but, oh how we still try to make the two fit into our preferred forms.

DELEGITIMIZING THE FACT OF FAITH?

An interruption to faith does not mean that the realm of faith is a false premise.  There are those in abundant number who perport exactly such a measure though.  These are quick to point out the slightest thread of Christianity gone awry as verification that faith is some sort of imaginary hoax.  I believe a "weak crutch" is what they oft times describe it.

Faith sees what isn't yet.  That's enough to cancel pursuit for many.   Yet, that's its secret weapon and it matters because...it is true.  Faith is the lifeblood of our day.  To pooh-pooh it without serious probe is catastrophic for any and all.

Every one of us lives by faith in some degree that hits interruption; yet, we do not boast that there is not reality of faith, do we?  How many have left the house with intent (faith, as it hadn't happened yet) to bolt off to work?  Yet, in the driveway sits a flat-tire.  I thought you were going to work (by faith that's where you were headed)!  Your intent (faith/belief) was deterred for a bit....but you eventually got to your job.

Have you ever planned on Monday to golf on Tuesday only to find storms arrived overnight and continued during the next day?  Did you golf?  No.  Hadn't you planned by faith to do so?  Yes.  So how's this faith thing going for you?  According to the many, faith should be dropped from any and all discussions because what some had planned as absolute didn't happen.

So it is in the spiritual world of sheer faith.  We are engaged and embedded in a belief system that is quite legit.  Interruption?  Well....there is not interruption at all because faith's very nature is full of options.  We begin immediately in our minds (faith) to work an alternative plan.  (We will work an hour later at the office due to that flat tire and we can golf next Tuesday.)  Faith's flexibility bugs the those bent on doubting its most essential nature.

Yes, flexibility is key.  Faith never gives up.  Faith is the terrain and the substance of all hope.  Adjustment defies rules.  We will get to work regardless of interference and we will join the foursome.  Too many, however, shut down when the slightest interruption happened in their faith/church world because they assume that when matters don't work out that faith has been delegitimized.  Not.  True.

We are called to walk by faith and not by sight because faith is the real.  The flat tire by no means signals you won't make it to work.  Your faith says you have options.  The rainy day does not transfer to sell the clubs.  Your faith says you will win over this time-restricted contest.  And...you succeed with both.

So to the doubters of Christian faith out there, you are barking up a mistaken tree.  I know, you believe you've got this church/faith thing all figured out because you've noted inconsistencies like sins, sinners, and even death.  However, all of these are our flat tires and our rain-delays.  Jesus has them all covered.  Your charting of our failures feel quite pleasing to your egos, but what you haven't remembered is that faith always trumps the previous day(s) failures and interruptions.

Jesus has changed the game, the rules, and the results.  Really.  And, truth be told, every person already understands quite well the deep practicality of the realm of....legitimate faith....don't we? I would ask that you possibly rethink your position of delegitimizing faith for it is both practical as well as authentic.

Reschedule your tee time with God.  We all have had to do so somewhere along the storms of life.

WHERE THE CHRISTIAN WORLD MUST GET A GRIP

This is just my observation, but I believe that the bulk of mankind is wasting a huge portion of its breathing, walking, and talking time.  I speak, not from a sense of criticism but, with intent to be one of those voices in our lives which would join the ranks of assisting each other in moving forward...as well as upward.  Regardless of age, there will always be room for attainable improvement.  This would be called growth and maturity.

I believe that our inner part (our spirit) is carrying a dis-ease that could be compared to a chronic headache or back pain.  That ailment is so ultra-subtle that it goes unnoticed only to be detected by Spirit x-ray.  I speak of the sin of being aggravated and disliking those around us.

"Oh, that's a problem?"  Oh, yes.  It's ruling our world in so many cases.

We must get a grip on this glut of enemyism for it's eating our lunches seven days straight each week.  I'm not necessarily speaking of any deeper violation than that there are those in our lives that we just don't like because of one or one hundred injurious moves they have committed against us.  So?  We have determined to shut them off as no good, unnecessary...and totally not like self.

