“Some of you would like it if I said we were going to find a healthy balance between unhealthy extremes……..when we are referring to God, balance is a huge MISTAKE. God is not just one thing we add to the mix called life.” Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect Of The Holy Spirit. (Emphasis and italics added)
I can remember back when I thought I had achieved the pinnacle of God’s purpose for me. It was a frightening time……the two weeks before I was set to give my first ‘sermon’ as an certified Community Chaplain at Meadowbrook Chapel in Novi Michigan. This was Mark’s chapel, a dear friend of mine whom had passed after an accident a few months before I called his dad to see if I could help out with the chapel ministry. And, as Reverend John had told me when I called, specific prayer had been said continuously for months for me, not just someone but me, to come and assume the chapel duties. Pretty high expectations, even with the ones I have always put on myself especially when handling God’s Word.
So much so was this heavy feeling of expectation and rightful fear that the completed sermon was about twenty-five pages thick…..complete with commentaries on the specific verses, combinations of various translations of the verses and some ‘filler’ material from some of the top theologians (properly attributed, of course) in case I totally BOMBED, which in my eyes was a definite probability given the deliverer of it.
As my children will loudly and swiftly declare, I am very seldom late for anything. If there is a fault with me in this area of my life, it is that I am chronically and almost embarrassing (definitely if you talk to my kids) extremely early for events and meetings. Needless to say, I showed up at the extended care nursing facility where the chapel was held about an hour early. I ran up to Dunkin’ Donuts to get a cup of coffee and came back…..still majorly early. So I did something that would become a tradition with me ever since; I took out my book of my sermon and proceeded to pray over it.
And I realized that I wasn’t going to preach that Sunday.
Its where I got the nickname from some of my congregation there at Meadowbrook of “Toilet paper chaplain.” Because, as I began to pray and seek out God’s true plan in the service that was to be my first (at where I perceived my ‘high spot’ in purposed living to God’s kingdom building plans), the gentle and teasing voice whispered to my heart saying “Nice preparation……now are you prepared for My material?” and so on, a Father’s proud and steady voice whispering His satisfaction and joy at this son’s stepping into uncomfortable ground for the sake of the Purpose. The forty-five minutes that I was ‘early’ for the service went by quickly, it seemed. Towards the end of the prayer time, God directed me to three specific verses.
All I had to write on was a piece of toilet paper that was in the backseat (why I don’t know).
Hence, the nickname, for it wouldn’t be the last time. Not by a long shot. Most of the time, I would listen to God’s gentle and sometimes not so gentle prompting and come in with a flimsy piece of toilet paper (yes, I kept a roll in my car from then on) that had some scribbled verses or comments on it. I realized as the chapel service I was committed to progressed beyond the ‘four month trial’ period I had agreed to into six, then eight months. Through Easter and Christmas and the death of one of the original saints who had ‘built’ the chapel (and prayed specific prayer for me to be the chaplain). Through my ordination in January of 2008 and up to my hiatus from the Chapel that became permanent months later due to other events in my life.
“….do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Mark 13:11b NIV
Before the first New York Mission Trip to the Bowery Street Mission, I jotted down several verses that God had impressed upon my heart for some (at the time) unknown reason. I was apprehensive about the NYC trip because it was far from home and I had realized by that time in my journey that when you walk into situations where God is, you are going to meet up personal and close with Him. And my ‘natural’ dislike for the homeless (due to personal impact and experience) made me nervous about properly ‘displaying’ God to the men and community that I would be immersed in for a week.
Then the leader of the group found out I was a chaplain (I found out later I was ‘ratted’ out).
I gave one service that year, spending an hour in one of the staff’s office seeking God’s direction among the scribbled verse references that I had stuffed into my bible. And I began another ‘tradition’, closing my eyes and envisioning not the words I would say or the dramatic prose I’d seek to emulate from other great speakers I have been blessed to see and witness. No, it was envisioning the, well, flow for the lack of a better description. Seeing how the tide of God’s word would surge upon the shoreline of the world and regress back out to sea only to come back stronger and with more power before it again swept the unprepared back out to the vast ocean. For that is how the Word of God hits me and impacts me……..like the waves of the ocean hitting the beach until I have lost my grip on my faith and my pride to be swept into the immensity of Him.
I had a small piece of paper in which I outlined my ‘sermon’ and as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, promptly skipped most of it.
The next year, I was ‘prepared’ better since I knew I was going to give the majority of the sermons (six in all) during the week. The paper I carry up to the pulpit was less, more of a scribble than a step-by-step outline to follow. It is always great to see the impact of God’s Word when He is allowed to speak, allowed to overcome you and use you to be His voice, His love and His conviction to those whom He has gathered to the place to worship, find and understand Him.
I could never give the same sermon twice and would probably be hard pressed to recall the specific examples and conversations that were given during its pronouncement.
But in every opportunity where I gave the Holy Spirit His due and His desire to speak through me, to use my hands and my feet to carry God’s Word to those He had purposed to hear it, I always had someone come up after and tell me how it spoke to them or to a situation…..how genuine and impactful it was and how it was evident how much I was in that spiritual ‘sweet spot’ that God uses to show us the miraculous and promised joy of being ‘on purpose’ for His plan.
It wasn’t a collaboration or a regurgitation of some private time between me and God. It was a transparent time in God’s Word where there were others who, at their own choosing and the Spirit’s opening their eyes, would share in the Word that God wanted to speak into our lives.
And it seems to extend for me outside the purpose of being a chaplain in charge of Chapel Services. In everything that I am uncomfortable in, or would rather not do, there comes a comfortable replacement when I get myself to let go after I step into the circumstances or situation and allow the Spirit to be the voice, the movement and the focus.
Totally out of balance……..All God.
The perfect way to be in God’s purpose.
Sunday, August 7
Sunday, July 31
I am sure....
“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” 1 Corinthians 15:19-20a
In Adam, all have died….corrupted from the original design by the original sin of Adam and Eve. There’s simply no way around it, there’s no smoothing the brutal truth of that fact.
We have been condemned to die because of the introduction of sinfulness and rebellion against God, just as Lucifer has been before us. But, unlike the continued demand of Satan to be a god and to be given more than his due, we have an opportunity to turn from the corrupted nature of our humanity and become secured in the righteousness of Christ. There is nothing we can do to change our lot as those alienated from God, nothing that we can entice God closer with and definitely nothing that we can bribe ourselves into His Holy of Holies with…….there are no shadows in which we can hide in to cast our eyes upon God’s wondrous Holiness without Him knowing. There is nothing we can do to sneak past His righteousness and hide in the alleys of Heaven’s streets.
We come to a place where we come face to face with the great I AM and either are destroyed in our evilness or transformed by the blood of His Son’s holy and perfect sacrifice.
Some are blessed to be broken enough, humbled enough and wide-eyed enough to realize the magnitude of this experience. These are the like of Piper, Chan, Mueller, Mullins and others, some well known and others, many others, who will never be world widely proclaimed but whom have inspired a few who have inspired a few who have inspired a few……and so on, like Lucy, The Robynsons, Rings, and Barlow. (If you want some background, buy Francis Chan’s Crazy Love).
Honestly, how much do we live in the ‘fearful’ shadow of those we have raised into idol status, even at the antithesis of those idolized, and limped along inside the protective walls of our communities that we label with inspirational names and gaze out the doors with blind eyes to those who stand outside the walls and reinforce an image of who we are with inadequate (or unfortunately, correct) information on ‘those Christians.’ Francis Chan quotes a friend who said, “Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly.”
We either brutalize the leadership of the church in our criticisms or we are ignored by the leadership of the church for our criticisms, there is no middle ground for those who would call themselves Christians. I have done so, and when I speak of the problems of the church –I used to speak of it in terms of ‘they’ and ‘them’ rather than ‘us.’ It has been a long journey away from that, because when I have done that, even when I have spoken truth in what I said, I have limited God and ignored what He has called me to do. It is funny, He never said that I’d walk in the door of the many churches or ministries that I have been blessed to experience and find the validation of the Call immediately or even a few years down the road. He simply said “I want you to do this for me” and then started to work on preparing me for that service.
Funny thing is, it wasn’t to ‘fix’ His church or to correct the nature of humanity to corrupt instantly anything that God inspires.
Nor was it to convince through action or deed my credentials to perform the fearful work of speaking God’s word to those of the family, and to live it to those outside of the family.
Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and Paul didn’t need specialized training to do what God called them to do, nor did they suddenly have theological degrees in the hermeneutics of Gospel presentation. They didn’t micromanage the churches they were part of or even founded, demand support and adoration from the people who followed them. They weren’t perfect in all aspects, but constantly broken in recurring aspects of their humanity over and over.
It wasn’t to lead in areas that I am told to lead or to emboss my weaknesses in other areas to resemble strengths. It wasn’t to seek affirmation or acknowledgment of God’s ‘Hand upon Me” or to find that someone that had enough clout to make things happen. It wasn’t to do a wide variety of things simply to be doing those things. It wasn’t to seek a niche and defend it with tenaciousness.
It was to do what He had purposed me to do, to seek His will in that place and to step out in a crazy, audacious and totally insane way of trust into that place where I was totally not comfortable and totally afraid so that He could step in and do through me what He wants to do.
Pretty humbling when we think about how often we don’t do that stuff that He’s given us to do.
We worry about the church and how much it has lost its effectiveness in the world that is growing more and more immoral and separated from God each and every day. We have those of us who have the conviction of their own twisted theology that take it upon themselves to inspire hatred of Christians through their hatred of those who are not, and others who can turn a phrase sweetly and with honey dripping from the periods who have dramatically gutted the reality of Christianity to be more conformist to the other religious movements that man has inspired to compete with God.
We look at the pastor who doesn’t speak as eloquently as another, or leads a congregation smaller than a popular four-campus church pastor and even demand a level of perfection in those who aspire to follow God’s prompting with structurally-generic goals that may be impossible or incorrect for them to overcome.
We give these things as excuses to not do what we are called to do because of the messiness of the ‘church’ and its attitude towards us.
We live in the foolishness of man rather than the impossibilities of God.
And the world pities us because of this disconnection.
If one Christian, one who lives what Francis Chan calls ‘thinking biblically rather than conventionally’ and being part of a body ‘where radical living is becoming the norm’, then we no longer have to fear what the church has become, because simply the church that is of man’s construct (business model, seeker model, model of the model) is changed by the Church that is radically living in eternal sight regardless of its inhabited spaces. A Church that is inspired by, convicted under and transformed in Jesus Christ.
Francis Chan walked away from a ‘mega-‘ to start a ‘plant’ and has never been happier. Even the mega was transformed by his willingness and genuine pursuit of a God who met him a few steps into that passionate pursuit with a relentless will to transform him into a warrior without a home, country or membership outside of His identity. Chan isn’t the only one, there are others who step along the road to that selflessness desire to be radically transformed.
