Tuesday, December 29

2009 in review…….

"Life is more than food or clothing." (Luke 12:23 CEV)


 

2010 is mere days away and soon all the calendars will flip digits, the months will roll back to January and begin their countdown again towards the end of the year and life will continue much like it has; invested time, energy and agendas will lead our country, our state, our cities, our churches and our relationships towards their next step in the progression of life. Some, like our nation, will continue down the path of destruction by continuing to deny the Truth of the Gospel and relying on the humanist power of a chosen 'messiah' in the form of our President who seems more intent on pushing forward his agenda rather than serving the American people. Some, like our church and our relationships, can be a source of eternal glory for God or a sinful expression of our lack of faith. As 2009 ends, just like 2008 ended, it is our faith that is not hidden under bushel baskets that will affect our world in small ways and in greater ways. It all comes down to where God is in our lives; outside, held at a distance or inside, our very movements made with His Spirit energizing our muscles. Much of what exists in our country, our states, our churches and our families have been years in the making; 2009 is simply the year in which we have progressed furthest from God by the inaction, indifference or tolerance of our own sinfulness.


 

I sit here and look back at 2009……and find very few things the same with a lot of things very different both from expectations and from where they were. Life is constantly evolving, constantly changing, and we are wont to hold on to the very things we grab only to have them torn from our grasp sometimes forcibly but too often times casually slipped from what we thought was the tightest hold by the hands of another or through the circumstances of life. Life was born in 2009 and life was ended. Friendships made and friendships brutally ended. The ebb and flow of life remained continually in motion…..the shoreline of our lives forever changed in the passage from January 1st, 2009 until the last day of December 31st, 2009. Life happened; sometimes a blessing, sometimes a sorrow but always organically moving towards the 'future.' In 2009, I celebrated 12 years since that eventful morning in April where God blessed me with a baby boy who was impatient to come into the world and begin LIFE….counting all the joys, sorrows and pronouncements since that moment in the room where he lay in an incubator and I promised him that I would do whatever I had to do to give him everything he needed and as much of what he wanted as I could humanly provide as his father; 11 years since that impatient evening spent waiting for the arrival of a baby girl who didn't seem to concerned with beginning life here in this world…..again counting the joys, sorrows and the struggles since that moment when she grabbed my finger and I knew that forever my heart would be lost to this little bundle of energy; and 42 years since I started this journey on this world called life…..shaped by the influences, sins and agendas of those nearest to me at my birth, battered by life's events through the educational experience and just living, to be drawn to a place where the desolation of disconnection silenced the world for a moment and God spoke to me, "Don't you think it's time to stop running"….drawn into a life that has been abundant, for sure, ever since…….changing, growing, painful, joyful, peaceful, sorrowful and frustrating all at once. But, Christ has never violated His promise; it has been life abundantly lived since the process of surrendering began that February day in 2004. Even in the health of my country, my state and my family. He has given more than He has taken, whether I have used His blessings for their intended purpose or allowed them to be corrupted by my own sinful regression. Christ has remained as He always has been….my Savior, my God and my King.


 

2009 was touted by the secular world as a year of change…..of progression and new hope. At 8:35 am, a Wednesday morning, on January 20th the 44th President of the United States of America, the first bi-racial (though he promoted and declared himself to be solely African-American) Barrack Hussein Obama stepped into the Oval Office and assumed the mantle of leadership of this nation by the popular and electoral vote of the majority of the American People. Within 100 days of taking the office, this President, still haunted (as he is today) by the constitutionality of his legality to assume the office would begin the process of change that he promised and the majority of the American people endorsed. From the 'light-hearted' scavenger hunt of the Obama girls on the first day that ended with the Jonas brothers to the life-ending removal of the Mexico City clause that prevented our American overseas aid to be used to fund abortions in countries that received it (against the majority of Americans' wishes to the contrary), promotion and creation of over 30 "czars" (high-level staff that oversee a president's top initiatives, non-vetted, accountable only to President), to the concern of many that it concentrated too much power in the Executive branch and subverted Congressional authority (President Nixon was the first and appointed 1. Since Nixon, 4 other Presidents have appointed czars: President Reagan (1), President George H. W. Bush (1), President Clinton (3), and President George W. Bush (4)), the approval of a 3.44 trillion dollar budget while challenging his government to cut a mere 100 million in 90 days, a 789 billion stimulus bill, pushing a universal health insurance bill, massive interventions in the housing and credit markets that have left the American people out and the corporations executives wealthy, the plan to bail the auto industry out by government ownership, the bailout of banks and Wall Street without ownership or accountability, and 'overhauling' the foreign policy of the USA, many felt President Obama's first 100 days were more dramatic and effective than the originator of the term, FDR, and by far more 'worthy' than his successor President Bush. Just as the American People allegedly reached a milestone by the election of the first African-American President, the supporters and cheerleaders that thronged the streets of our nation's capital reached another milestone, though not a very rewarding one. They showed how not to be gracious winners, singing songs of "Goodbye" and cheering as the departing President left the Oval Office for the last time….a first that will forever haunt the image of this country.


 

Far from this being a political discussion, the advent of "a year of change" has degenerated into 'a year of liberal progression and moral regression' as the American people have been less than impressed with this 'agent of change' with approval ratings that dropped from 65% to 49.9% with a telling disparity of +5.3. With the highest unemployment rate since 1945, over 2.9 million Americans out of work (526,575 plus in 2009 alone), many have been disappointed with the expansion of the Federal Government and its policy of burdening our future generations with debt that has had little effect on the economic concerns of hundreds of thousands of American families. The loss of popularity comes from Obama's own political party, the Democrats, despite a Democrat-controlled Congress and Executive branch. In my own home state of Michigan, the Democrat-controlled Executive and House branches along with a Republican-controlled senate have faced the challenges of the automotive industry bankruptcies (GM and Chrysler), revenues falling to a 45-year low as families depart for employment opportunities (in other parts of the country as efforts are made to 'diversify' its economy; advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defense/homeland security, life sciences, film and tourism while continuing to lead the country in unemployment (15.2%, the lowest since 1985). In a 'critical year', the 47th Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm (who assumed the post in January of 2003 with an inherited state deficit of 1.7 billion) has lost over 43,000 jobs as of August while generating only slightly more than 7,000, mostly in the health and education areas with a deficit of 2.8 million, garnering the distinction of being governor during the longest job-loss streak in Michigan history – eight years…the longest since the Great Depression. To say that the state of the country and the state of Michigan is dire is an understatement but it is because of the improperly placed belief of entitlement and requirement of government, a body of career politicians accountable to themselves, to take care of the people instead of the people governing themselves through the government elect, a body of servant citizens who serve the citizenry of the country. As Lent Upson, 1st Executive Director of the Citizens Research Council (CRC) said "The right to criticize government is also an obligation to know what you are talking about." The fabric of the political cloth of this country is changing only because the majority of Americans simply no longer care what the government does or why. The governed no longer hold the governing to accountability and the birth of politicians has lead to the death of the true statesman…or woman….upon which this country's republic was founded. "The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time." – Franklin Pierce Adams. We, the American people, are reaping the harvest of a political system that has created corruption as a requirement for public office; 1 million dollars is far beyond the reach of the common man to even file the paperwork necessary for running for President. 2009 has become a year of political indifference to the wishes of the American people. I voted my faith when I went to the polls in 2008, nominating by handwriting Alan Keyes, an African-American Baptist pastor from Illinois as my choice for President. Some will say that by doing so, by proxy, I nominated Barack Hussein Obama to office but I remained true to my faith and used my vote, as Teddy Roosevelt would say, as a 'rifle' in the battle politic. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama was, in my opinion, of the caliber necessary to lead this country into the future. Since the nomination of our 44th President, though, I have continually prayed for his earnest effort to be a leader to our multi-cultured, economically-diverse and multi-generational nation by being a servant-statesman to his countrymen and women and not a stereotypical liberal politician that the Democrat party tends to attract. I still believe in the power of God to bring about good from the selfish desires of a nation that has attempted to remove Him from its history and its moral compass. 2009 has deepened my political awareness and patriotic hope for a nation once seeking God's purpose for its citizenry.