But...this latter observation is where we are wrong....precisely and devastatingly so.

Why can we not a get a grip that when it comes to sin, we are all alike?  The answer is we tend to give ours an explainable pass while throwing condemnation at all others whom we have determined with enormous conviction that we don't like and won't ever like....again!  But there's a hitch with this mindset.  We have forgotten that we are all just alike.

Consider the apostle who regarded himself as least in the kingdom, "For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves to themselves, they are without understanding."  (II Cor. 10:12)

I make a tremendous amount of mistakes.  So much so that I battle shutting down because of how old I am and, yet, I remain so foolish, silly, and weak at times.  So how is it that I can still think of myself as better than another?  Any other?  This verse says I'm precisely like all others.  And, it declares the same of you.

Rather than carry a grudge, you might find life to be a greater dimension of joy and robust enthusiasm if you would get a grip on your own great lack.  Such isn't a negative thought, but rather a most powerful piece of lasting and meaningful encouragement.  We can do better at loving others and the good news is....that it's only a thoughtful determination away!

IMAGINARIUMilisticly SPEAKING

IMAGINARIUM is my new role; my new mission.  The concept is so off of the wall that I can't define it well.  I can't even define it average.  But, it is full of hope and joy and wonder because it is based upon faith in what God can, might, and will do that I/we have zero ability to coerce.  Well coercion is there....but only through the invisibles such as faith, and prayer, and stepping out onto the waters with no footing.

And...I'm very enthused about the practice and the potential and the possibilities.

This venture will be embedded in the Ephesians 3:19-20 promise of God.  I want to knock on doors, His doors, for ways to cheer on the entire world.  I believe that as the universe in which we live has yet to be fully discovered, so it is with the spiritual portion.

Have university labs discontinued experimentation for hopeful discovery for improvement in farming, medicine, education?  Nope.  Then, I say more so are we to dig into the truths and the vision of God's call....for it is His calling in this direction.

IMAGINARIUMilisticly SPEAKING, we get to enjoy this life God affords.  And one of those major factors is that He calls us to be new day by day which would include search, research, and discovery!

You....me....may we continue to SPEAK IMAGINARIUMilisticly.  Let this become a new language for the church!

LET'S START AN AVALANCHE OF HOPE!

Not one person is immune to negative, frustrating, routine disappointment.  Every person--as in every--faces combat in their particular trenches every day.  The temptation to yield to the dark trend seems overwhelming from time to time.  And, I say let's do something about it.  At your fingertips today is a tool poised to cause an avalanche of hope...and that's exactly what we are going to do.

People--as in all--need encouragement and re-encouragement.  This need isn't a one-time fits all; but rather is a daily need for all.  Today we are going to tackle one of the greatest calls ever.  You can change the world for two or ten and when 1000 of us do it (we have 3600 readers here so I just tossed out a low number) for IMAGINARIUM'S sake.  Think what would happen if 3600 followed through!

So here's what I am asking you to consider.  Would you select 2 to 10 friends today; some would be very close to daily walk while others would be friends; yet there isn't all that much of regular contact between you.  Would you send them a note informing them of two things: (1) why it is that you admire and love them today, and (2) asking them to select their 2 to 10 to do the same...asking those 2 to 10 to do the same.

Y E S....we will start an avalanche of hope for hearts that we may have not thought needed such a project of wonder!  Let's go for it!!

Yay you...and yay me!!!

FEELING SUPERIOR TO OTHERS? DON'T. GO. THERE.

Man has a debilitating practice which perpetually shoots oneself in the spiritual foot of intended progress.  I speak of an attitude of superiority stacked against our fellow man...any and every fellow man.  Such a disposition or stance sucks the life right out of us; even while we inwardly crow that we are not like "them".