Some end up wandering into the rock-hard soil where their own skills and passions (or wounds) have lead them into hardened ground and have misled thousands and others have been brutalized by their very own congregations because of their crazy schemes to follow God’s will.
I’ve stopped worrying about what others say to do, or what others refuse to let me do because of some scrapped together goals of the Christian leader. I have realized when I am in purpose, when I am doing the work that I don’t feel I can do justice to and living in the fearfulness of disappointing someone I seriously love, that then I am doing those things that others say are lacking here or not seen there. It’s why I desire to be there, to do that work, and struggle with my pride and insolence when I have to leave it behind because……..
I need to convince no one of my ‘calling’ to God’s purpose, nor do I have to fight for the right to do such things. As I grow in trust, inspired by love and girthed by grace, I can simply walk into the opportunities of God’s provision; still struggling with aspects of my faith that may never truly be satisfied this side of Heaven, and watch God show up to make His will be done, His inspiration known and His pleasure at the participation of His son in the work at hand.
There is no set model, no definite structure or required training that fits each and every one of us. There is the absolute Truth and its fruitful pursuit that is evidenced either in great or small ways in our lives as we no longer subscribe to limiting God to our standards but inspire to conform to His.
We belong to a God who so radically loved us that He GAVE us His ONLY Begotten SON, that no one who desired the gift of Salvation should perish but would know everlasting life, not in the future but in the realization of living radically in love with a God who shows us that life in real ways each day.
That is what I know for sure…….as Michael W. Smith sings…….
“I like to think about the new creation/Things that God will do/So every now and then I stop and close my eyes/I enjoy the view/And the heart grows strong/And the fear grows weak/And I cannot wait for the new world to come to me/And while I dream/Oh, I pray for you/'Cause He wants you to go/I know"
And I will live my life and my faith like I believe.....in the suretity of His authority, truth and love.
In Adam, all have died….corrupted from the original design by the original sin of Adam and Eve. There’s simply no way around it, there’s no smoothing the brutal truth of that fact.
We have been condemned to die because of the introduction of sinfulness and rebellion against God, just as Lucifer has been before us. But, unlike the continued demand of Satan to be a god and to be given more than his due, we have an opportunity to turn from the corrupted nature of our humanity and become secured in the righteousness of Christ. There is nothing we can do to change our lot as those alienated from God, nothing that we can entice God closer with and definitely nothing that we can bribe ourselves into His Holy of Holies with…….there are no shadows in which we can hide in to cast our eyes upon God’s wondrous Holiness without Him knowing. There is nothing we can do to sneak past His righteousness and hide in the alleys of Heaven’s streets.
We come to a place where we come face to face with the great I AM and either are destroyed in our evilness or transformed by the blood of His Son’s holy and perfect sacrifice.
Some are blessed to be broken enough, humbled enough and wide-eyed enough to realize the magnitude of this experience. These are the like of Piper, Chan, Mueller, Mullins and others, some well known and others, many others, who will never be world widely proclaimed but whom have inspired a few who have inspired a few who have inspired a few……and so on, like Lucy, The Robynsons, Rings, and Barlow. (If you want some background, buy Francis Chan’s Crazy Love).
Honestly, how much do we live in the ‘fearful’ shadow of those we have raised into idol status, even at the antithesis of those idolized, and limped along inside the protective walls of our communities that we label with inspirational names and gaze out the doors with blind eyes to those who stand outside the walls and reinforce an image of who we are with inadequate (or unfortunately, correct) information on ‘those Christians.’ Francis Chan quotes a friend who said, “Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly.”
We either brutalize the leadership of the church in our criticisms or we are ignored by the leadership of the church for our criticisms, there is no middle ground for those who would call themselves Christians. I have done so, and when I speak of the problems of the church –I used to speak of it in terms of ‘they’ and ‘them’ rather than ‘us.’ It has been a long journey away from that, because when I have done that, even when I have spoken truth in what I said, I have limited God and ignored what He has called me to do. It is funny, He never said that I’d walk in the door of the many churches or ministries that I have been blessed to experience and find the validation of the Call immediately or even a few years down the road. He simply said “I want you to do this for me” and then started to work on preparing me for that service.
Funny thing is, it wasn’t to ‘fix’ His church or to correct the nature of humanity to corrupt instantly anything that God inspires.
Nor was it to convince through action or deed my credentials to perform the fearful work of speaking God’s word to those of the family, and to live it to those outside of the family.
Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and Paul didn’t need specialized training to do what God called them to do, nor did they suddenly have theological degrees in the hermeneutics of Gospel presentation. They didn’t micromanage the churches they were part of or even founded, demand support and adoration from the people who followed them. They weren’t perfect in all aspects, but constantly broken in recurring aspects of their humanity over and over.
It wasn’t to lead in areas that I am told to lead or to emboss my weaknesses in other areas to resemble strengths. It wasn’t to seek affirmation or acknowledgment of God’s ‘Hand upon Me” or to find that someone that had enough clout to make things happen. It wasn’t to do a wide variety of things simply to be doing those things. It wasn’t to seek a niche and defend it with tenaciousness.
It was to do what He had purposed me to do, to seek His will in that place and to step out in a crazy, audacious and totally insane way of trust into that place where I was totally not comfortable and totally afraid so that He could step in and do through me what He wants to do.
Pretty humbling when we think about how often we don’t do that stuff that He’s given us to do.
We worry about the church and how much it has lost its effectiveness in the world that is growing more and more immoral and separated from God each and every day. We have those of us who have the conviction of their own twisted theology that take it upon themselves to inspire hatred of Christians through their hatred of those who are not, and others who can turn a phrase sweetly and with honey dripping from the periods who have dramatically gutted the reality of Christianity to be more conformist to the other religious movements that man has inspired to compete with God.
We look at the pastor who doesn’t speak as eloquently as another, or leads a congregation smaller than a popular four-campus church pastor and even demand a level of perfection in those who aspire to follow God’s prompting with structurally-generic goals that may be impossible or incorrect for them to overcome.
We give these things as excuses to not do what we are called to do because of the messiness of the ‘church’ and its attitude towards us.
We live in the foolishness of man rather than the impossibilities of God.
And the world pities us because of this disconnection.
If one Christian, one who lives what Francis Chan calls ‘thinking biblically rather than conventionally’ and being part of a body ‘where radical living is becoming the norm’, then we no longer have to fear what the church has become, because simply the church that is of man’s construct (business model, seeker model, model of the model) is changed by the Church that is radically living in eternal sight regardless of its inhabited spaces. A Church that is inspired by, convicted under and transformed in Jesus Christ.
Francis Chan walked away from a ‘mega-‘ to start a ‘plant’ and has never been happier. Even the mega was transformed by his willingness and genuine pursuit of a God who met him a few steps into that passionate pursuit with a relentless will to transform him into a warrior without a home, country or membership outside of His identity. Chan isn’t the only one, there are others who step along the road to that selflessness desire to be radically transformed.
Some end up wandering into the rock-hard soil where their own skills and passions (or wounds) have lead them into hardened ground and have misled thousands and others have been brutalized by their very own congregations because of their crazy schemes to follow God’s will.
I’ve stopped worrying about what others say to do, or what others refuse to let me do because of some scrapped together goals of the Christian leader. I have realized when I am in purpose, when I am doing the work that I don’t feel I can do justice to and living in the fearfulness of disappointing someone I seriously love, that then I am doing those things that others say are lacking here or not seen there. It’s why I desire to be there, to do that work, and struggle with my pride and insolence when I have to leave it behind because……..
I need to convince no one of my ‘calling’ to God’s purpose, nor do I have to fight for the right to do such things. As I grow in trust, inspired by love and girthed by grace, I can simply walk into the opportunities of God’s provision; still struggling with aspects of my faith that may never truly be satisfied this side of Heaven, and watch God show up to make His will be done, His inspiration known and His pleasure at the participation of His son in the work at hand.
There is no set model, no definite structure or required training that fits each and every one of us. There is the absolute Truth and its fruitful pursuit that is evidenced either in great or small ways in our lives as we no longer subscribe to limiting God to our standards but inspire to conform to His.
We belong to a God who so radically loved us that He GAVE us His ONLY Begotten SON, that no one who desired the gift of Salvation should perish but would know everlasting life, not in the future but in the realization of living radically in love with a God who shows us that life in real ways each day.
That is what I know for sure…….as Michael W. Smith sings…….
“I like to think about the new creation/Things that God will do/So every now and then I stop and close my eyes/I enjoy the view/And the heart grows strong/And the fear grows weak/And I cannot wait for the new world to come to me/And while I dream/Oh, I pray for you/'Cause He wants you to go/I know"
And I will live my life and my faith like I believe.....in the suretity of His authority, truth and love.
Thursday, July 28
Something of substance
“Little children, we must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth; that is how we will know we are of the truth, and will convince our hearts in His presence, because if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God…” [1 John 3:18-21 HCSB]
“When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk.” Chan writes, “Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.”
Coming back from a journey, I got into an argument of sorts with the woman I was dating. We had spent the time in the ‘field’ doing God’s work and enjoying the blessing of His provisions in the ‘chores’ that He had called us to do for His glory. It was a great time to see the awesome desire and passion that this woman had for God’s work and to be able to support and join in that simple expression of God’s love. The argument was over my statement “I love you” that I refused to either confirm that I had said it or deny that I had. It wasn’t that I was trying to retract what I had said or that I didn’t mean it. It was because I didn’t want her to feel the requirement to feel the same. It is one thing that I have realized in the journey to here, that when I said “I love you,” it was something that I could never take back…..even to this day. No matter what the other person felt, no matter what happened to the relationship in the future. When I uttered those words, they were meant for forever and not just until the moment it ended. I have come to realize that it is why God tries to tell us about the covenant of marriage, of love, that is unbreakable and unending…..because we truly were meant to love only one as intimately as a wife or husband so that we could love everyone else with the intensity that Christ loves us…..even as He hung battered and wounded on the cross we nailed Him to.
God shows us throughout the Bible how to love. Pastor Chan points out that we need God to help us love the right way.
I can remember when I first felt God’s love for me and how it energized me, drove me to great lengths to ‘make time’ just to be around Him and how consuming that love became in all aspects of my life; jumping into the community of the church, spending most of my time and my family’s time in the church doing something, being something, or working on something for the sake of ministries and requests. Being desperate to dive into ministry when God placed that call on my heart and the agony that the last six years have been when I have been denied the ‘authority or ability’ to do what God has shown me is my purpose to do….and the utter that consumes me when I am doing that purpose to which I’ve been set aside and the passion that I have once I’m done for the moment to jump on the next opportunity.