 

2009 has led to a deeper experience for me in the corporate community of 'church,' much to my dismay and also renewed hope that the original purpose and mission of the body of Christ could be rediscovered and recommitted among the faithful despite the continued degeneration of church influence by worldly influences. 2009 started with me being a member of the 10,000 plus, four campus church of Pastor Jim Combs. Attending The River Church in Holly, Michigan under the campus leadership of Cliff Powell, who's brothers lead North Ridge (a larger church which saw a 'satellite planted' in Saline) in Plymouth, Michigan, I once again found myself drawn into the desire to be actively involved in church and ministry, having 'hung up' my ordination as Chaplain (Ordained) the previous year. A desire that ended much like earlier enticements; disconnection and then disassociation with the fellowship as the battering of myself upon the walls of human invention left me disillusioned and disheartened. Pastor Jim Combs, a dynamic and powerful man of God, seemed caught up in what I called a "david complex," so intent on building a 'temple' for God that he missed the decision of God that it was not for him to build. It is at The River that I first realized that even a man of God, Pastor Combs is surely one of those, can be lead into worldly assumptions of God's purpose and mission……there were very few sermons that Combs gave that did not challenge me in my faith even as I felt disillusioned by the obvious disconnection between buying and building on a 2 million parcel of land a mega-campus church while countless members of the congregation were facing financial crisis…..in the words of Pastor Powell…."we don't have funds to help anyone because there is so much need" while money was hoarded and grasped to enable the capital funding for the property. Far from the disconnection of a pastor from the sheer size of his four congregations, I realized how far the corporate body of the Christian church has gone from the community mindset of outreach to the selfish and self-serving mindset of possession both of congregation and of property. In The River, through a series of experiences, my faith was tested and found wanting….enticed to grow and sorrowed by the state of affairs. In a community of faithful, where we are called to bear one another's burdens, edify and journey alongside each other in the spirit of love taught and emulated by Christ Himself, we have digressed into denominations and opinions where possessiveness outweighs connection, man-made structures overshadow God-ordained relational faith, and discord is ruthlessly abolished under the 'heavy hand of righteous' isolation. I left The River in September of 2009, my hand forced by the silence of the leadership in addressing situations I found in life that only community could have answered, but they were never asked by the leadership after I approached them with my requests. A fact discovered when talking to several of the congregation the night before I departed Holly for Canton.


 

I have discovered in the last few years since my surrender was first articulated of how far the corporate experience of Christianity has separated from its origins as handed by Christ into the hands of the apostles and down through the ages to the likes of those of us who profess Christianity as our belief system. Orchard Grove, where in 2004 I began this journey of surrender, gave way to the emergent agenda and dictator pastorship style that is prevalent in our western culturized doctrine today; Soul Quest, under the hands of my first god-seeking pastor, surrendering to the doctrinal beliefs of Henry Wright the prosperity of healing minister; The River of Faith (The Rock, The River, Faith Baptist and The Point) giving into the desire of 'temple-building' rather than community outreach even among its own congregation…….it doesn't matter the leadership or the congregational make-up, the Church has fallen far from its Great Commission in proclaiming the Gospel to all nations through the discipleship and laying-of-hands upon those it commissions to fulfill it. I am no longer of the opinion that this church is wrong or that church is right….so long as the biblical continuity of God's word is evident within its walls, rather I have realized the digression from Christ's intent for His church has multiplied itself into the denominational mindset of His people. If this continuity doesn't exist, I would speak to the discrepancies of a "Christian" named church and seek a return to a biblically, not culturally, based doctrine. But I have realized that even within the walls of a biblically-based church there is the corruption of humanity even under the guise of seeking God's intent and I must remain true to that which God has envisioned for me. This church experience seemed to culminate in 2009 for me; surrendered to the fact that my possibility of fulfilling God's purpose for me as a pastor in a congregation was far more likely after Christ's return than before when left in the hands of human invention and decision, I found myself not looking for a church in which to develop my talents, skills and gifts given from God for His glory and purpose but rather seeking to find that church of sufficient diversity where I could effectively hide among its pews and cushy chairs and be one of the cultural Christians that populate many congregations today. The one church where such a life could have been effectively led; Life Church in Canton, proved to be too slow for my over-engaged mind despite its mission statement of 10 ministries in 10 years. Berean Bible Church in Livonia, while being biblically sound, strongly disciplining and faithfully challenging was too generational of a church congregation for me, being sold to Christ under the modern model of Church with energetic worship music. In the most unlikely of places and through only the prompting of a mentor who has been faithful in his biblical interpretation of my adventures both in church corporate life and personal accountability, I found a church that grudgingly I have found a fledging hope that while I may still never obtain through the invented manifestation of the western church of humanity a position purposed and called to by God, the further development of my faith and my heart as a servant can be fostered, mentored and discipled for the further purpose of God……among a congregation that is not one that I would have willingly walked into in the years before. A diverse collection of college-aged, middle-aged and elder-aged faithful who came together under the leadership of Oak Pointe and Lead Pastor Shannon Nielsen to plant a church in the college city of Ann Arbor that would be guided by the principles of biblical community: team-based, intergenerational, biblically deep, others focused, and reproducing. I have found in investing myself and my family into this relatively new Church plant a reawakening of a sense of discipleship and purpose that have been largely absent in my past church experience.


 

Where at the beginning of 2009 I had been at the point, as I told my mentor – my Barnabas, that I was done with 'organized church' as a part of my life, I have found myself ending the year with a feeling that there is something that has been taught and shaped through my experiences of 'church' from the beginning to now that have, as Wendell put it, given me an unique experience that I can bring to my home church that will be of benefit to both of us, me as a servant and my church family as a member. And though I have been progressed no further towards the God-given sense of full time ministry, my faith has developed to the point where the obtaining of such a lofty and precarious goal is no longer the end of the journey I am on, but rather simply a progression of my faith and my surrender to God. Whether it remains true my belief that in such man-dominated environments such as the western church there will never be the movement of one as broken and intolerant of misguided philosophies called doctrine that exist in the modern church or that God will suddenly present the opportunity to join Him in the work He is doing in the true Church that He is preparing as a Bride for the Bridegroom remains only seen in His eyes. In the journey of my relationship with Him, I have found that following Him into the unseen future is all that I am required to do……..He is the One to create, nurture and implement the plan He has for my life. All I know, as 2009 ends and 2010 begins, the sense of completing His 'boot camp' and being 'assigned my first combat duty station' overwhelms and dominates my eagerly searching eyes for His will in the moments of my life. And that is the purpose and commandment of God…..to have a heart crying out, "Send me!"


 

From employment to unemployment, home to living with family, financial progress to devastating regression, I have borne the training that God has either allowed, chosen for me or has asked me to endure for Him in this year of 2009. I am not where I would want to be in many things, but I know that where I am I walk with God in many areas and ways that I scarcely believed possible at year's beginning. My wants have dissolved into basic needs and the things that God has given provide for the needs as my surrender to Him becomes more and more developed, realized and implemented in my life. I have a long way to go, far beyond the realms of where I'd dream I could possibly live and am enticed by God's voice to go……..


 

As 2009 draws to a close, I find myself in a 'ceremony of competition'; the honor guard marching proudly in step with the flags of God, country and community proudly flapping in the winds of His purposing change as the gathered faithful stand in formation; proudly gleaming in the metals of God's armor; the helmet of Salvation, the breastplate of righteousness with the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit strapped securely to the belt of Truth secured around their frames as they stand in the shoes of Gospel preparation. Equipped, trained and developed through the trials, tribulations and circumstances of 2009…..I no longer am the 'raw' recruit that signed the pledge so long ago to join the Army of the Lord in the eternal battle for the souls of the lost, the progression of the kingdom and the return of the One True King. After the ceremonial graduation is over and we wander through the throngs of our families that have watched us grow in this place who have gathered to celebrate life-giving death gained in the servant hearts of His warriors and the discipling of the young to be mature faithful citizen-soldiers, we will stand before our mentors and our teachers…..and be commissioned to go forth into the duty stations of God's purpose for the Kingdom and His glory.


 

This fruitful training ground of God's design; where the simple faith I professed to Him one February day so long ago has progressed into a faith more simplified in the eyes of the faithful and more complex in the eyes of the sinners, the personal development from rejected son to a son who is seeking to understand the blessing of being a beloved son, experience in the hand-to-hand combat of this world where being Christian is no longer a 'nice' thing to the world but rather a 'intolerant' expression of a crazy and foolish people, and a firmness of spirit that understands that love sometimes has to speak accountability, sometimes has to be held accountable, sometimes tested, sometimes testing but always has to be the language and intonation of a member of God's family to everyone……and that the 'training and development' of a soldier in the Army of God will never truly be complete as we fight our old nature with our new nature born and developed by the Spirit. The provisions of God have been plentiful in this year; from the equipping of a saint in the family to bless my need for a car at year's beginning to the continuous prayer and support through the wide-spread and faithful family of God's larger family that has taught me the lesson time and time again that God's provisions will not end because the need does but will be there when the need becomes known in our life again and that we are, as His people, to faithfully accept and articulate such provisioning through the proper application and thankful witness of a blessed people.