Jesus did his best to reverse our self-saturation of believing that we are individually elite-illistically right while noting the errors of THEIR many ways.  In one place He referenced two men praying in the temple.  The religious hound stood thanking God that he was not like others...who were, in his eyes, blatant oughta-know-better sinners.  This one of towering prayer practice believed that he had avoided all of THOSE pitfalls....Luke 18:9-14.

Yet, Jesus didn't buy the Pharisees comparative lingo.  The reason?  The praying man was not close to being superior to the one whom he regarded as a shameful sinner.  God's teaching here and numerous other texts is consistently revealing that only the humble grasp His call to allow Him to make us right(eous) because we can't produce such on our own.

So how are you/we doing?  Do you ever feel superior to another social class?  A race?  A creed?  An accomplishment?  Are you ever caught thanking God that you are not weak like others, you don't have a skin tone like others, or you haven't a mistaken sexual preference like others do?  Do not misunderstand.  I am not condoning sin where God would condemn it.

I am saying we commit a hideous and repetitive sin when we grade ourselves as superior to another...any...other.  This kind of sin doesn't seem to bug us.  But it does God.

Why do I believe this goes on?  I do it.  I have for years.  I've thanked God that I didn't commit this and that I wasn't like that.  I've been quietly grateful that he didn't make me like....many of  them.  But...Jesus came along and broke me.  Oh, I try to hold on to the reigns of effective elite-ism, but Truth won't dare let me set up camp there for I am the least, the weakest, the greatest failure that I've ever met.

This doesn't permit me to accept anothers' lifestyle if it is against the nature of God.  But it reminds me every time that not one person is lower on the Totem Pole of righteousness than I am.  Accepting a lifestyle and accepting a sinner are two different matters.  Jesus eradicated sin....and made the sinner his sister and brother.  Jesus hated sins....and dearly loved those who practiced them.

When you have those days of feeling superior to others because you don't commit THEIR sins, think again.  Each of us is always least to all others and it is this profound route that makes life pop with hope...and with power...and with God's glorious leadership style.

Feeling superior to others?  Don't.  Go.  There.                                                                            

THE INNER PUZZLE OF CHURCH

The Kingdom of God isn't handy.  Neither is it comprised of moody do-gooders when opportunities of service are convenient.  No, life in the synchronization of the Master is an all-in matter which will chase the most of us all the way to our graves.  Yet, we will continue to try for our hearts deeply desire to bring Him honor and mankind hope.

My good colleague Jason Thornton preached this morning about our commitment being all in.  The challenge is nothing new.  Yet, due to our bent on playing life safe (and church safer), his words rang new yet again.  There's something about God's declaration that His followers are made new day by day.  This is one of the funnest things ever that, even as we age, we find ourselves feeling newer than the calendar confirms.  This is His promise when we follow Him; new day by day.

That commitment Jason proposed is a struggle for many; if not all.  Here may be one reason why.  We like to put puzzles together; but we basically stop once all of the edge pieces are connected.  The inner pieces are more difficult to place.

So it is in the church life.  Putting the edge parts of church life together are simple to the point the basic masses may engage.  Attending is fundamental as is taking communion, singing, and listening to another pray...briefly.  But those inner pieces of the kingdom puzzle come with delicate requirement of sober attention coupled with intended application.

The Inner Puzzle finds the need to pray...often...with depth...of faith.  The IP calls for sobering giving of what we would naturally rather keep for ourselves.  Too, IP insists that we love others...all kinds of others...from those whom we love dearly to those we would rather enjoy detesting.

Because of the Inner Puzzle reality, the kingdom life isn't for sissies.  Placing the edges of church participation together without concentration upon learning just exactly how the inner pieces also fit will always leave one stranded without ever seeing the complete picture.