George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright, once wrote, “This is true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” (Crazy Love, pg 109)
You can ask anyone who has had a love affair that has lasted the lifetimes of those two involved in it…..the familiarity that is offset by the inadequate amount of time that they have together, even in the moments when they are alone and the world revolves quickly outside the door of their home. The frantic worry that happens when something unusual happens to the other; whether it is simple (a flat tire makes them late) or whether it is complex (they discover they have cancer) until you can see them with your own eyes and gather them into your arms again. Whether it is to comfort or to embrace joyfully, it is that embrace that means more than the paycheck you make or the opera show you wanted to go see.
It is an affirmation of your value in the other’s eyes; spoken without words and undeniably true.
Why don’t we think of God that way?
With that kind of love, we’d be driven to the kind of things that the church that He left in our hands began right off the bat and saw droves of people come to the faith.
It is the kind of love that would speak the truth of homosexuality being a sin just as one being angry at another is or the fact that it is not a matter of being ‘right’ that drives us to speak the absolute truth that Christ spoke in regards to any other man-made religious movement that has consumed the world’s attention.
It is the kind of love that drives us to dream impossible dreams and become frustrated when we are told they are foolish, irresponsible dreams that God surely wouldn’t endorse.
It is the kind of love that sent Jesus Christ to the cross, cut off from the love and presence of His Father.
“When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk.” Chan writes, “Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.”
Coming back from a journey, I got into an argument of sorts with the woman I was dating. We had spent the time in the ‘field’ doing God’s work and enjoying the blessing of His provisions in the ‘chores’ that He had called us to do for His glory. It was a great time to see the awesome desire and passion that this woman had for God’s work and to be able to support and join in that simple expression of God’s love. The argument was over my statement “I love you” that I refused to either confirm that I had said it or deny that I had. It wasn’t that I was trying to retract what I had said or that I didn’t mean it. It was because I didn’t want her to feel the requirement to feel the same. It is one thing that I have realized in the journey to here, that when I said “I love you,” it was something that I could never take back…..even to this day. No matter what the other person felt, no matter what happened to the relationship in the future. When I uttered those words, they were meant for forever and not just until the moment it ended. I have come to realize that it is why God tries to tell us about the covenant of marriage, of love, that is unbreakable and unending…..because we truly were meant to love only one as intimately as a wife or husband so that we could love everyone else with the intensity that Christ loves us…..even as He hung battered and wounded on the cross we nailed Him to.
God shows us throughout the Bible how to love. Pastor Chan points out that we need God to help us love the right way.
I can remember when I first felt God’s love for me and how it energized me, drove me to great lengths to ‘make time’ just to be around Him and how consuming that love became in all aspects of my life; jumping into the community of the church, spending most of my time and my family’s time in the church doing something, being something, or working on something for the sake of ministries and requests. Being desperate to dive into ministry when God placed that call on my heart and the agony that the last six years have been when I have been denied the ‘authority or ability’ to do what God has shown me is my purpose to do….and the utter that consumes me when I am doing that purpose to which I’ve been set aside and the passion that I have once I’m done for the moment to jump on the next opportunity.
George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright, once wrote, “This is true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” (Crazy Love, pg 109)
You can ask anyone who has had a love affair that has lasted the lifetimes of those two involved in it…..the familiarity that is offset by the inadequate amount of time that they have together, even in the moments when they are alone and the world revolves quickly outside the door of their home. The frantic worry that happens when something unusual happens to the other; whether it is simple (a flat tire makes them late) or whether it is complex (they discover they have cancer) until you can see them with your own eyes and gather them into your arms again. Whether it is to comfort or to embrace joyfully, it is that embrace that means more than the paycheck you make or the opera show you wanted to go see.
It is an affirmation of your value in the other’s eyes; spoken without words and undeniably true.
Why don’t we think of God that way?
With that kind of love, we’d be driven to the kind of things that the church that He left in our hands began right off the bat and saw droves of people come to the faith.
It is the kind of love that would speak the truth of homosexuality being a sin just as one being angry at another is or the fact that it is not a matter of being ‘right’ that drives us to speak the absolute truth that Christ spoke in regards to any other man-made religious movement that has consumed the world’s attention.
It is the kind of love that drives us to dream impossible dreams and become frustrated when we are told they are foolish, irresponsible dreams that God surely wouldn’t endorse.
It is the kind of love that sent Jesus Christ to the cross, cut off from the love and presence of His Father.
Thursday, July 21
All in or all out, there is no middle
“The LORD says: ‘These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13
Through the first three chapters of Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God,” I was in a love-struggle relationship with this pastor. I loved the things he said that affirmed my opinions and thoughts about Christ, God, Christianity and the Church and struggled with some of the challenges he laid out in his videos and chapters of truly seeking to understand that God.
Then I hit the fourth chapter of the book and immediately I wanted to dislike or even be mad at Chan because it wasn’t simply a challenge nor a idea, he threatened my faith and dared me to jump off the cliff to grow deeper. “The American Church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.” Francis Chan writes in the chapter entitled “Profile of the Lukewarm”, “The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance.”
This I agreed on and Chan sucked me into the deep without my realization.
I didn’t even get off that page when Chan dares me….”Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?”
It is interesting, as I grow more and more in my understanding (which is by no means ever going to be complete) of God’s identity…..which is the same as it was in the beginning of time, the more it seems I have to spend my time in dialogue with those who believe in the false religious systems of this world and man’s making correcting not the theology of following Christ but the incorrect usage of language, dialogue and logic.
Too often, what Chan says is the commonplace default of any Christian church, “worldly tolerance.” As I stall in the chapter 4 of Chan’s book, Crazy Love, I wonder if the church has become a breeding ground of ‘lukewarm Christians.’
And if I am in serious danger of becoming one myself with the season I’m experiencing.
It is interesting that God, being everything I know Him to be, is in no danger of being overwhelmed by the mystical religious systems that humanity has created throughout the ages; Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and so on…..so many, even those who hide underneath the guise of ‘Christian’ faith but break the connection between God, His Word, His Spirit and His Mission….like the end-time professors who mislead many or the hate-filled protestors of the country’s heroic military at their funerals.
But He calls us to be ready to speak what we believe, to defend it, with kindness and love and the authority that we have as His children and Christ’s co-heirs. Often, we do it with an agenda of our own, to fill our pews and to prove we can handle the work. But, is that truly what it means and looks like to be engaged in the work of the great I AM?
It is easy to deflect from ourselves the attention of the verse above……but are we also ‘far from God’ in our hearts? And what does that look like?
I won’t break down what Francis Chan wrote in Chapter Four; the characteristics of the lukewarms, but they all point to a simple point.
You are either all in or all out.
There is no other religious system that creates such demand in such a way as Christianity does or readily exposes such middle ground straddling. You can separate most of the other human made and defined religious movements by the differences in the same theology that is exposed, but the universal (catholic…not to be confused with the Roman Catholic) church has foundational doctrines that cannot be ignored or altered but must be believed.
Dogmatic differences might exists but these are often on topics that go beyond the text that we know. I can walk into any biblically based and believing Church and find those foundations even if the worship and style of preaching is radically different from what I am used to. I can go to a different city and state, or even country and find the welcoming arms of family (extended eternal version) even though I have never met them.
Because we are all in, all pressing forward with a intensity and drive passion to pursue Christ and make Him known to those who engage in those false systems. With loving intensity and pure passion.
Not relying on our own opinions and agendas, but presenting the Gospel without alteration or abbreviation and then baptizing those who believe and training them in the faith. It’s not a hit and run, believe what you wish when you wish, but a mentorship that is for a lifetime. As we are grown, we turn and help others to grow.
There are some who this is a natural or God-given ability of discernment for finding those to disciple and those who are discipling them. For others, it is not. Do we leave those whom the natural ability to step into this discipling role has never been developed or do we arrange situations or point to people for them to engage and become invested in?
Are those who are weak in the discernment of disciples to mentor somehow lukewarm in their passions and love for the Messiah and God?
If I’m wandering from topic to topic and it doesn’t seem to make any sense or be connected in any way, I’m sorry. The last month has been a blend of all these various things and it seems to be culminating in Chan’s descriptive of ‘lukewarms.’ Which is why I’m stalled here.
I am challenged to things I am not feeling God’s demands on, but is it because of my own lukewarm desires or because I am passionately engaged in where God is leading. I am being questioned about the authority of my beliefs, as based on an authority beyond my own, and my willingness to speak them but am I doing it out of a sense of superior righteousness or resounding love? Am I truly following with everything I am or reserving the best for the lean times?
These are things that have me stalled and have me burning the campfire late into the night.
Even Francis Chan admits his characterizations aren’t all-inclusive or even a litmus test of whether or not we are truly Christians or simply ‘lukewarm water.’ As he points out, the bible tells us to examine our faith and test it. Pastor Chan says “We are all messed up human beings and no one is totally immune to the behaviors [of lukewarms or any other characterization in other chapters].”
“However,” he continues, “there is a difference between a life that is characterized by these sorts of mentalities and habits and a life that is in the process of being radically transformed.”
After all, Jesus didn’t follow His Father’s will in a lukewarm way and He doesn’t offer us that option.
He tells us to “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
Through the first three chapters of Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God,” I was in a love-struggle relationship with this pastor. I loved the things he said that affirmed my opinions and thoughts about Christ, God, Christianity and the Church and struggled with some of the challenges he laid out in his videos and chapters of truly seeking to understand that God.
Then I hit the fourth chapter of the book and immediately I wanted to dislike or even be mad at Chan because it wasn’t simply a challenge nor a idea, he threatened my faith and dared me to jump off the cliff to grow deeper. “The American Church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.” Francis Chan writes in the chapter entitled “Profile of the Lukewarm”, “The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance.”
This I agreed on and Chan sucked me into the deep without my realization.
I didn’t even get off that page when Chan dares me….”Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?”
It is interesting, as I grow more and more in my understanding (which is by no means ever going to be complete) of God’s identity…..which is the same as it was in the beginning of time, the more it seems I have to spend my time in dialogue with those who believe in the false religious systems of this world and man’s making correcting not the theology of following Christ but the incorrect usage of language, dialogue and logic.
Too often, what Chan says is the commonplace default of any Christian church, “worldly tolerance.” As I stall in the chapter 4 of Chan’s book, Crazy Love, I wonder if the church has become a breeding ground of ‘lukewarm Christians.’
And if I am in serious danger of becoming one myself with the season I’m experiencing.
It is interesting that God, being everything I know Him to be, is in no danger of being overwhelmed by the mystical religious systems that humanity has created throughout the ages; Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and so on…..so many, even those who hide underneath the guise of ‘Christian’ faith but break the connection between God, His Word, His Spirit and His Mission….like the end-time professors who mislead many or the hate-filled protestors of the country’s heroic military at their funerals.
But He calls us to be ready to speak what we believe, to defend it, with kindness and love and the authority that we have as His children and Christ’s co-heirs. Often, we do it with an agenda of our own, to fill our pews and to prove we can handle the work. But, is that truly what it means and looks like to be engaged in the work of the great I AM?