 

As 2009 draws to the end of its natural progression through the history of mankind and we, as a people…..both of this nation, this state, this community and of His blood….draw closer and closer to the end of time, when our Savior will return upon the white horse of war to bring the usurper's domination of this world to an end, I am thankful for the many who have stepped into my life with prayer of supplication for me and my family through the financial crisis that we have faced, the heart-heavy decision of divorce and the relocations to places both old and new, those who have provisioned with God's wish into our lives with food, clothing and funds and those who have stepped into the uncomfortable role of accountability to draw me closer to God and His purposes to me. As we step into the future of 2010, there is no other than each of you that I would have standing side by side with me as we struggle against the world of darkness to shine the light of the Risen King. It is because you, having faithfulness to lift your voices to our God on my behalf that have given me the strength to go into the darkness for the sake of God's light.


 

"God's love and kindness will shine upon us like the sun that rises in the sky. On us who live in the dark shadow of death this light will shine to guide us into a life of peace." (Luke 1:78-79 CEV)


 

The life that I have experienced in 2009 has taught me the truth of the verse at the beginning of this post…..life is so much more than food and clothing and Christ has given to us the opportunity to live that life surrendered to Him in a manner of abundance….not of wealth, health or any possessions but in relationship with Him.


 

I cannot wait to see what 2010 holds for His people.


 


 


 

Saturday, December 26

This is my desire…..

"The Holy Spirit will give you life that comes from Christ Jesus and will set you free from sin and death. The Law of Moses cannot do this, because our selfish desires make the Law weak. But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ's body to condemn sin. He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace." (Romans 8:2-6 CEV)

One of the elders of Mosaic A2 came up to me Thursday when we were attending the Christmas celebration at the Marriott in Ypsilanti and remarked how great it was that my family and I jumped in with helping out at church. I told him that I could not just sit in church; I had to be active in helping, in serving the congregation who by proxy has become my extended family. He said that he could tell the kids were into serving and did it with a servant's heart. Which leads to the visible proof of what I was teaching them as their father.

I have been thinking of that conversation, as is usually my wont to do and I wondered why I was uneasy about it. I wish that I had articulated myself better, for the basis of my servant desire is simply the undeniable fact that God sent His only Begotten Son, to earth as a baby boy to grow and live a life upon this planet among the entirety of humanity….to die upon a cross created by the sins of all humanity in the most cruelest of human inventions simply because of the relentless love He has for all of us; me, you and the depth of all of humanity. How can one NOT serve a God who is relentless in His pursuit of us? How can one NOT be hands-on in the living of the life Christ represented to each of us from birth to His death upon that cross?

How can you not give all of yourself in service to others? Not for the gain of personal satisfaction, recognition or fortune…..but rather because it is a need that is evident, a situation that craves resolution or a chance to respond to someone with the obvious love that Christ has shown each of us.

We are all freemen, free from sin and free from its only conclusion, death. How can we live in the evidence of bondage when we are no longer bound? By the intimate awareness of the enemy, who through his manipulation can make us deny our freedom, deny our release and refuse to accept the nature expression of the liberation of Christ in our lives? It is the only way.

He intimates us with thoughts of unworthiness, being unequipped or the creeping humanness of pride. He lies to us, telling us we don't have time, someone else will take care of it or it isn't appreciated by those who gain the benefits of the labor performed. We fill our week with worthy pursuits of work, family and friends to arrive at church on Sunday looking simply for the relaxation of sitting in our seats and being entertained by the pastor and the worship team. We don't want to miss out on our 'feeding', which the natural acceptance of being a servant would generate. We don't want to live on recordings but rather be in the moment of its generation.

Jesus lived in the moment, in service to others. He would redirect His efforts at the slightest provocation from someone's need or to prepare the ground for ministry.

How can we do anything less?


 


 


 

Tuesday, December 22

Gut check…..

"Behold! I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I command you today to love Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. And Jehovah your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it. But if you turn away your heart, so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days on the land where you pass over Jordan to go to possess it." (Deuteronomy 30:15-18 MKJV)


 

One page….actually, one simple direction upon that one page, has brought me to a point of utter fear, utter silence and the robbing of my ability to describe, capture and articulate a vision, dream or event. One question that, given my temperament, abilities and passion, should bind me up no more than a piece of hair hold secure an unlocked door against an intruder seems impossible…..but it does…and has for more than a few weeks now.

The compass is swinging wildly, unfocused…..there are paths in every conceivable direction laid out before me in this spot…this point in the journey. All because of one question, all because one fear in answering its probing piercing demand…..even the wilderness I travel in seems to have frozen in anticipation for the next step, the next breath and the answer to the question that lies unwritten beneath the straight, even lines left blank for its cradling. As if the answer, whatever it may be, that is placed within the smooth lines beneath THE question is the impus for the motion of everything else that surrounds me….and in fact, it does. I stand at a compass point, and where I turn from here will define a lot more than just my direction.

Before I was nothing and nothing was expected to live up to its name….to do nothing…..

No impact

No trace

No voice

THE question didn't have to be answered by a nothing….for there was nothing such a being could offer that would affect or articulate an effective answer to it.

I was a ghost…..without weight, without substance….corrupted beyond the point of any possibility of cleaning. Damaged before I could remember my first thought, flawed before I could say my first words and always the black sheep of the flock, individually isolated to provide amusement for the releasing of cruelty by those better than me, more capable and worthy of the answering to the eternal question….. That I looked like the father who factored in my birth was the cruel joke of the Master Potter….the joke being that the copy of the man was corrupted beyond the capabilities of the man. Such jokes, ghost images of true masculinity, hardly are expected to be able to make an impact of value, hardly expected to make traces of good trails and even more unexpected to be able to articulate the cry of truly powerful masculinity in a world torn asunder by the evilness of sin. They move only as lightly as possible, ghostly hovering through the leaves and the vines of the jungle…their passage hardly more noticeable than the lightest of breezes.

Usually impacts made by the rejected, the ghostly afterimages of poorly conceived masculine beings like I was are nothing more than craters of destruction like bulls in a china shop….merely attempts to fade back into obscurity from traps laid by well meaning people who have no idea of the beast they have tried to domesticate…impacts that destroy the fine china and glassware of beautifully envisioned and crafted dreams. The traces left of such beings have more painful and darkly expressed angst to them that make even the heartiest of visionaries question the validity of their being…….and the voice, oh the voice of such beings are nothing more than the woeful, mournful sound of what normal people would chose to silence.

I was expected to have nothing of value to contribute, so my life was spent making sure that vision was the focus of everything…..no trace, no impact and silence. A rejected son of the shadows, a counter-image of the alternative; the beloved son, who lived in the abundance of the life he was born to impact, articulate and leave his mark upon…

Living in the sorrow of the darkness, breathing the thick air of despair and wincing at the slightest noise of my passage through the dim canopy of the forest floor…….wistfully watching the progression of the favored son and the broken son through the light of the day along the beaten path and hating them for being what I could never be…..that I learned in the fierceness of the light, as it burned its disfavor upon my white skin and made me limp painfully back into the coolness of the darkness….

Then I came across this place, dimly lit by transfused light…..painful, but not as painful as the full glare of the sun….and was captured in the patriotic moment of the recruiters tale….there is where I watched the epic commercial to pick up my cross and carry it as a soldier in the Army of the Lord. A rejected son could possibly hide beneath the crisp uniform and polished boots, hat pulled firmly to cover the identity….an impostor could live under the dressings of a true solider…..carefully hiding in the back of the group and therefore not impacting anything……..in a moment of patriotic fervor, in the suspension of reality, I raised my hand and joined the Army….jumping through the hoops and filing the paperwork filled with the quaint half-truths of my qualifications…..stamped and approved, placed on the bus to go to the training base for the basics of soldiering.

Even a trained dog can do tricks, and even the rejected can carry themselves with the dignity imparted from the crisp lines and coarse cloth of the uniform green of the uniform of the solider. So long as one is careful never to volunteer for special details or training, much of the life spent in the structure of the Army can be lived undiscovered, unchallenged and quietly surrendered in the silence of the darkness when it becomes too much. Hiding in the ranks, pretending to believe what you know cannot be true….for you are one of the rejected, the 'don't get it' crowd and therefore unworthy of the light.

We all meet the grizzled, hardened veterans of this Army in the course of our basic training……those who have fought the battles and won victories in the darkness of the world. We have been challenged by the Scott Engelmans, Wendell Brownings, Randy Arwines, Mark Friers and other leaders to be 'all that we can be' and have been given the skills to survive in the urban battlefields of the world as members of the unit. We have learned of the harrowing spots they have been in…..and how the Captain, our Captain, has gotten them through them.

Boot camp is over. The tearing down, uniform reshaping and remolding and the repetitiveness of the exercises have accomplished that which they have been intentionally thrust upon me for, and now only the answer to the question remains. No more specialized training groups or exercises to hone skills I didn't know I had or to bring about more confidence in the ability to use the equipment of the trade…….

Now, only THE question lies before me.