There...that's why the Inner Puzzle of the church is important.  The world can't see the value of the church if we only live from the edges of easy assembly.  Furthermore, we will never offer the world a picture of understanding the spiritual life if we refuse to be connected together.  Once harmony in the Holy Spirit is connected, our neighbors will begin to see the picture of God's glory.

MORE GOOD NEWS: YOU GET TO DECIDE

A tornado breezed through Tulsa during the night rearranging furniture, lifting vehicles...and destroying much property.  Several individuals were rushed to ER.  Damage is extensive as winds were high and rains were intense.

Seeing the debris caused me to reflect on Jesus for he is surely the reverse-tornado.  Jesus wreaks havoc with sin and sin debris by swooping in and putting wrecked situations back together again.  He is the one who passes over us with healing rather than harm.  He restores rather than demolishes.  He re-assembles families and friends rather than unravels.

The good news is pretty fascinating as well.  When the dark weather-storm of a tornado hits, its movement is random and well beyond our control.  But when the reverse-tornado of Jesus comes into play, you and I get to decide whether we allow its entrance into our situations.  We can choose to see relationships healed or we can opt for a disgruntamental attitude which only perpetuates the division.

The good news is that you get to decide.  Your option is current, applicable, and poised with healing fascination.  Why you would you opt to decline such a potent grace available for your walk (your heart)?  The decision is all yours.

Might this be a day of restoration for you as you decide to throw down those matters which keep your heart at bay from those around you?  The result can be sheer wonder and delight of life itself?  You decide.

WHY REACH TO OTHERS WITH YOUR FAITH?

Faith is often said to be a private matter between one and his or her God.  While such a statement is certainly socially acceptable, it pretty much sabotages what our God has in mind for us.  We are called to reach, to extend, our faith in Him to others.

Why is this the case?  God wants everyone to have a relationship with Him.  His news is far different than any other.  His ways are higher than man's ways.  This Word must spread and God chooses to do so via the human voice; one to another, to another, etc.  We, individually, are anticipated to reach forward to our neighbors, our friends, even to our enemies regarding the overwhelming relief and hope God offers through Jesus.

Why, then, are we to really extend our faith to others?

   1.  God calls us to do so.  We are to share who He is, what He does, and how He reverses life.
 
   2.  (All) Others want to know.

The first reason is generally accepted and believed.  But, the latter one?  Ummm, not so much.  Our personal outreach takes a huge hit when we doubt that colleagues would be interested in faith toward God.  We hesitate.  We refrain.  We withdraw out of our own fear and doubt.  The option is....we go to church and sing about Him to ourselves with hestiation that we could effectively extend His grace to others.

Everyone wants to know God!  Every!  One!

What I've learned is that they may not want to know Him on my timetable; but they will want to know Him.  These may not be ready to meet Him on my Tuesday night outreach schedule; but they will want to know Him.  Why do you think that the day will come when every knee will bow at the sight of Jesus?  All have it within us to believe Him.

Embedded within every person is a seed faith toward loving and desiring to know our Creator.  There.  Is.  No.  Exception.

Two things are true.  Each of us will die and each of us will live again.  Just as the seed is buried only to sprout through a resurrection process following death, we follow the pattern.  Death isn't the end and God verifies this through each Spring's planting season.  By faith, the farmer believes the Harvest is coming.

But not everyone knows of this system.  They believe we are born, die, and eventually done.  But why do you think we have a calendar with a date on it?  At date of two-thousand seventeen years....from what?  You know that the calendar switched historically from B.C. to A.D.  The reason is the birth of Christ.  He is so real, so believable, that the very thing hanging on our walls or perched upon our desks declares that, in reality, the date has extended one more day from the time He was born.  Jesus is verifiably the real deal.

There is a reason for faith in God.  We have no other means of knowing Him.  Yet, He is more real than reality.  The world in general is blinded by what it can see while faith sees what can't be seen.  We each are in desperate need of the latter.  We who have been reached are to reach toward others that faith may spread and God is perpetually reintroduced to His own created populace.  That's why.