It is easy to deflect from ourselves the attention of the verse above……but are we also ‘far from God’ in our hearts? And what does that look like?
I won’t break down what Francis Chan wrote in Chapter Four; the characteristics of the lukewarms, but they all point to a simple point.
You are either all in or all out.
There is no other religious system that creates such demand in such a way as Christianity does or readily exposes such middle ground straddling. You can separate most of the other human made and defined religious movements by the differences in the same theology that is exposed, but the universal (catholic…not to be confused with the Roman Catholic) church has foundational doctrines that cannot be ignored or altered but must be believed.
Dogmatic differences might exists but these are often on topics that go beyond the text that we know. I can walk into any biblically based and believing Church and find those foundations even if the worship and style of preaching is radically different from what I am used to. I can go to a different city and state, or even country and find the welcoming arms of family (extended eternal version) even though I have never met them.
Because we are all in, all pressing forward with a intensity and drive passion to pursue Christ and make Him known to those who engage in those false systems. With loving intensity and pure passion.
Not relying on our own opinions and agendas, but presenting the Gospel without alteration or abbreviation and then baptizing those who believe and training them in the faith. It’s not a hit and run, believe what you wish when you wish, but a mentorship that is for a lifetime. As we are grown, we turn and help others to grow.
There are some who this is a natural or God-given ability of discernment for finding those to disciple and those who are discipling them. For others, it is not. Do we leave those whom the natural ability to step into this discipling role has never been developed or do we arrange situations or point to people for them to engage and become invested in?
Are those who are weak in the discernment of disciples to mentor somehow lukewarm in their passions and love for the Messiah and God?
If I’m wandering from topic to topic and it doesn’t seem to make any sense or be connected in any way, I’m sorry. The last month has been a blend of all these various things and it seems to be culminating in Chan’s descriptive of ‘lukewarms.’ Which is why I’m stalled here.
I am challenged to things I am not feeling God’s demands on, but is it because of my own lukewarm desires or because I am passionately engaged in where God is leading. I am being questioned about the authority of my beliefs, as based on an authority beyond my own, and my willingness to speak them but am I doing it out of a sense of superior righteousness or resounding love? Am I truly following with everything I am or reserving the best for the lean times?
These are things that have me stalled and have me burning the campfire late into the night.
Even Francis Chan admits his characterizations aren’t all-inclusive or even a litmus test of whether or not we are truly Christians or simply ‘lukewarm water.’ As he points out, the bible tells us to examine our faith and test it. Pastor Chan says “We are all messed up human beings and no one is totally immune to the behaviors [of lukewarms or any other characterization in other chapters].”
“However,” he continues, “there is a difference between a life that is characterized by these sorts of mentalities and habits and a life that is in the process of being radically transformed.”
After all, Jesus didn’t follow His Father’s will in a lukewarm way and He doesn’t offer us that option.
He tells us to “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
Monday, July 18
You are no longer a child
““Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put My words into your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:6-10
It has been a harsh couple of weeks as the job searching becomes more and more defeating each and every day. The ‘dream job,’ that one outside of full time ministry, seemed to be in the basket as I had applied to the posting and actually, for once out of the 500 some odd job applications to the State of Michigan, received a call back. I was set for an interview for Monday, July 11th at 11:00am in Jackson Michigan and was really looking forward to knocking the socks off the panel I would be going before. This was a position that the Veteran employment assistance officer told me on our first meeting was made for me, with my chaplain background and other service-related skills. It was a position that she introduced me a few months back as “this is the guy” to the state-level director and the area-director of the Veteran Affairs Department of the State of Michigan. It was, to borrow the phrase….”in the bag.”
Someone I knew was in the hospital, shockingly hit with some complications that even they didn’t expect, and I was on the way to see them. The Area Director for the Northern Michigan Area for the Veteran Affairs called me and asked the question that would destroy everything…..”Do you have 60 college credits?” Turns out he couldn’t even have them interview me without them, which I only had 24. The ‘dream job’ was gone. And then I received a text from friend informing me that my family and I were asked not to come and see the hospitalized person. The combination, more complicated than what I’ve alluded to here, was enough to send me in a tail spin. My post on Facebook said it all,
“Tomorrow I go and pick up the suit that I was dry cleaning for the interview I no longer have because of the 'paper' requirements I cannot fill. My life, my testimony and my faith are all based on my experience and experiences that I have had in the forty-three years I've lived. Does this mean that my faith, my testimony and my life are useless?”
The LORD sent my brothers to my defense; to comfort me and to give me the moment I needed to get my breath back. Funny thing is, most of them I’ve never had the opportunity to meet. We have been friends on Facebook and a few other men-ministry websites. But they didn’t hesitate to come to a brother’s aid and surround him while he was gasping for air.
A few days later I found out that another job was denied me because of a DUI I had received some 15 years ago. The supervisor for the contractor who provides the bus service for the Ann Arbor School District, among others, said I was “Jeffrey Fieger” lawsuit material if something were to go wrong. Jeffrey Fieger is a well-known and somewhat flamboyant lawyer who has defended or prosecuted several high profile cases as well as a failed attempt at the Governorship of Michigan. I couldn’t believe it.
Apparently God is the only One who forgives and wipes the slate clean. Yet, He put humans ‘in charge’ of His church and even they said I wasn’t ‘qualified’ to be a full-time minister in its hallowed walls. To say I’ve hit the lowest point in my life, especially since my eternal one began that February day, would be the understatement of the year. Even when I was homeless, even when I attempted suicide and even when I found out that someone who ‘loved’ me also gave that to someone else…..nothing compared to the blows that have hammered me the last few weeks.
R.C. Sproul is quoted in a book that a dear brother in Christ sent me with the admonishment to ‘underline, pray, think and write about’ what I would read. Sproul says, “Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”
“Crazy Love; Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” written by Francis Chan (with Danae Yankoski).
Some books capture your attention and draw you into the path the author desires….and you feel happily fed as you stroll along the journey. Others leave you empty and lost, wondering if you’ll ever get the moments you spent on the dribble back or if its simply lost in the sands of time. Then there are the books that you wish you hadn’t picked up because the truth exposed leaves you fearful, delighted, worried, happy and so many other gambits of emotion that you are exhausted just reading it…..
and that’s only by chapter three.
Chan doesn’t apologize, for that is his very intent to bring you to the point where you identify with the secondary title…..overwhelmed. He even says, “This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do.”
Those who are overwhelmed by a God who is relentless.
I have discovered the improbable, impossible and predictably unpredictable dreams of God’s purpose for me. I have faced the impossible wall of human rejection of what that dreaming produces. I have come to realize that life will never be comfortable on a human level pursuing a God-level purpose. And it has brought me to my knees; in fear and in overwhelmed awe.
Chan expressed my crippling disappointment in the job market, the ministry field and interactions with those who are as human as I……
“This dissatisfaction transfers over to our thinking about God. We forget that we already have everything we need in Him. Because we don’t often think about the reality of who God is, we quickly forget that He is worthy to be worshipped and loved. We are to fear Him.”
A humbling in this place. But even now, as the forces array against me and my brothers, even as the sky darkens in the tempest of the storm and even as my strength flees me, I know. I am no longer a child, no longer swayed by foolish things and foolish thoughts. I don't serve myself or man, I serve a mighty and awesome God.
And He is worthy of all praise.
It has been a harsh couple of weeks as the job searching becomes more and more defeating each and every day. The ‘dream job,’ that one outside of full time ministry, seemed to be in the basket as I had applied to the posting and actually, for once out of the 500 some odd job applications to the State of Michigan, received a call back. I was set for an interview for Monday, July 11th at 11:00am in Jackson Michigan and was really looking forward to knocking the socks off the panel I would be going before. This was a position that the Veteran employment assistance officer told me on our first meeting was made for me, with my chaplain background and other service-related skills. It was a position that she introduced me a few months back as “this is the guy” to the state-level director and the area-director of the Veteran Affairs Department of the State of Michigan. It was, to borrow the phrase….”in the bag.”
Someone I knew was in the hospital, shockingly hit with some complications that even they didn’t expect, and I was on the way to see them. The Area Director for the Northern Michigan Area for the Veteran Affairs called me and asked the question that would destroy everything…..”Do you have 60 college credits?” Turns out he couldn’t even have them interview me without them, which I only had 24. The ‘dream job’ was gone. And then I received a text from friend informing me that my family and I were asked not to come and see the hospitalized person. The combination, more complicated than what I’ve alluded to here, was enough to send me in a tail spin. My post on Facebook said it all,
“Tomorrow I go and pick up the suit that I was dry cleaning for the interview I no longer have because of the 'paper' requirements I cannot fill. My life, my testimony and my faith are all based on my experience and experiences that I have had in the forty-three years I've lived. Does this mean that my faith, my testimony and my life are useless?”
The LORD sent my brothers to my defense; to comfort me and to give me the moment I needed to get my breath back. Funny thing is, most of them I’ve never had the opportunity to meet. We have been friends on Facebook and a few other men-ministry websites. But they didn’t hesitate to come to a brother’s aid and surround him while he was gasping for air.
A few days later I found out that another job was denied me because of a DUI I had received some 15 years ago. The supervisor for the contractor who provides the bus service for the Ann Arbor School District, among others, said I was “Jeffrey Fieger” lawsuit material if something were to go wrong. Jeffrey Fieger is a well-known and somewhat flamboyant lawyer who has defended or prosecuted several high profile cases as well as a failed attempt at the Governorship of Michigan. I couldn’t believe it.
Apparently God is the only One who forgives and wipes the slate clean. Yet, He put humans ‘in charge’ of His church and even they said I wasn’t ‘qualified’ to be a full-time minister in its hallowed walls. To say I’ve hit the lowest point in my life, especially since my eternal one began that February day, would be the understatement of the year. Even when I was homeless, even when I attempted suicide and even when I found out that someone who ‘loved’ me also gave that to someone else…..nothing compared to the blows that have hammered me the last few weeks.
R.C. Sproul is quoted in a book that a dear brother in Christ sent me with the admonishment to ‘underline, pray, think and write about’ what I would read. Sproul says, “Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.”
“Crazy Love; Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” written by Francis Chan (with Danae Yankoski).
Some books capture your attention and draw you into the path the author desires….and you feel happily fed as you stroll along the journey. Others leave you empty and lost, wondering if you’ll ever get the moments you spent on the dribble back or if its simply lost in the sands of time. Then there are the books that you wish you hadn’t picked up because the truth exposed leaves you fearful, delighted, worried, happy and so many other gambits of emotion that you are exhausted just reading it…..
and that’s only by chapter three.
Chan doesn’t apologize, for that is his very intent to bring you to the point where you identify with the secondary title…..overwhelmed. He even says, “This book is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, those who would rather die before their convictions do.”