Arrayed before me is the army of the enemy and all of his weaponry; unfaithfulness, secular pleasures, financial worry and isolation. Like the biological agents of the olden days in the world wars, these weapons are custom-tailored for me….intimately aware of my make up so that they can render me ineffective in combat. He knows he cannot win the war, but the battles which take place daily are a tossup…..the give and take of both armies, fighting for this world. For some in the Army of the Lord will turn away, will drop their weapons and join the enemy's camp or lie like corpses on the ground in-between…wounded beyond their belief to recover, their question unanswered in the fear of the moment. They have bought into the hype that their beliefs are irrelevant in the workings of battle, that their hope lies within the hands which hold weapons of war, not in the war itself, and that they are indeed doomed to the manipulation of their world.

The answer, for me, doesn't lie in the snappiness of my uniform….which is more rags than anything else, held together by the barest of threads because of the brutal paths I have journeyed down in this life…..nor in the usefulness of the equipment that adorns my backpack or is held like an extension of my hands, for the equipment is battered and bent, chipped and worn because I have used it for more than it was purposed to be…intentionally at times and unintentionally most of the time…….the compass in my hand, the journal of the intrepid explorer than has gone before me into far less lit places and even darker nights, might as well be written in Greek for all the use it is………nothing I have, nothing I know and nothing I can see can answer THE question for me.

It is a gut check moment…….

I can join the battle, trusting in my Captain to lead me…to fight alongside me in the clamor of war or I can simply lie down.

It all lies in answering the question for me…….

"What would a life look like living the values that you admire in others?"

As I wonder and struggle with it…..as I fight to articulate what that life would be…..the Army rushes forward to join the darkness in a battle for souls…some with joyful confidence, some with fearful expectation and others like me….a thoughtful, pondering look on their faces as they check over their equipment again, heft their rifles a little higher and swallow their nervousness down like a lump that's gotten stuck in their throats.

Just because the question lies before me, unanswered and unarticulated, doesn't mean that I cannot contribute to the battle raging before me. It just means I have to seek the answer in the work that lays before me….

To fall in the service of the Captain or to lie in surrender to the Enemy……

There are those only two choices.


 


 


 


 


 

Friday, December 11

Away in a manger…

"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." (Luke 2:4-7 ESV)

I often wonder how Joseph felt, that night with the sounds of the animals bleating and mooing around him and his wife as she gave birth to their firstborn son….if we are to believe some of the theology of the event, it is possible that he wasn't even present.

But I wonder if he, knowing that the Promised Messiah was being born, was more introspective and depressed about how this child's introduction into the world had been botched.

There was no privacy, no four walls and a door to shut the world out so that the childbirth would happen in the relative peace of privacy. No crib to lay his newborn son in….the best he could manage was a manger…where the animals ate their fodder from. Not a great beginning for the Messiah…..I wonder if Joseph had doubts of how good of a father he would be, with such beginnings. That is not the way any father would want to welcome his child into the world, especially knowing the purpose to which he was born. It wasn't his idea to have to travel to Bethlehem, the ruling government forced him to travel with a pregnant wife and he had probably drained the family's bank account to take them to the tiny little town….for I'm sure he knew that he was going to be there for a while. No place for his family at the inn, money tight and the birth happening in a stable….did Joseph have some agony about these humble beginnings of the redemption of mankind?

"Even without that much imagination, a Christian curious about Joseph can take some sturdy, basic inspiration from the carpenter who is, at a minimum, humanity's stand-in, a lunch-pail hero not born to holiness but who, by his hard-won and steadfast belief, finds a role in salvation." David Van Biema, Times article, Father & Child 2005.

Not much is said in the Bible about Joseph, the earthly father to our Savior and in the productions of Christmas throughout the Christian faith very little is said. We tend to focus on Mary or on the babe Himself. The last time Joseph is mentioned directly in the Bible is in Luke's gospel….

"Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?' But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Luke 2:41

Even there, it wasn't Joseph by name but rather under the general description of 'his parents'. Joseph seems to have been a minor player in the story…..no speaking roles, no impactful statements and his portion of the story seems to fade into the background by the Wedding at Capernaum, the site of Jesus' first miracle. If we follow the tradition of the church, our understanding of Joseph's impact on the story of mankind's redemption would end. But, there is more to Joseph than just the canonization because of his status. Much more.

Joseph, as we can discern from the accounts, is a carpenter by trade. And most of the 'treatments' of this foster father of the Messiah don't go beyond those simple notations. As I said, Joseph is treated like a minor player in the great Christmas drama….but as we know, even the most minor players in the story of God's plan are greater than the 'speaking' roles they play. Even more so do we find the lessons that Joseph left for the fathers, husbands and men of this century for the role and example they should be for the blessings they have been given in the shape of their wives, children and role in society.

"Both for Joseph and ourselves, the marriage covenant is the root of fatherhood. Joseph's fatherhood sprung entirely out of his marriage covenant with the Virgin Mary. Christian and Jewish theologians recognize that Joseph and Mary were legally married at their betrothal. Thus, Joseph and Mary were legally bonded in the marriage covenant at the time of the annunciation." Steve Wood notes in his essay St. Joseph: The World's Greatest Father. "Joseph is much more than an "adoptive" father of Jesus. An adoptive father receives a child born outside of the marriage covenant. Jesus' conception and birth were within the marriage covenant. Thus Joseph was the father of Jesus in every way, except biologically."

In this way, Joseph imparts to us how important the function of fatherhood is and where it's foundation lies. Too often in the world today, we discount fatherhood as a necessary and vital part of society, of the family and of marriage. We make laws limiting a father's rights, malign them on tv sitcoms and marginalize their roles in the raising of the generations. We, as men, negate our importance by our infidelity or pre-marriage sexual conduct….we know that a possibility of sex is the creation of a baby, indeed, it is one of the main reasons for the experience of sex….but we figure we can simply pay some money towards the upkeep of our children and call it fatherhood with weekend visits if the covenant of marriage doesn't work out.

Joseph shows us what true masculinity is even before the marriage covenant and the birth of Christ. As Scott Engelman states, "We were, as men, built to bless with our power." Joseph, as a faithful Jew, knew that it was in his power to denounce Mary once the pregnancy with Jesus was discovered. Society would have not looked unkindly upon him for abolishing the covenant due to Mary's 'indiscretions.' But even before he was visited by the angel, he had made an honorable decision that would've had great personal cost to him…..at least in the gossip circles of his community. He decided to 'divorce' Mary quietly, so as not to bring her public disgrace. He gave up personal satisfaction at the perceived insult of Mary's pregnancy by another, seeking only to bring the covenant to an end due to its breach. Rather than seek redress in public disgrace, Joseph took the higher masculine route of 'blessing' Mary with the righteous and just use of his masculine power. Rather than address the town gossip…that obviously Mary and Joseph couldn't wait for the wedding to consummate, Joseph instead chose to be embarrassed. He knew the truth, that he was not the father and Mary, who was betrothed and legally in the society standards of the time, must have had an affair with someone else or been raped. I'm sure that the rape notion was quickly refuted by Mary and this leaves Joseph with only infidelity as the likely cause…..which gives him an avenue of justice in the culture of the time. He could publicly reject her, protecting both his character and good name. He could allow for the extreme punishment for adultery; stoning…..and if she did survive or Joseph allowed for a lesser punishment, allow society to continue to punish her throughout the rest of her life. Her family, by association, would lose their standing in the community and she would be shunned, at best, by everyone she knew. She would not have any escape from this indiscretion, no man would marry her because of the stigma of her adultery would taint his reputation no matter how long after the incident. Mary would have no escape from this rejection; no matter where she went, the very singleness of her situation would stand out as a beacon to her mistake. The fact that Joseph wanted to take care of the matter quietly, to save her from that life, speaks volumes of his masculine use of his power to bless rather than curse his betrothed.

"Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (Matthew 1:19)

Joseph decided that the wrong thing to do was to deigmatizo (expose, make an example of, disgrace) Mary. True, he felt he could no longer marry her due to the fact that the child was not his but he decided a quiet presentation of a certificate of divorce given to her in front of two witnesses, required by Mosaic law, would suffice. He wouldn't have to give the pregnancy as the reason, but could've chosen any number of lesser offenses that were acknowledged by the Hillel-mentored Pharisees. He would simply divorce Mary and give her as much protection as he could in the given situation.

If it were not for the angel coming to Joseph to 'set the record straight', some say we might have had a different outcome to the birth. But, such explanation leaves Joseph's established righteousness as a piece of fluff….and the incredible decision to go forward with the marriage a matter of personal fancy. More than a simple man who followed the dictates of a dream, Joseph shows his spiritual state. Upon the confirmation of Mary's incredible tale, he immediately gets up and takes Mary into his home, the consummation of the marriage covenant in the time…..he honored God by not having any 'relations' with Mary until Christ was born and then set forth the greatest example of fatherhood that we have.

He gave his heart, his name and his legacy to this child that was not his.

"... You are to give him the name Jesus" (1:21)

In the culture of the time, there was no greater thing in the birth of a child that a father had to do…..by bestowing a name upon the newly born, the father was imparting more than just a perception of what the child's purpose or character was but establishing through the naming an acknowledgment of the parentage of the child, legally and personally. He named Jesus, as commanded by the angel, and gave his heart to the child. He gave the keys to his legacy to Christ.

This is evident far beyond the naming ceremony and the perceived implications. We have further evidence that Joseph, foster father in name…earthly father in the heart of Jesus, fully accepted the fatherhood of the God-Man with all his heart. The angel commands Joseph to flee because of Herod's persecution and he picks up his family immediately and heads to the protection of Egypt. After Herod's death, still fearful of Herod's son Archelaus' brutality might harm his son, Joseph returns to the place where once he contemplated divorcing Mary….and raises his son as countless fathers have done up until the disruption of World War 1…..teaching him everything he knows; religion, family and trade. He imparts through this the legacy and reputation he has. Humble, poor and a simple working man….Joseph gives us far more in his silence than probably would have come from his lips.

It is supposed that Joseph passed on during the quiet years of Jesus' life. Maybe in the context of God's larger story, we only needed to know this about the carpenter from Galilee….that his integrity and faithful willingness to be obedient to God's direction and guidance were an essential cog in the purposes that God had for this little baby boy, born in a manger in the stables of Bethlehem.

As the Christmas celebration comes near and our communities within the Christian faith celebrate the beginning of God's plan for the redemption of mankind…..I think we should remember the impact that one righteous man, humbled and obedient to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph….had upon it all. Far beyond the moment, that have reached into the generations since with an example of true masculinity, fatherhood and marriage.

Joseph of Nazareth.

Wednesday, December 2

Being ordinarily un-ordinary

"Christ is not weak in dealing with us, but is powerful among us.  For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.  For we are weak in Him, yet by the power of God we will live with Him to serve others."  (2 Corinthians 13:3-4)

Mt Everest, 29,029 ft. above sea level, is the highest mountain on earth. Many have tried to climb to its summit; some 4,102 ascents have been made by 2,700 individuals since 2008. Costing 25,000 dollars for the permit, such ascents are considered life changing. Indeed, some have been life ending, with 210 lives 'claimed' by the mountain…..permanently left on the mountain's death zone (anything above 26,246 ft), because conditions (temperatures dip to very low levels that will cause frostbite on any exposed body part, the snow is very frozen (slipping and falling hazard) and high winds are a increasing threat in the 1/3 atmospheric pressure) are so difficult to risk recovery. Many of them are visible from the climbing route.

The first expedition on the mountain, a British one, was exploratory in nature and was unequipped in 1921 to make the climb, though a route to the summit was viewed. Thirty-two years later, in 1953, the ninth British expedition put the first two successful climbers on the summit, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay at 11:30 a.m. local time May 29th, 1953. Many ask the simple question, "Why?" Why climb a mountain that is the highest in the world, costing so much money, to reach the summit and then turn around and come back down….especially when there is such a significant risk to your life? The answer is simple, because this Tibetan mountain known as Chomolungma ("Saint Mother") is there.

Out of 6,707 billion people in the world, only the small percentage of individuals have attempted to climb Everest's harsh climate….. point 03% if I did the math right (math not being my subject, but that seems to be about right). .03% of the world's population are considered heroes and objects of adulation because of their foolish desire to pit the fragileness of their physical bodies to the harsh, unforgiving and unrelenting environment of Everest. For a sum of money that would be my yearly salary, from my old job…..

We sing the accolades of the un-ordinary for such human things. And yet we stand fretfully when our brothers and sisters voice opposition to the liberal President's agendas, Planned Parenthood's euthanasia plans and the God-given foundations that our forefathers' felt led to write in the 'governing' document of our nation; the Constitution. We don't like those brethren who speak of the only way to Heaven because it crashes harsh upon the ears of a world that seeks to marginalize or effectively kill the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We don't like loud prayers, we hate the 'old-time' gospel music and need to listen to a post-modern, easy-to-digest, story of a God who loves everyone so much that Jesus' death on the cross was just a bit part in the whole salvation thing. A God who loves us will take us simply as we are, without a declaration of our faith in Him and definitely doesn't want us to be 'offensive' in the world…..we're to be like the Harry Krishna's….."Love, Love, Love"….

"Today's "ordinary" Christians go to church, maybe pray a bit in the morning or at night, read their Bibles sometimes, perhaps participate in a Bible study group, and try to live a quiet, peaceable, non-confrontational, and productive life in the economy and the world. I can't imagine lay people today praying the offices - working their way continuously through the psalms in prayer, keeping three, or five, or seven appointments for prayer each day, and maintaining a consistent raft of other spiritual disciplines besides. No lay person today who kept up this kind of spiritual regimen would be considered "ordinary." Indeed, he'd probably be regarded as weird by his fellow believers."~~~ T.M. Moore, Principal of the Fellowship of Ailbe.

It is not simply the leadership of the Church, that universal church that Jesus Christ handed to the Apostles to shepherd and that has been marginalized down through the centuries since…..it is each and every Christian that views the importance of comfortable seats, flashy stage productions and a modern building to attract the community around them with mass-mailing cards inviting them to try something new, something different…..something unlike "traditional church". We stress convenience, no-stress and friendly hands to attract the unbelievers, the seekers and the humanists to the doors of our local congregations…..as once church puts it, "You don't have to do anything!" We want to carry the life of comfort that we strive for in the world into the walls of our churches….ensuring we have enough money for staff, capital building and a paltry penance called "Benevolence" to help the 'unfortunate.' Our lives aren't on the offering block, except in those countries were the Gospel is illegal, and we thank our lucky stars that we only have to deal with the liberal Democratic agenda….our house note, car note and sending our sons and daughters to 'good' schools to learn a skill so they can continue the tradition.

So long as we can maintain everything else…..well, let's throw a few bones at the Commission….otherwise, forgetaboutit. Self is paramount; sacrifice isn't something we talk about in the lofty halls of our church homes.

"I believe Western Christians have allowed a culture of convenience to become what Tim Bascom has aptly called "the comfort trap" (cf. The Comfort Trap, InterVarsity Press, 1998). Our lives are too comfortable. We are exhausted by a long list of multiple choices that we face daily. We are so busy that we have no time for friends or for real encounter with God. The very things we think we need do not bring satisfaction or joy, only bondage. What we crave is deep, true joy but we will never find it easily in this culture. At the root of this problem is our fear. We fear losing control. We fear losing influence and money. In short, we fear being taken out of our comfort zone." ~~~~John H. Armstrong, Acts 3 Ministries.

We will never be that .03% of the population who dares frigid, man-killing temperatures for the sake of moving outside their comfort zones amid the lower (and warmer) climates. We will never seek to dare ourselves to pursue a God who stands upon that mountain top far higher than Everest's summit and calls to us to dare…..not to climb with ropes, cleats and other mountaineering gear…but to step out with what we carry within us to that mountain and begin to dream in the face of impossibility, dare to have faith in the midst of freezing temperatures and to reach the summit under the power and mercy of God's own hand rather than our own…..why, that would be CRAZY!!!!

As crazy as the fifteen people who died during the 1996 climbing season on Everest… Doug Hansen and Scott Fischer (USA), Andrew Harris and Rob Hall (New Zealand), Yasuko Namba (Japan) and Subedar Tsewang Samania, Lance Naik Dorje Morup and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor (India) all perished on a disastrous day, May 11th, alone.

As crazy as the estimated 160,000 martyrs of the Christian faith in the 20th Century. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (in Hitler's Germany), Oscar Romero (Soviet Union) and Hridoy Roy (Bangladesh) to name a few. In two millennia of Christian history, about 70 million faithful have given their lives for the faith, 45.5 million (65%) were in the last century, according to "The New Persecuted" ("I Nuovi Perseguitati") by Italian journalist Antonio Socci. Again, if my math is correct, that's 4.6% of the world's population in the last century.

Or even crazier, the Christians who continue to spread the Gospel upon the mountain of persecution in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Jordan, North Korea, Laos, Maldives, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen. Of 196 countries in the world, 35 countries (31%) are actively imprisoning or killing those who dare brave the mountain and speak of Christ……as opposed to the dangerous temperatures and winds of Everest, these heroes are hit with the two currents that fuel the persecution of Christians anywhere; Communism and Muslim fundamentalism.