Those who are overwhelmed by a God who is relentless.
I have discovered the improbable, impossible and predictably unpredictable dreams of God’s purpose for me. I have faced the impossible wall of human rejection of what that dreaming produces. I have come to realize that life will never be comfortable on a human level pursuing a God-level purpose. And it has brought me to my knees; in fear and in overwhelmed awe.
Chan expressed my crippling disappointment in the job market, the ministry field and interactions with those who are as human as I……
“This dissatisfaction transfers over to our thinking about God. We forget that we already have everything we need in Him. Because we don’t often think about the reality of who God is, we quickly forget that He is worthy to be worshipped and loved. We are to fear Him.”
A humbling in this place. But even now, as the forces array against me and my brothers, even as the sky darkens in the tempest of the storm and even as my strength flees me, I know. I am no longer a child, no longer swayed by foolish things and foolish thoughts. I don't serve myself or man, I serve a mighty and awesome God.
And He is worthy of all praise.
Monday, June 27
The Palms
“And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [Romans 5:3-5 HCSB]
From where I sit, I can hear the waves crashing against the shoreline….the ebb and flow of the sea speaking to my sailor’s heart, beckoning me back upon her surface. I can see, even in the darkness of the night their foamy tops piling upon the cooling sands of the beach. I am thankful for the ability to sit out here on the balcony of the condo that Trinity has rented (a series of them for the whole group) for the week. We arrived without much fanfare around 4 o’clock and were introduced to our berthing quarters and ‘bunkies’ for the week. Four of the teen age guys are in my condo apartment and they already share an easy rapport with each other. Me, I’m the unknown in their equation.
But then, I am for the whole group. We all just met each other yesterday at 8:00 am in the morning and then spent the next 24 hours or so travelling in a bus through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama to get to the coast. We lost a tire on the trailer to blow out in Kentucky and then the trailer to a broken tongue in the upper part of Alabama. I have driven over a thousand miles and have spent twenty-two hours in the driver’s seat of the Bluebird.
We have experienced a lot already to get here and even some difficulties after we arrived.
With the way traffic is in this place and the necessity to get the group five miles down the road to the Wharf Arena, I’ve decided to hang with the group during their ‘camp’ experience. I can already feel God challenging me in this place.
The interesting thing the Pastor said tonight during the first session was……… “Christ is better than………..”
It was an very good sermon, though I do have to wonder at some of the things he’s eluded to and how I (along with the others) will react to it.
Even as I wonder the intelligence of coming on this trip with a bunch of strangers, I can see the answer to that question about Christ and how the verse fits into the overall uncomfortableness of the week just begun. I can marvel at the way, once again, that Christ ties in everything that seems to be challenging me lately and how He brings the assurance of the path He has prepared for me to take, if I would be willing.
They are a great bunch of teenagers, I can tell that by their leaders and how they handle the rigors of the trip.
Even in this place, far from the comforts of my life I can be devoted to Christ in such a manner that my service to these Trinity students and their leaders is reflective of that character and that hope that does not disappoint. Not for my sake nor even for theirs but because that is what Christ would have me do….live the Gospel and use words if necessary.
And to look with eager eyes to what He has laid ahead of my footsteps with delightful anticipation, for this week and the weeks ahead!
From where I sit, I can hear the waves crashing against the shoreline….the ebb and flow of the sea speaking to my sailor’s heart, beckoning me back upon her surface. I can see, even in the darkness of the night their foamy tops piling upon the cooling sands of the beach. I am thankful for the ability to sit out here on the balcony of the condo that Trinity has rented (a series of them for the whole group) for the week. We arrived without much fanfare around 4 o’clock and were introduced to our berthing quarters and ‘bunkies’ for the week. Four of the teen age guys are in my condo apartment and they already share an easy rapport with each other. Me, I’m the unknown in their equation.
But then, I am for the whole group. We all just met each other yesterday at 8:00 am in the morning and then spent the next 24 hours or so travelling in a bus through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama to get to the coast. We lost a tire on the trailer to blow out in Kentucky and then the trailer to a broken tongue in the upper part of Alabama. I have driven over a thousand miles and have spent twenty-two hours in the driver’s seat of the Bluebird.
We have experienced a lot already to get here and even some difficulties after we arrived.
With the way traffic is in this place and the necessity to get the group five miles down the road to the Wharf Arena, I’ve decided to hang with the group during their ‘camp’ experience. I can already feel God challenging me in this place.
The interesting thing the Pastor said tonight during the first session was……… “Christ is better than………..”
It was an very good sermon, though I do have to wonder at some of the things he’s eluded to and how I (along with the others) will react to it.
Even as I wonder the intelligence of coming on this trip with a bunch of strangers, I can see the answer to that question about Christ and how the verse fits into the overall uncomfortableness of the week just begun. I can marvel at the way, once again, that Christ ties in everything that seems to be challenging me lately and how He brings the assurance of the path He has prepared for me to take, if I would be willing.
They are a great bunch of teenagers, I can tell that by their leaders and how they handle the rigors of the trip.
Even in this place, far from the comforts of my life I can be devoted to Christ in such a manner that my service to these Trinity students and their leaders is reflective of that character and that hope that does not disappoint. Not for my sake nor even for theirs but because that is what Christ would have me do….live the Gospel and use words if necessary.
And to look with eager eyes to what He has laid ahead of my footsteps with delightful anticipation, for this week and the weeks ahead!
Tuesday, June 14
Does her banner yet wave...........................
Today, in addition to the ‘birthday’ of the United States Army (of which I served as a MP (Combat) 95B), it is the United States of America’s celebration of the adoption of its flag.
On June 14th, 1777, Congress adopted by resolution the design credited to Betsy Ross, though there is some uncertainty who designed the first flag; "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." In 1916, President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14th officially Flag Day. It is not a recognized federal holiday.
Today, throughout the social media on the internet, Flag Day notifications abounded with the one simple question being asked…..
”What does the flag mean to you?”
What does the flag mean to me?
It stands as a symbol of a sacred trust; from the earliest of those colonists who ventured forth upon the sea to find a country where they could worship as God-fearing, Christian followers to those who are embattled today under the guise of ‘tolerance for all.’ It is a symbol of a multitude of personalities and desires that have been woven by the stitches of patriots and dedicated free men and women who wanted not a dictatorship or a monarchy but a land where the brightest and noblest of the country stood in positions of power and authority over all for the common good of all but who were bound tighter than the strongest chains to the phrase “of the People, for the People, by the People.”
It is a piece of cloth or nylon, true, that is burned in foreign lands and even sometimes its own but it never disappears, never fails to rise above the tempest of the storm that may engulf its people as a beacon of an idea formed so long ago.
It is young; a flag that was developed when there were only thirteen colonies and has grown to fifty states. It has been torn apart once in its history when the citizens themselves pitted themselves against each other because of a way of life that needed to be abolished.
It stands as a rally cry over the sorrows of Pearl Harbor and of Europe, has seen action in the Halls of Montezuma all the way to the shores of Tripoli, and has come to the aid of many older nations in their times of need borne on the shoulders of sailors, merchant marines, airmen, marines and soldiers. It has fallen in the jungles of Vietnam and stands in a land divided by a DMZ in Korea. It has seen its young trample on its stripes in protest and endured the sorrow of misuse and abuse throughout its young life. It has gone to Kuwait and Iraq, seen war in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.
It is the last symbol of a nation I served when I leave this earth that will adorn my coffin.
We saw American flags flying from windows, antennas and flag poles freshly impaled into the lawns across this land after 9-11 and saw even more rallying to the ‘flag’ by joining the Armed Forces to ‘give some back.’ I didn’t see very many flags flying today…..neither from the window mounts of vehicles flying down the highways and byways to work, home, family and ‘things.’
We see the flag-draped coffins of our service members who have given the ultimate sacrifice, whom we just paid homage to on Memorial Day, coming from the transports that bring them home to their native or adoptive land. We see citizen-lined streets ‘escorting’ our fallen heroes to their final resting place in hearses carrying those coffins with the crisp, clean flag adorning their souls.
But that isn’t what the flag is supposed to mean; a simple nod to those who have sacrificed on its nations behalf or to nationally mourn a terrorist attack on our home soil.
It is a symbol of a land that dared dream of a Republic of government, where freemen and women would lead their peers into a bright and promising future. It was built on the foundations of Christian beliefs, even as it refuses to allow that to be forced as a requirement for its benefits. It is recognized as a nation that will defend itself and the downtrodden at great sacrifice to itself because of those freedoms and a nation who will answer the call when it must. It is fifty-two stars, thirteen stripes and bleeds red, white and blue.
I am the Flag
by Ruth Apperson Rous
I am the flag of the United States of America.
I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.
There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag.
My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.
Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known.
My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of my country.
My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters.
My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.
My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth.
I am as old as my nation.
I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people, for the people."
I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism.
I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display.
Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country.
I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations.
I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth.
Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.
I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity.
If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots.
Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom.
As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less.
Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.
Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.
God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.
It is a symbol of what we, as American citizens have forgotten….the sacred trust of all the generations before who have walked, lived, died and bled for this land called America that has been handed down generation to generation for preservation and prosperity of the freedoms that were once guaranteed by its Constitution and enforced with patriotism by its elected statesmen and women. A nation who wasn’t formed by God but because of His mercies and who’s Constitution bore the hope of generations.
Unfortunately, as you look back on this day and remark about the absence of the flags that would have once flown from neighborhoods far and wide across its land, it is becoming a too vivid symbol of what we Americans are, no more- no less. A nation of forgotten ideals and dusty traditions destroyed by those who have forgotten the sacred trust we were forever to be vigilant with; the title of freedom and the principle of liberty that has been corrupted by those who would be dictators and despots by our elections and our sleeping at the helm of accountability.
The flag, that once stood for the American Dream, and still flies above the land that once bore such extreme hopes now lies limp in the heavy skies of intolerance and liberalized despots who ignore the laws and control the citizenry. Who allow those who are not of native birth sell its heritage bit by bit and piece by piece to the highest bidder in the pack of wolves that have always hounded its shores. Whose politicians have become the elite; controlled by no laws and governed by no accountability and who enslave a people who are fearful of defending the nation that “Old Glory” once flew so proudly over.
It flies tonight over the land “of the free and the home of the brave” though the land lies in eternal shadow and the brave have quietly shut their doors against the raging storms where freedom is no longer what it was because of the weariness of the patriots who once guarded its health.
And though it is dark throughout the land of the American people and the wind howls through the barren landscape as if to cry out “Where have all the brave ones gone?”, there is a beacon of hope still fluttering in the lamps of generations that have come and gone disturbed by the whispers of patriots yet unborn in the history of this land.
And it may be soiled and sullied, frayed at the edges and bear the marks of a war silently fought. But as Frances Keys Scott once put down into words on a page……..
“Does that banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
It does if we chose to make it so.
So when you see “Old Glory” flying somewhere in the course of your day, stop and reflect on the freedoms that you still enjoy, the process by which you can ensure those freedoms continue for your children and the men and women who serve under its gentle breeze to give you that right to do so.
Regain the sacred trust once a heartbeat of the citizens of this nation.
And recapture that “indomitable spirit of determination” it stands for.
The American Flag.
What does it mean to you?
On June 14th, 1777, Congress adopted by resolution the design credited to Betsy Ross, though there is some uncertainty who designed the first flag; "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." In 1916, President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14th officially Flag Day. It is not a recognized federal holiday.
Today, throughout the social media on the internet, Flag Day notifications abounded with the one simple question being asked…..
”What does the flag mean to you?”
What does the flag mean to me?
It stands as a symbol of a sacred trust; from the earliest of those colonists who ventured forth upon the sea to find a country where they could worship as God-fearing, Christian followers to those who are embattled today under the guise of ‘tolerance for all.’ It is a symbol of a multitude of personalities and desires that have been woven by the stitches of patriots and dedicated free men and women who wanted not a dictatorship or a monarchy but a land where the brightest and noblest of the country stood in positions of power and authority over all for the common good of all but who were bound tighter than the strongest chains to the phrase “of the People, for the People, by the People.”
It is a piece of cloth or nylon, true, that is burned in foreign lands and even sometimes its own but it never disappears, never fails to rise above the tempest of the storm that may engulf its people as a beacon of an idea formed so long ago.
It is young; a flag that was developed when there were only thirteen colonies and has grown to fifty states. It has been torn apart once in its history when the citizens themselves pitted themselves against each other because of a way of life that needed to be abolished.
It stands as a rally cry over the sorrows of Pearl Harbor and of Europe, has seen action in the Halls of Montezuma all the way to the shores of Tripoli, and has come to the aid of many older nations in their times of need borne on the shoulders of sailors, merchant marines, airmen, marines and soldiers. It has fallen in the jungles of Vietnam and stands in a land divided by a DMZ in Korea. It has seen its young trample on its stripes in protest and endured the sorrow of misuse and abuse throughout its young life. It has gone to Kuwait and Iraq, seen war in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.
It is the last symbol of a nation I served when I leave this earth that will adorn my coffin.
We saw American flags flying from windows, antennas and flag poles freshly impaled into the lawns across this land after 9-11 and saw even more rallying to the ‘flag’ by joining the Armed Forces to ‘give some back.’ I didn’t see very many flags flying today…..neither from the window mounts of vehicles flying down the highways and byways to work, home, family and ‘things.’
We see the flag-draped coffins of our service members who have given the ultimate sacrifice, whom we just paid homage to on Memorial Day, coming from the transports that bring them home to their native or adoptive land. We see citizen-lined streets ‘escorting’ our fallen heroes to their final resting place in hearses carrying those coffins with the crisp, clean flag adorning their souls.
But that isn’t what the flag is supposed to mean; a simple nod to those who have sacrificed on its nations behalf or to nationally mourn a terrorist attack on our home soil.
It is a symbol of a land that dared dream of a Republic of government, where freemen and women would lead their peers into a bright and promising future. It was built on the foundations of Christian beliefs, even as it refuses to allow that to be forced as a requirement for its benefits. It is recognized as a nation that will defend itself and the downtrodden at great sacrifice to itself because of those freedoms and a nation who will answer the call when it must. It is fifty-two stars, thirteen stripes and bleeds red, white and blue.
I am the Flag
by Ruth Apperson Rous
I am the flag of the United States of America.
I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.
There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag.
My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.
Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known.
My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of my country.
My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters.
My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.
My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth.
I am as old as my nation.
I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people, for the people."
I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism.
I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display.
Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country.
I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations.
I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth.
Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.
I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity.
If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots.
Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom.
As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less.
Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.
Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.
God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.
It is a symbol of what we, as American citizens have forgotten….the sacred trust of all the generations before who have walked, lived, died and bled for this land called America that has been handed down generation to generation for preservation and prosperity of the freedoms that were once guaranteed by its Constitution and enforced with patriotism by its elected statesmen and women. A nation who wasn’t formed by God but because of His mercies and who’s Constitution bore the hope of generations.
Unfortunately, as you look back on this day and remark about the absence of the flags that would have once flown from neighborhoods far and wide across its land, it is becoming a too vivid symbol of what we Americans are, no more- no less. A nation of forgotten ideals and dusty traditions destroyed by those who have forgotten the sacred trust we were forever to be vigilant with; the title of freedom and the principle of liberty that has been corrupted by those who would be dictators and despots by our elections and our sleeping at the helm of accountability.
The flag, that once stood for the American Dream, and still flies above the land that once bore such extreme hopes now lies limp in the heavy skies of intolerance and liberalized despots who ignore the laws and control the citizenry. Who allow those who are not of native birth sell its heritage bit by bit and piece by piece to the highest bidder in the pack of wolves that have always hounded its shores. Whose politicians have become the elite; controlled by no laws and governed by no accountability and who enslave a people who are fearful of defending the nation that “Old Glory” once flew so proudly over.
It flies tonight over the land “of the free and the home of the brave” though the land lies in eternal shadow and the brave have quietly shut their doors against the raging storms where freedom is no longer what it was because of the weariness of the patriots who once guarded its health.
And though it is dark throughout the land of the American people and the wind howls through the barren landscape as if to cry out “Where have all the brave ones gone?”, there is a beacon of hope still fluttering in the lamps of generations that have come and gone disturbed by the whispers of patriots yet unborn in the history of this land.
And it may be soiled and sullied, frayed at the edges and bear the marks of a war silently fought. But as Frances Keys Scott once put down into words on a page……..
“Does that banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
It does if we chose to make it so.
So when you see “Old Glory” flying somewhere in the course of your day, stop and reflect on the freedoms that you still enjoy, the process by which you can ensure those freedoms continue for your children and the men and women who serve under its gentle breeze to give you that right to do so.
Regain the sacred trust once a heartbeat of the citizens of this nation.
And recapture that “indomitable spirit of determination” it stands for.
The American Flag.
What does it mean to you?
Monday, June 13
Standing Stones
“After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, "Choose 12 men from the people, one man for each tribe, and command them, 'Take 12 stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests' feet are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.'" So Joshua summoned the 12 men selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, and said to them, "Go across to the ark of the LORD your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean to you?' you should tell them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the LORD's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan's waters were cut off.' Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites." The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The 12 men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the LORD had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there. Joshua also set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant were standing. The stones are there to this day.” [Joshua 4:1-9 HCSB]
At my Berean Bible Church brethren’s small group we ‘happened’ to be in the area for this weekend watched a VHS tape about the ‘standing stones of Tel Gezer’ And it was this verse, this ‘faith lesson’ that hit me the most. I could feel God’s nod as He saw my heart open to what He would have me learn not just from this video, but how the whole weekend was a progression towards this ‘faith moment.’
A blessing from a brother in Christ didn’t come in the mail as expected so I went to see this man of God whom I had never met before but have connected (like many others) in the larger ‘electronic’ community. The hour I spent with this brother listening to the understanding of his gifting from God and have him pour into my life with the observations of what he had watched in my walk with Christ over the internet was a blessing above the blessing. I walked away from that meeting feeling truly blessed. Since I was in the area, I felt led to go over to my dear Berean family and visit with them for a while at the E.A.C.H. block party they were having. I was blessed by some friends to go and get my son (my daughter didn’t want to come) from his mom’s and bring him back to the event so he could have some fun. When I arrived back, a dear brother in Christ whom I had a powerful friendship in the church community where I was saved was there. We hadn’t seen each other in eight years. But it was like yesterday.
The day ‘over’, or so I thought, I dropped my son back at his mother’s for the rest of the weekend and headed over to a sister-in-Christ to help her with the PowerPoint presentation for a ministry idea she had to present to her seminary class. It was a blessing to sit down and see this idea fleshed out since her idea was a special needs ministry. Though we didn’t get the presentation done that night, we got a majority of it completed. A brother in Christ from Berean called, apparently my son had forgotten his hat at the event and we stragetized how to get it back on his absent-minded head. It worked out that my brother was having a small group at his home, a few miles from where I pick up the kids from their mom.
Sunday morning had me waking up to see my Mosaic A2 community for worship and instruction along with a Potluck afterwards. Good food and fellowship again were the theme of my day. I returned to my sister-in-Christ’s home to finish up the PowerPoint and head out to gather my children and visit with some dear friends in Christ over some bible study.
It is here that I realized God’s lesson for this weekend. Standing Stones.
Standing stones, translated from the Hebrew word “massebah” means ‘to set up.’ This was something that the Israelites did when God performed supernatural acts on their behalf. They were to be a reminder of the event that took place and to serve as a ‘talking point’ for those who came upon them to ask about what event had transpired there. Several of these ‘standing stones’ were erected in the nation’s history (to name a few), like the ones at Bethel by Jacob to commemorate the reaffirmation of the covenant between he and God (Genesis 28:18-21, 25:14-15), by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai after receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:2-4), to remind the nation of the renewal of the covenant at Shechem (Joshua 24:27) and the commemoration mentioned in the verses above (Joshua 4:1-9) where the nation crossed the Jordan river into the Promise Land.
We no longer have to erect silent and mysterious stones to highlight the effect of God moving in our lives and it is Peter, the foundation of the Church, that calls us to be something more than stones weathering silently on the landscape of our spiritual walk home. In 1 Peter 2:5, he uses this imagery to call believers ‘living stones’. In today’s world more so than not, we need to boast of our God and His mighty mercies. We need to show as much excitement for the things that mature us and grow us and draw us closer to God as we do the latest techie gadget or car improvement or even the promotion at work.
As we walk in this faith journey towards home, much like the Israelites did into the Promised Land, we need to erect standing stones along the path…..a formation of stones that our friends, family and unsaved pedestrians that walk in our lives have no choice but to give into their curiosity and ask…..”What does this stand for?”
And then, either as simply as giving your “Two-Word Story” or speaking of the mighty blessings that God has given, you can bring the Gospel to life with a testimony of your God’s love and blessing.
This weekend is a standing stone for me. February 14th, 2004 is another, when God’s knock on the door was answered and I saw a man with pierced hands and feet weeping with joy at my answer. Another was October 20th, 2004 when I heard Him say, “This you will do for Me and My glory” at Hybel’s church in Chicago. There was my son’s acceptance of his salvation, Easter 2005 and the events of Feb-Mar 2010 and 2011 in the Bowery Street Mission in New York City.