And yet, we don't view them as heroes and heroines…..but rather the 'radical' elements of our faith. They, who dare to face the mountain of ever-increasing worldiness and self-centeredness of a world trying to kill God, not in the cushy seats of the modern building of their churches, giving tithes and lip-service to God one or two days a week….but actively living in uncomfortable and dangerous conditions to reach that summit where they can experience a "time of exaltation on the mountain, when [they] have seen things from God's perspective" (Oswald Chambers). And then begin the trip back down off that mountain top….back into the world of the valley……

"We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength." Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost For His Highest, "Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop." Because we cannot, we seek to recreate the 'daring' of the experience in the mudanity of our lives instead of living in faith and pursuit of God in the valley. We seek the feeling of living on the edge within the halls of our church in these postmodern times….daring music, controversial theologies and tempting 'money-making' and 'attracting' schemes to draw a huge crowd in on Sundays……..many churches spend the majority of their 'budgets' on Easter and Christmas productions….these, after all, are the only times when the majority of valley-dwellers will come to the mountain side……not climbing more than a few feet from the sea-level.

What would happen if we walked in the valley like those Everest summit climbers? What would it look like if we lived in the perceived craziness of weakness and stood our faith in each and every area of our lives……equipping our families, our wives, our children and those stumbling around in the darkness with the equipment necessary for the mountain climbing? What if we showed what we learned on the summit, in the exaltation and joy of God, in our mundane and 'boring' lives in the valley? What if?

I think it would look like the 'second' part of the verse above…… "For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God.  For we are weak in Him, yet by the power of God we will live with Him to serve others." 

Climbing our own Everest's of a fallen humanity…..freehand, without the protection of our own trust and our eyes not upon the possessions of a world that persecutes and kills us, but on the face of the Almighty Father God who stands on the summit and cheers us on……………….


 


 

Wednesday, November 25

A foolish tale of a weak people…

"The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; and the lowly things of this world and the despised things God has chosen, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him."  (1 Corinthians 1:25, 27-29)

"We live in our forgiveness, clinging to the assurance of salvation and hoping for the Lord's return," T.M. Moore, Principal of Crosfigell, the Fellowship of Ailbe, writes, "with almost no vision for what we're supposed to be doing to turn our upside down world rightside-up for Jesus."

Salvation is only the beginning of the journey that we undertake when we come to that place where the Spirit speaks to our heart, to the very essence of our desires, worries and fears. The transformation of our hearts is instanteous, God reaches in and replaces without scars, without instrumentation, our corrupted and diseased heart with a heart burdened with only Him….a heart beating as it was meant to beat, in step with the plans and desires of the Creator. Our story becomes a sub-plot in the larger story of mankind's redemption; not designed to be some bit-player who comes and exits after a few moments of dialogue to propel the main character into greater depths but rather an active, supporting role that brings sharper focus and attention to the main character, Jesus Christ.

It is an involved role, one that requires our active participation in the blank pages of our chapters within the book. Some come into prominence during the battle scenes, some during the love portions and others in the destructiveness of the opposition. If it were simply a bland story where everyone played a recurring theme, what a boring story it would be and it would languish on the dusty shelves of the local bookstore without notice. If it were only about salvation, it would be a short story indeed…..for salvation comes only once in the lives of those who have tasted its tart-sweet flavors. There is much more to the story, though, than many of us believe when we 'taste the Lord' and find that He is good.

For those who realize this, too often we seek to forcibly write the next event or situation for our new life. We seek to make an impact, not only in our own portion of the tale, but also in the broader and universal context. We come to a place when we do that where we begin to doubt the heartbeat within us, sorrowing that we will never ever achieve true spirituality, true understanding simply because the logical progression of what we believe our faith is to follow is foolishness…..illogical to our humanity and weaker than the strength we feel is necessary for its achievement. Worship becomes mundane, service an anchor to our drowning souls that brings no true joy, only sorrowful and methodical requirements to be checked off on the 'to-do-list' of our devised plot outline. Our attempts to transform the people we love, the community we live in and the world become a disjointed, dysfunctional and offensive force that ends in sorrow as lives turn away from Him rather than towards Him. We then seek to bunker down in a community of the faithful where we don't have to focus on the disjointed feeling of spirituality mundane but can just have moments of forced joy in messages of love, of prosperity and of enjoyment.

Then, as we walk out of the buildings beautifully appointed and step away from the cushy chairs of our sanctuaries, our eyes glaze over and we rejoin the world disappointed in a God that would subject us to this plot line and throw off our cloaks of many colors in favor of the bland greys of a world in rebellion. We don't see the needs, the opportunities and the provisioning that God lays out in our world for us to but grasp with hands not our own, with a strength that is weak by human understanding and a joy that defies the wisdom of our own cultural upbringing.

"There comes a place on our spiritual journey where renewed religious activity is of no use whatsoever." John Eldridge writes in his devotional The Ransomed Heart: Too Easily Pleased, "It is the place where God holds out his hand and asks us to give up our lovers and come and live with him in a much more personal way."

We are called to battle from the moment our eyes open in our bedrooms of our homes, turning and stepping into the shoes of peace and donning the breastplate of righteousness. We put on the helmet of our salvation and girth ourselves with the belt of truth. We pick up our defense, a shield of faith and our offensive weapon….the sword of the Spirit and begin the battle in ourselves each day. Epic tales of struggles and trials are for some of the Body to write, others to live and yet more to gather strength in the tales of our weakness being strengthened by the hand of God. We were made to bear the image of God, our personalities and how we relate not suborned by this new heart but blended into it for the purpose our story is written.

In the mind of our own humanity, this story doesn't have any depth or glory or even a happy ending. It never will, for humanity a long time ago took the writing of this epic out of the hands of the Author and Finisher and decided to write it on our own, according to our rules, our understanding and our desires. But, with the heart of renewal in our bodies, our minds are injected with the mind of Christ and we begin to see how our humanity is corrupted, our logic flawed and our desires of the biased evilness of our sin. Our natural selves cannot live in the supernatural world of God…..only Christ can and through Him we find the tale of our faith written with bold and descriptive, never dull, strokes of the heavenly penmanship of the Author once more….

"A natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.  "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?"  But we have the mind of Christ."  (1 Corinthians 2:14, 16)

Our story, the smaller part of the larger complete story of God, becomes something other than mere religious activity……more than just a Sunday hour of forced joy and worship….and becomes the tale of bards and harpists, echoing throughout the halls of the faithful gathered for joyous celebration of victories amidst defeats and love in the midst of hatred. Glorious song breaks out among the battered, scarred and famished warriors of the gathered army…..at the round table of the battle room of the Lord. Laid out before them are all the humanity of their fallenness, the brokenness of their spirit, and the desires wrapped in the corrupted stench of their selfishness. The great among them wash the feet of those freshly from the battle for their souls, the first among them with gladliness surrender their place next to the Captain for those lastly come….for in His shadow shines the light of victory, the peace of overcoming and the taste of complete joy. And each warrior approaches the King, the Captain and the Victor with their crowns in hand….setting them down at His feet because there is nothing in this room worth holding on to in the light of His sacrifice.

"so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another; in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing stedfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. "

(Romans 12:5-14 ASV)

That is the stuff that the epic tale of God's redemption is written with……and our contribution to it is by no measure small. The cultural, moral and redemptive revolution began in each and every one of our lives, purchased and owned fully by the Author of our salvation begins with our surrendering of taste, diversion, working styles, relationships, stewardship and conversation. Lives completely and utterly transformed in the foolish weakness of our God to write a grand tale of love, provision and glory of a people restored, redeemed and purposed.

Shield and sword hand in hand for the battle.

Monday, November 23

Peregrinatio pro Christo

"Pay attention, my children! Follow my advice, and you will be happy. Listen carefully to my instructions, and you will be wise. Come to my home each day and listen to me. You will find happiness. By finding me, you find life, and the LORD will be pleased with you." (Proverbs 8:32-35 CEV)

"The Irish peregrinus throughout the middle ages was not an Irishman who visited a shrine abroad and then returned home, but rather the man who for his soul's welfare abandoned his homeland for good or at least for many years" Thomas O Fiaich in An Introduction to Celtic Christianity

"An Irish peregrinus was a missionary who left his home to go on peregrinatio - wandering - for Christ. During the period of the Celtic revival (ca. 430-800 AD) thousands of men and women took up this calling, carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Ireland to Scotland, Wales, the Low Countries, Gaul, Switzerland, Northern Italy, among the German tribes, and even beyond. They were the principal means by which, in Tom Cahill's memorable phrase, "the Irish saved civilization."" T.M. Moore

We tend to view the Christian 'mission' as a stationary thing, something to go to every Sunday morning either at the church building where our offices and ministerial trappings reside….connected to the world by telephone, fax and even an internet website. Our leadership is there, our comfortable and even reclinable seats wait for our warm bodies to fill them…..a Cheers! kind of place where everyone, well at least those we trust, know our name and our reputations are unsullied. We live our faith for that hour of comfortable worship, dynamic instruction and with light refreshments afterwards as we catch up with our 'friends', who we usually don't meet for the rest of the week. The "Church" in community….a plug in and plug off society.