These are standing stones to moments where God did supernatural things in my life, transforming and maturing me for the purpose He has set aside for me……. They aren't by any measure the only memorials that I have in my life and my testimony that show God's favor, mercy, love and grace. And I doubt as I walk this journey towards home that they will be the last or the greatest momuments of living testimony that I'll have to give.
His blessings and mercies are new every day.
What are yours?
At my Berean Bible Church brethren’s small group we ‘happened’ to be in the area for this weekend watched a VHS tape about the ‘standing stones of Tel Gezer’ And it was this verse, this ‘faith lesson’ that hit me the most. I could feel God’s nod as He saw my heart open to what He would have me learn not just from this video, but how the whole weekend was a progression towards this ‘faith moment.’
A blessing from a brother in Christ didn’t come in the mail as expected so I went to see this man of God whom I had never met before but have connected (like many others) in the larger ‘electronic’ community. The hour I spent with this brother listening to the understanding of his gifting from God and have him pour into my life with the observations of what he had watched in my walk with Christ over the internet was a blessing above the blessing. I walked away from that meeting feeling truly blessed. Since I was in the area, I felt led to go over to my dear Berean family and visit with them for a while at the E.A.C.H. block party they were having. I was blessed by some friends to go and get my son (my daughter didn’t want to come) from his mom’s and bring him back to the event so he could have some fun. When I arrived back, a dear brother in Christ whom I had a powerful friendship in the church community where I was saved was there. We hadn’t seen each other in eight years. But it was like yesterday.
The day ‘over’, or so I thought, I dropped my son back at his mother’s for the rest of the weekend and headed over to a sister-in-Christ to help her with the PowerPoint presentation for a ministry idea she had to present to her seminary class. It was a blessing to sit down and see this idea fleshed out since her idea was a special needs ministry. Though we didn’t get the presentation done that night, we got a majority of it completed. A brother in Christ from Berean called, apparently my son had forgotten his hat at the event and we stragetized how to get it back on his absent-minded head. It worked out that my brother was having a small group at his home, a few miles from where I pick up the kids from their mom.
Sunday morning had me waking up to see my Mosaic A2 community for worship and instruction along with a Potluck afterwards. Good food and fellowship again were the theme of my day. I returned to my sister-in-Christ’s home to finish up the PowerPoint and head out to gather my children and visit with some dear friends in Christ over some bible study.
It is here that I realized God’s lesson for this weekend. Standing Stones.
Standing stones, translated from the Hebrew word “massebah” means ‘to set up.’ This was something that the Israelites did when God performed supernatural acts on their behalf. They were to be a reminder of the event that took place and to serve as a ‘talking point’ for those who came upon them to ask about what event had transpired there. Several of these ‘standing stones’ were erected in the nation’s history (to name a few), like the ones at Bethel by Jacob to commemorate the reaffirmation of the covenant between he and God (Genesis 28:18-21, 25:14-15), by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai after receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:2-4), to remind the nation of the renewal of the covenant at Shechem (Joshua 24:27) and the commemoration mentioned in the verses above (Joshua 4:1-9) where the nation crossed the Jordan river into the Promise Land.
We no longer have to erect silent and mysterious stones to highlight the effect of God moving in our lives and it is Peter, the foundation of the Church, that calls us to be something more than stones weathering silently on the landscape of our spiritual walk home. In 1 Peter 2:5, he uses this imagery to call believers ‘living stones’. In today’s world more so than not, we need to boast of our God and His mighty mercies. We need to show as much excitement for the things that mature us and grow us and draw us closer to God as we do the latest techie gadget or car improvement or even the promotion at work.
As we walk in this faith journey towards home, much like the Israelites did into the Promised Land, we need to erect standing stones along the path…..a formation of stones that our friends, family and unsaved pedestrians that walk in our lives have no choice but to give into their curiosity and ask…..”What does this stand for?”
And then, either as simply as giving your “Two-Word Story” or speaking of the mighty blessings that God has given, you can bring the Gospel to life with a testimony of your God’s love and blessing.
This weekend is a standing stone for me. February 14th, 2004 is another, when God’s knock on the door was answered and I saw a man with pierced hands and feet weeping with joy at my answer. Another was October 20th, 2004 when I heard Him say, “This you will do for Me and My glory” at Hybel’s church in Chicago. There was my son’s acceptance of his salvation, Easter 2005 and the events of Feb-Mar 2010 and 2011 in the Bowery Street Mission in New York City.
These are standing stones to moments where God did supernatural things in my life, transforming and maturing me for the purpose He has set aside for me……. They aren't by any measure the only memorials that I have in my life and my testimony that show God's favor, mercy, love and grace. And I doubt as I walk this journey towards home that they will be the last or the greatest momuments of living testimony that I'll have to give.
His blessings and mercies are new every day.
What are yours?
Wednesday, June 8
Tomorrow.....
“You don't even know what tomorrow will bring--what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."” [James 4:14-15 HCSB]
It is quiet, Casey and Sara are asleep and I’ve watched another of those Lifetime shows where adversity is overcome with a dramatic flourish and once again, the hero (or in this case, heroine) is triumphant in the victory. I look around at what I have, the house that is far from clean and cringing at the thought of Casey’s bedroom and Sara’s as well as my own. I think about the water problem and the washer/dryer issues….the lack of the basics that most families have. I wonder where the strength of overcoming, where the triumph over this adversity is set to dawn.
I wonder where the hero is in this story……in my children’s stories
I can remember that day, back in February of 2004 when that persistent knocking upon the door of my barricaded room finally was ‘annoying’ enough for me to open it and ‘confront’ whomever was on the other side. No drama, no epic music greeted my eyes when I opened that door. Just a simple man in bloody clothes, punctured head, pierced hands and feet.
The door never would close again.
With fading memory, I can remember the course of emotion and awe that flowed through me that afternoon session at Willow Creek Community Church’s “Acts 2” conference. It was the first “Christian” conference I had ever been too. Gene Appel, a veteran pastor of ministry, was casting vision for WCCC as its new lead pastor…..and I got lost. In the visions of impossible dreams and daring challenges. Sometime that I thought was from God, a conversation we carried through the woodlands of the campus for several hours. A life simply destroyed that merely hoped for the grace to stumble to the finish challenged to become a champion sprinter.
That life would never be simple again.
In the movie Gladiator, Proximo the Gladiator ‘business man’ said “Ultimately, we’re all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered…….as men.” Many people view the Christian walk as a journey through sunlit hills and sloping valleys with fruit practically dripping from the trees and water so sweet bubbling in the gentle streams as to delight anyone’s sweet tooth.
Manhood is often viewed as a quiet, gentle and almost feminine spirit that moves throughout the land as if a ghost, never touching or impacting women, children or others in this mighty and vast world. Manhood was power built to bless, to move into chaos and challenge its very nature so as to bring order and structure to an insane world. They are only half of the equation that when brought together brings us into a complete image bearer reflection of a Creator God. But it is a struggle and a battle to get there and remain there and to move on from there….this world doesn’t want us to be remembered as who’s we were but what the corruption of sin started us out to be from birth. We cannot chose many things in this life, with principalities and powers against the chosen of God there will be conflict and sorrows that we were never meant to experience, but because of sin’s embrace we have come to know too well. All we can do is decide on how we will “meet that end”. And know that God will get us there.
I chose to meet that end as a godly man, at least die trying to be.
We cannot know the future; the epic failures of those who have tried the breath of human existence should tell us that. Yet we try desperately to make flimsy structures again the blowing winds and huddle around those things that bring us a semblance of comfort and fleeing joy. We don’t dare dream larger than ourselves for the cost may be too high for too long for us to want to pay. And yet……..
We have the promises and the direction of a God who created the planet we live on and the very air we breathe. Who gave us the capability of dreaming of heroic deeds and epic battles? A God who could simply name and claim us once we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But He doesn’t, because we are ‘destined to do greater things than these.’ The E.A.C.H. campaign has wrapped up and the headlines have moved on to the more ‘blasé’ things of this world. And yet, we remain. We can fade back into the world we were called from, retreating once more behind those solid doors of our sanctuaries and steeples. We can call this just another battle in the war of the forces arrayed against God and us. Or we can look at life differently so that we can (as Dave Ramsey would say) live differently.
A life lived in response not to “What should I do?” but one resounding “As the Lord wills…..”
That is where the hero is, one who dreams impossible dreams in this complex world and dares to declare all surrendered to God because of what he knows masculinity to be........
A life obediently using its power to bless.
It is quiet, Casey and Sara are asleep and I’ve watched another of those Lifetime shows where adversity is overcome with a dramatic flourish and once again, the hero (or in this case, heroine) is triumphant in the victory. I look around at what I have, the house that is far from clean and cringing at the thought of Casey’s bedroom and Sara’s as well as my own. I think about the water problem and the washer/dryer issues….the lack of the basics that most families have. I wonder where the strength of overcoming, where the triumph over this adversity is set to dawn.
I wonder where the hero is in this story……in my children’s stories
I can remember that day, back in February of 2004 when that persistent knocking upon the door of my barricaded room finally was ‘annoying’ enough for me to open it and ‘confront’ whomever was on the other side. No drama, no epic music greeted my eyes when I opened that door. Just a simple man in bloody clothes, punctured head, pierced hands and feet.
The door never would close again.
With fading memory, I can remember the course of emotion and awe that flowed through me that afternoon session at Willow Creek Community Church’s “Acts 2” conference. It was the first “Christian” conference I had ever been too. Gene Appel, a veteran pastor of ministry, was casting vision for WCCC as its new lead pastor…..and I got lost. In the visions of impossible dreams and daring challenges. Sometime that I thought was from God, a conversation we carried through the woodlands of the campus for several hours. A life simply destroyed that merely hoped for the grace to stumble to the finish challenged to become a champion sprinter.
That life would never be simple again.
In the movie Gladiator, Proximo the Gladiator ‘business man’ said “Ultimately, we’re all dead men. Sadly, we cannot choose how but what we can decide is how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered…….as men.” Many people view the Christian walk as a journey through sunlit hills and sloping valleys with fruit practically dripping from the trees and water so sweet bubbling in the gentle streams as to delight anyone’s sweet tooth.
Manhood is often viewed as a quiet, gentle and almost feminine spirit that moves throughout the land as if a ghost, never touching or impacting women, children or others in this mighty and vast world. Manhood was power built to bless, to move into chaos and challenge its very nature so as to bring order and structure to an insane world. They are only half of the equation that when brought together brings us into a complete image bearer reflection of a Creator God. But it is a struggle and a battle to get there and remain there and to move on from there….this world doesn’t want us to be remembered as who’s we were but what the corruption of sin started us out to be from birth. We cannot chose many things in this life, with principalities and powers against the chosen of God there will be conflict and sorrows that we were never meant to experience, but because of sin’s embrace we have come to know too well. All we can do is decide on how we will “meet that end”. And know that God will get us there.