We also view the Christian 'mission' as transitory…..something to be shaped and reshaped as the membership numbers fall or the tithing's drop off…..we MUST protect and furnish with enticing objects and colors our buildings….all for the sake of our mission….after all, if we don't have a big sign off the major freeways and full big parking lots around the building, how are we to tell the gospel to the community……

Church is important, and the Bible instructs us to fellowship together for the glory of the Kingdom, but Church isn't a building, a congregation or even the more generic labeling of followers of Christ…it is a organic, vibrant and un-walled relational structure that does its best 'living' outside the traditions of Sundays and Wednesdays….and program-structured connections. It is an encouragement of spiritual progress, living faith and ethical 'good' works in the breath and width of creation….from inner cities to distant lands. It stops us from being self-centered, self-protective and self-agenda driven because it requires an intimate and personal relationship with those who journey with us in the landscape of this world. It cannot be faked, honestly, though there can be an illusion created for its believed existence.

It, the Church, can meet in a garage at someone's home, in the backyard or even in the living rooms. It can meet in warehouses, in rented school cafeterias and in movie theatres. It can also meet in workplaces……it can be two or it can be more……but if it is not relational, if the pastors and ministers and 'lay leaders' do not know, intimately, the congregation they lead, how can they be effective in the promotion of Christian living and doctrine?

But just like sitting in a garage doesn't make you a car, sitting in the physical environment of the church doesn't make it or you a church or a Christian. And just saying that you are a Christian does not mean you are fulfilling the Great Commission……

We were commissioned to be peregrinus and have built within us a desire to wander……after all, the journey cannot be done in a stationary stance…..but we aren't called to wander for ourselves, but rather wander with a purpose.

The Church was meant to be a foundation for 'works greater than these' not a stagnant and total business orientated establishment. The church is described by Christ in seven distinct ways: Shepherd/sheep, Vine/branches, Cornerstone/living stones, Merchant/pearls, Great High Priest/servant-priests, Head of Body/members of Body and Bridegroom/bride. The church, in this biblical context, was the organizational unit of an offensive and formidable component of the faithful's service in God's Army….not a way station on the journey and certainly not a destination of the journey's end. As Lambert Dolphin points out in The Church At The End Of The Age, "The amazing fact which the Scriptures clearly declares….is that God has designed His church should be a kind of government on earth…..mak[ing] possible benevolent law and order, the rule of justice and peace and would hold in restraint the wild forces of tyranny, anarchy and murder" and not the proud, rich and worldly institution that exists in many denominations today.

It was meant to equip, condition and training the soldiers of the Army of the Lord to fight the spiritual battles that often have physical representations in the whole of creation. A church that replicates, that spends more on its outreaches and has a constant flux of faithful who attend is more on biblical grounds than a church that spends millions on property and enticements, inner-focused ministries and cushy seats for its 'worship center' does.

The Church was meant to lead….was meant to be something impacting the social makeup around it, not being impacted by the society around it.

The universal (catholic) Church was given from the Apostolic age a package….the total content of Christian faith that has been transmitted to us from one generation to the next from the Apostles' witness unpolluted and undiluted….but we, as a church, have lost our integrity and orthodoxy because we have failed, as Jude…one earthly brother of Christ, urges us…"to contend (epagnoizomai, epi-upon or about intensive and agon-a contest) for the faith which was once for all time (hapax) delivered (paradidomi- delivered over, handed over) to the saints." Gone is the sound heritage of interpretation and wisdom from God….polluted by human reshaping and rewriting of what historically and sociologically is the faithful biblical worldview passed to us by those saints who have gone on ahead of us in this journey.

We have failed to remain separate from the world while being in the world….instead of standing upon the message that has been delivered into our hands by the faithful we have been more concerned about our ability to 'reach' the fallen world with enticing and engaging dialogue……reshaping it for its palettes instead of letting the Spirit to the watering of the seeds of truth. We have failed in heeding Paul's last words to the Ephesus elders…..

"And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: 'You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ...I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears...'" (Acts 20:17-31)

It does not mean that we are to be solely full of biblical knowledge and doctrine….lifestyle, conduct, selfish love and godliness are equally important, as proof of Truth acted upon and faith developed and lived. All things done in love…..with a doctrinal integrity lived in responsive relationship with God that speaks of our faith without words and with intentional sacrifice….for, as Peter tells us…love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). We aren't called to convert, brow-beat or shape with our words the makeup of a fallen world….but to speak the Gospel truth to the nations, to fellowship together and to live with a heart in full surrender to God. That is what the Apostles left us in the package passed down and what the Lord commands us to do. A servant-authority government in the church that has been surrendered to the top-down management style of the world business is a harlot or false church. There is no idea, nor command, that the Church would subdue the world with the Gospel….such is a human understanding and corruption of the Truth….and warps the great Commission beyond our ability to effectively profess and has lead to the prophetic apostasy of the Church.

A Church that becomes doctrinally and morally separated from the biblical worldview passed down by the testimonial witness of the Apostles…..a professing lifeless entity…..

A true Church does exist…..evidenced by its character and its body…..where Christ is the Head of a living organism that depends upon the wholeness of its organs….not made of a top-down, hierarchical leadership where things happen with the approval of one but where edification, endorsement and discernment are sought and discovered from the Head, Jesus Christ, in ALL things. All members of the Body work together, are equipped for their functional operations in the Body and are supported by the rest. "If one member suffers, all suffer, if one rejoices, all rejoice."

"But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift...And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love." (Ephesians 4:7-16)

A Church that is open and one….belonging to each other and to God with "the sense of openness and honesty and transparency, of the need to bear each other's burdens and to uphold one another before God," Ray Stedman describes the fellowship and Body Life of the church, "to be concerned and to care for each other, and to demonstrate it by deeds of help and mercy towards each other." It is that true church that is undeniable…..where great lives are lived with warmth, love, and acceptance of everyone and anyone….ones in need of salvation, ones in need of accountability, ones poor, ones rich and those who struggle in their faith. It is that church, and not the 'culturally-relevant' or 'seeker-friendly' that transforms the Gospel from the pages of the Bible by the example of its powerful work in our lives…..convincing evidence for what they want for themselves, their families and homes.

As a friend and brother in Christ told me as we fellowshipped together…..the time for 'gentle' and 'unexcitable' words are over….they have created an intellectually humanistic church that is the shadow of what it is supposed to be; a prophetic voice of the Word of God…..and time grows short. The growing apostasy, the departure from the Lord, that is being evidenced as the 'church age' progresses is a telling sign of the rapture, the end of times, according to John Walvoord, The Church In The End Of The Age. The prophetic scriptures are being fulfilled…and yet the professing church refuses to preach it….rather a doctrine of love, love, love than 'doom and gloom.' Rather than showing the world in its present state of doom and gloom and then presenting through the lives and testimony of the faithful saints of the Body, the church would rather profess a loving, improvable stance of 'tolerance' and subjective truth….as one Pastor I hear say…."The Gospel is more 'middle of the road', neither for or against certain 'hot topics' of the age."

This apostasy isn't something that has come to be born in the conception and life of the 'church age' but was rooted in the formation and commission of the original sin that introduced sin into the life of God's creation….the unbelief, the faithlessness of Adam and Eve that was the block between man and God….progressing through Cain's killing of Abel, the mocking of Noah and the subsequent flood, Israel's historical reproof and correction under God's direction and the apostolic church's rejection and rewriting of scriptural integrity is only the telling generational example of a people lost in their own depravity and dependent on themselves, rather than a God who sent His only Son to die for the sinfulness of our nature.

The so-called sense of an enlightened people has demanded that the concepts of Christianity which have been passed down through the ages be submitted to the 'bar of reason' as to what is the source of grace, the dependence of truth and the traditional sacraments in regards to the physical and philosophical realms of truth. The declaration of the unimportant and questionable virgin birth, deity of Christ as a divine quality of a good man, the spiritual rather than physical resurrection of His body and rejection of final judgment, heaven and even hell….by new and confusing cults and new religions of neo-orthodoxy that say the love of God makes the biblical and 'trans-generational' authority and understanding null and void because it makes a judgment of a righteous God impossible.

The post-modern conceptions of Christ are the 'damnable heresies' that Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 2:1-2……heresies that make the belief in them a barrier to salvation because of their falsehoods and corruption of biblical truths. Jesus has become regulated in these heresies to a 'natural child' of man who was an exceptional person, but ultimately just another human. It denies the authority and divine personhood of Christ and becomes a philosophical discussion of the myths that comprise His work. Christ is nothing more than a noble man who was caught up in His own nobility and not God incarnate who was subjected to man's wickedness and grave depravity because of His nobleness…..there is no guilt to be felt by a sinful and depraved creation at the culpability in the painful crucifixion of its Messiah, its God, and its Creator. And that through His nobility, His very Divinity….our sins were purchased and held in judgment on His blood as our substitute…is a concept we refuse to accept because it is very offensive and very damning to our enlightened minds…..where is our nobility if such an event happened at our hands?

Unless we accept our hand in the plan of God, the sinful and evilness of our crucifixion of the Messiah, we cannot realize the freedom of the hope that our salvation brings….as Mark Freier of WhatIf Enterprises calls our divine authority to be 'who God made us to be.'

As the ministry I am involved in (www.ahmministries.org or www.m3ministries.org) progress into the transcended mission that God has enticed it to pursue begins that season, such freedom and faith that God has purposed each and every person involved to be uniquely part of the Body in such holy and lofty pursuits becomes not only paramount but necessary……for God's plans defy man's enlightened logic and corrupted theology……one cannot walk with God and work with God unless God is understood and pursued in the context of the work and in the motivation of the desire. As Henry Blackaby says, "Joining God in His work requires major life changes…" and simple commitment.

You cannot live life for God unless you live the life God made you to live; being that person, that personality and that character that God has perfectly designed you to be. It is not a matter of shaping yourself to the ministry you have been lead to serve in….but to find that shape within the ministry to which you have been shaped to fit. Removing religion from it does not remove the biblical view of its foundation……

And there lies the culpability and corruption of the Church; where human concepts and conditions have led to personality driven, top-down leadership instead of fully functional membership of a complete Body. If the Church is not simply a collection of building, denominational commonalities and like-minded people but rather an organic, breathing, multi-functional and directional entity compromised of uniquely purposed and shaped parts……then the missional imagery of the church and its 'attractiveness' to the fallen and lost becomes a living "Word", a perceived and viewable testimony to the 'hope we have.'

It doesn't fight the world, but the world still will fight it…..it doesn't lay down upon the corruptibility of the humanity of the parts but stands accountable and vigilant against its effects…..it stands ready to battle, draws swords in opposition to the demonstrations and illusions of the enemy and lives a life forfeit to God……surrendering without agenda, without self-preserving gain, for the sake of love…a love so powerful, so sacred, that it's absolute truth is evident to even the ardent of opposition….there lies the power of the seed, the authority of the planter and the mission of the Church.

It is not a church of so-and-so pastor, it is not a church of so-and-so doctrinal beliefs…….no, it is a mosaic (to borrow a word) of a collection of parts that joined together become the hands, feet, arms, thoughts and eyes of a bride painted worthy of the bridegroom's sacrificial purchase and His eminent return…………….

If I have been designed with the strengths of context, restorative, harmony, intellection and input (Strengths Finder 2.0) that grow under the Strategic Thinking style of leadership (Strengths Leadership) and are purposed under Administration/Teaching and compassion……and yet I live a life burying those strengths and focusing on the overcoming of my weaknesses…….then I am living a life in bondage and am guilty of the state of the body… i.e. the Church…….as much as the next nominal, 'enlightened' Christian.

But if I, as Freier states, "dare to imagine a life of significance and potential" through the "continuing task or responsibility that one is destined or fitted to do or especially called upon to undertake"…. i.e. mission, as the person God has made me to be….then I become an organic and effective member of the uncorrupted, true and worthy bride of the Bridegroom……and find achievement of a significant (though small) part in the larger story of God's tale…..

Such individual accountability in the corporate wholeness of the church prevents the "lukewarmness" of the works it performs and guards against the worldliness of its identity because the distinct separation between the life of its members from those disconnected from its life….it is not simply complimentary of Christ but a clearly defined, dividing and absolute testimony to Jesus Christ's deity and eternity….one with the Father in being as well as fellowship. In a time where the world is full of 'lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…..(2 Timothy 3:2-5), such distinct separation is unavoidable and divisive….because of its' un-human influence.

"The best efforts of the evangelical church are falling far short in keeping up with the increasing birth rate, much less countering the avalanche of unbelief and ridicule which expresses the world's attitude toward divine revelation..….For the true church, it means that the days of its pilgrimage may be coming fast to a close. On the one hand, this calls for expenditure of every effort to snatch as brands from the burning those who have not yet come to Christ." John F Walvoord says in The Church in Prophecy (Kregel 1999), "On the other hand, the hope of His soon return should constitute both a comfort and a challenge to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord" (I Corinthians 15:58) and to purity of life and motive (I John 3:3)."

It is not simply a matter of transforming the wayward and lukewarm church into the bride it is supposed to be but the individual work and effort of the members of the body to be living the hope unseen and in perseverance of the redemption of our corporate (and individual) body…….as promised as the beloved sons and daughters of the Most High God through the kinship and inheritance of our Savior Jesus Christ.

"Having the firstfruits of the Spirit, I groan inwardly as I wait eagerly for my adoption, the redemption of my body.  For in hope I have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees?  But if I hope for what I do not yet see, I eagerly wait for it with perseverance.  (Romans 8:23-25)"

True peregrinus on a wandering journey for our Lord Jesus Christ………..

Sunday, November 15

Barnabas

"When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the followers. But they were all afraid of him, because they did not believe he was a true follower. Then Barnabas helped him by taking him to the apostles. He explained how Saul had seen the Lord and how the Lord had spoken to him. Barnabas also said that when Saul was in Damascus, he had spoken bravely in the name of Jesus. (Acts 9:26-27 CEV)"

I can remember the first time I set eyes upon the man who would become my Barnabas, that true friend to whom no other would compare and who would have faith in God's movement in my life even before the concept had developed in my own mind and heart. The relationship that has blossomed from that first meeting in that tiny little office in the warehouse of Orchard Grove has been one that has never stagnated even thought circumstances and movement in both of our lives have caused time to pass between our once frequent fellowship with each other. If ever there was a man I would most want to be like, it would be him. A man secure in God's hands, sensitive to the paths God would lead him on. As he has watched me grow in my faith, I have been inspired and awed by the growth of God in his.

Friday was one of those days I have been abundantly blessed, because I got to spend some time with Barnabas….there is never really an agenda to our talks it seems, just true fellowship in the work that God has burdened both our hearts within the journey to the fullness of the reward of Heaven's bounty. A David amongst the faithful, a man in full borne pursuit of God's heart, and a leader who is the reflection of a servant.

I come away from those meetings more blessed than I went in and I see the fruit of God's blessings in his life as I see in my own. It is always more empowering, more rewarding and more real to hear the sight of God that another sees in you than trying to expose that by yourself. It is not the speaking "Christianized" English, though we do speak the language of God when we speak of our lives and how He is moving in them……it is not the edification from another that exposes the grace and mercy that God has given through the sacrifice of His Son upon the cross of our sins. My Barnabas, much like Paul's, has called me to task for some things I have held when viewing the church, fellowship and others. He has given me pause to reflect upon what made me decide those opinions I held and spoke of a biblical truth that isn't just written on the pages of some ancient tome but lived, breathed and developed by God into the text He has left His children to read and live.

After my telling him that I was done with the 'organized' church, it is him who told me of Mosaic A2, a church plant that his home church was sending out into the 'wilds' of Ann Arbor to be a painting of God's truth in an intellectual, cerebral place……and why I went to its inaugural service and have gone ever since. It is my Barnabas who recommended Soul Quest and spoke to the leadership of Orchard Grove of the calling that was so clearly placed upon a redeemed sinner. It was this brother who has challenged, edified and strengthened me through the trials of a divorce, rejection and self-defeat; speaking not of disappointment but of the grander things that God has so clearly placed upon my heart…..he has taught me what 'being faithful' means.

My children love this real man, this godly man, and are jealous of the time that I spend from time to time with him. He was there when my daughter was hurt at OCC and calmed the children down as I came running to help (I was working in demolition in the sanctuary). He was there when I married Kristy. He was there when I told him at the bus that was taking us back to our hotels for the night that God had called me to "be a pastor" and was my interviewer for the pastoral care ministry.

He answered the phone when I struggled with disbelief in my 'worthiness' to continue with Awakened Hearts, He answered the phone when I struggled through the difficulties of being a true Christian through the divorce and was there to continue to drive home the dream, the purpose and the delight of God's purposed call.

Through this all, he has taught me that it is not the man (or woman) who does the work that should be glorified but the God to whom the work has been done for. That we are all a body, maybe different as hands are from feet, but all connected to the body for the glorification of God. And when he told me of the things that God is doing in his life, I could reflect the pleasure and the glory that God feels at the dedication and humility of this man who only desires to be what God has equipped him to be.

Today I got to be a Barnabas to my Paul…..

And encourage him to be that which God has equipped, developed and shaped him to be.

Look out world……..this man knows how to truly love!

And against that there is no defense.