I chose to meet that end as a godly man, at least die trying to be.
We cannot know the future; the epic failures of those who have tried the breath of human existence should tell us that. Yet we try desperately to make flimsy structures again the blowing winds and huddle around those things that bring us a semblance of comfort and fleeing joy. We don’t dare dream larger than ourselves for the cost may be too high for too long for us to want to pay. And yet……..
We have the promises and the direction of a God who created the planet we live on and the very air we breathe. Who gave us the capability of dreaming of heroic deeds and epic battles? A God who could simply name and claim us once we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But He doesn’t, because we are ‘destined to do greater things than these.’ The E.A.C.H. campaign has wrapped up and the headlines have moved on to the more ‘blasé’ things of this world. And yet, we remain. We can fade back into the world we were called from, retreating once more behind those solid doors of our sanctuaries and steeples. We can call this just another battle in the war of the forces arrayed against God and us. Or we can look at life differently so that we can (as Dave Ramsey would say) live differently.
A life lived in response not to “What should I do?” but one resounding “As the Lord wills…..”
That is where the hero is, one who dreams impossible dreams in this complex world and dares to declare all surrendered to God because of what he knows masculinity to be........
A life obediently using its power to bless.
Thursday, May 19
The end of the world as we know it.....
“In the future, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved His appearing.”
[2Timothy 4:8 HCSB]
Reverend Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio Worldwide, is saying that the world is coming to an end on a calculated date of May 21st, 2011 which is coming this Saturday. On Syracuse.com (as well as other sites) Reverend Camping is quoted as saying….” "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment."
This is a familiar ‘rant’ from Camping who miss-predicted the end back in 1994. This time, Fiji and New Zealand will get hit with earthquakes at 6pm and Christ will gallop across the sky to reclaim His followers right after.
The end of the world process will be complete five months later on October 21, 2011.
This has spawned so-called ‘rapture parties’ and ‘looting gangs’ on the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
And many Christians are joining in the ‘fun.’
Ysolt Usigan posted an article on CBS.com “End of the world, May 21, 2011? Whatever, it’s funny” and remarked “Well naturally we though[t] that was kind of funny,” (apparently grammar wasn’t important to Usigan) in reference to Reverend Camping’s second prediction, “But we weren't the only ones.”
Usigan finishes the brief article with a link to ‘favorite rapture tweets.”
WendySparrow claimed the top one of the 20 with the remark, “I really don’t have time for the world to end this weekend. Plus, the weather is supposed to be crappy.”
GottaloveCYD says, “The only way I would believe in Judgment day is if Morgan Freeman came up to me and told me I was god.”
Nzcspaul quips, “So the end of the world coming on Sunday while I’m out of the country? Better pack my electric thumb and towel.”
Whether these samplings are from those who express a claim to be Christians or just atheists and agnostics who want to have some fun with such familiar doomsday preachers, Usigan is unclear and doesn’t specify.
A certain amount of ridicule from the non-Christian believers is to be expected and obviously will be used by the mainstream media to heap doubt and intolerance upon the end-time doctrine of the universal church.
It is common in this world, even as those very people question the validity of it and in backrooms often try to ‘buy some insurance just in case.’
We cannot predict the day or even the hour of Christ’s return…..we are instructed to live as if He’s coming tomorrow and keep watch to the skies for His eminent return. Reverend Camping’s prediction is presumptuous as it is ‘mockable.’ Of course, it won’t be portrayed that way, as another failed human attempt to define and predict God’s ways and timing, in the media…..it’ll be just one of those ‘fanatical Christian sects’ who were ‘wrong again.’
There are several sites debunking Camping’s prediction from the math he used to other data anomalies that skew his dating. Others are pointing to the fact we’ll not be able to watch the end of “Dancing with the Stars” or other ‘important’ events that ‘sweeten’ our lives.
What bothers me is the amount of “Christian” people who are jumping on ‘looting’ bandwagons and ‘before-rapture’ parties saying that they’re going to have a ball either as the 21st draws to a close and the world begins to end or jumping on the looting for that big screen TV after everyone has disappeared.
And then just answering posts against such comments as “lighten up, we’re just joking.”
The most important event in Christianity since the Resurrection is a joke?
Whether you believe in pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib for the reclaimation of Christ’s followers from this world before He returns the whole of creation to its intended and original state, Christ warns us about ‘mocking’ God.
Proverbs 9:12, Isaiah 28:22, Obadiah 1:22 to name a few.
The biblical text is replete with what happens to those who do. But honestly, what does the mockery we are making of ‘end-of-times’ predictions say about our biblical beliefs about this event?
“About the times and the seasons: brothers, you do not need anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that this day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We're not of the night or of darkness. So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must be sober and put the armor of faith and love on our chests, and put on a helmet of the hope of salvation. “ [1Thessalonians 5:1-8 HCSB]
How do you live your life?
If you have to live by the ‘predicated’ end-of-time hoopla that comes and goes with the marching of this world towards its true end, it would be nothing but a mockery on the public square as you silently (in the darkness of your own home) ‘make an insurance bet’ on such utterances.
If you don’t believe in the gospel, well you’re going to establish such enterprises as “Pet care after rapture” and “Estate planning for the raptured.” You are going to live your life the way you want, assured of the day coming after that will allow you to get ‘caught up’ on those things that you didn’t do today or you make jokes about finally getting that big-screen TV that was abandoned by the raptured folk or looting the grocery stores.
You participate in the world’s madness or the world’s mockery of this ‘beginning of the Kingdom come.”
If you live with your eyes towards the sky, sobered by the fact that we cannot know the day or the hour of His return, only that we can remain ‘awake’ assured of its guaranteed happening, then such predictions are a method of answering the brokenness and sinfulness of the world desperate for God’s salvation.
You stand upon the biblical truths of this event and you use the mockery of the world to speak truth……”We know not the day or hour, but we do eagerly look to the sky for His coming.”
We live with the realization that tomorrow might not come and therefore the importance of what we do becomes relevant to what we believe. We hear the din of the battle waging and we grow not weary in our fight for the souls of the lost and the redemption of the worldly.
We no longer ‘panic’ when such predictions are uttered because we know regardless of truth or falseness, we are destined for home…..in God’s time. But we ‘panic’ about the abundance and overwhelming amount of ‘work’ left to be done under a timeframe we are not privy to.
There is no doubt that the end of the world as we know it is coming the 21st of May, 2011…this Saturday……..because we will know either the folly or the accuracy of Reverend Camping’s prediction.
Christianity will be proven right in the finality of the world or mocked again because of the misguided theology and predictions of one who claims to know God’s timing. Either way, the world changes. It will become more worldly or have judgment passed.
Either way, how are you living?
As I posted on the page on Facebook promoting a ‘looting party’ after the rapture day,
“I won’t be looting but preaching the Gospel to those of you who are.”
As I will do today……
And tomorrow……………
And the next day……………..
Until I see my Savior galloping on a white horse across the sky.
[2Timothy 4:8 HCSB]
Reverend Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio Worldwide, is saying that the world is coming to an end on a calculated date of May 21st, 2011 which is coming this Saturday. On Syracuse.com (as well as other sites) Reverend Camping is quoted as saying….” "Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment."
This is a familiar ‘rant’ from Camping who miss-predicted the end back in 1994. This time, Fiji and New Zealand will get hit with earthquakes at 6pm and Christ will gallop across the sky to reclaim His followers right after.
The end of the world process will be complete five months later on October 21, 2011.
This has spawned so-called ‘rapture parties’ and ‘looting gangs’ on the social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
And many Christians are joining in the ‘fun.’
Ysolt Usigan posted an article on CBS.com “End of the world, May 21, 2011? Whatever, it’s funny” and remarked “Well naturally we though[t] that was kind of funny,” (apparently grammar wasn’t important to Usigan) in reference to Reverend Camping’s second prediction, “But we weren't the only ones.”
Usigan finishes the brief article with a link to ‘favorite rapture tweets.”
WendySparrow claimed the top one of the 20 with the remark, “I really don’t have time for the world to end this weekend. Plus, the weather is supposed to be crappy.”
GottaloveCYD says, “The only way I would believe in Judgment day is if Morgan Freeman came up to me and told me I was god.”
Nzcspaul quips, “So the end of the world coming on Sunday while I’m out of the country? Better pack my electric thumb and towel.”
Whether these samplings are from those who express a claim to be Christians or just atheists and agnostics who want to have some fun with such familiar doomsday preachers, Usigan is unclear and doesn’t specify.
A certain amount of ridicule from the non-Christian believers is to be expected and obviously will be used by the mainstream media to heap doubt and intolerance upon the end-time doctrine of the universal church.
It is common in this world, even as those very people question the validity of it and in backrooms often try to ‘buy some insurance just in case.’
We cannot predict the day or even the hour of Christ’s return…..we are instructed to live as if He’s coming tomorrow and keep watch to the skies for His eminent return. Reverend Camping’s prediction is presumptuous as it is ‘mockable.’ Of course, it won’t be portrayed that way, as another failed human attempt to define and predict God’s ways and timing, in the media…..it’ll be just one of those ‘fanatical Christian sects’ who were ‘wrong again.’
There are several sites debunking Camping’s prediction from the math he used to other data anomalies that skew his dating. Others are pointing to the fact we’ll not be able to watch the end of “Dancing with the Stars” or other ‘important’ events that ‘sweeten’ our lives.
What bothers me is the amount of “Christian” people who are jumping on ‘looting’ bandwagons and ‘before-rapture’ parties saying that they’re going to have a ball either as the 21st draws to a close and the world begins to end or jumping on the looting for that big screen TV after everyone has disappeared.
And then just answering posts against such comments as “lighten up, we’re just joking.”
The most important event in Christianity since the Resurrection is a joke?
Whether you believe in pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib for the reclaimation of Christ’s followers from this world before He returns the whole of creation to its intended and original state, Christ warns us about ‘mocking’ God.
Proverbs 9:12, Isaiah 28:22, Obadiah 1:22 to name a few.
The biblical text is replete with what happens to those who do. But honestly, what does the mockery we are making of ‘end-of-times’ predictions say about our biblical beliefs about this event?
“About the times and the seasons: brothers, you do not need anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that this day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We're not of the night or of darkness. So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must be sober and put the armor of faith and love on our chests, and put on a helmet of the hope of salvation. “ [1Thessalonians 5:1-8 HCSB]
How do you live your life?
If you have to live by the ‘predicated’ end-of-time hoopla that comes and goes with the marching of this world towards its true end, it would be nothing but a mockery on the public square as you silently (in the darkness of your own home) ‘make an insurance bet’ on such utterances.
If you don’t believe in the gospel, well you’re going to establish such enterprises as “Pet care after rapture” and “Estate planning for the raptured.” You are going to live your life the way you want, assured of the day coming after that will allow you to get ‘caught up’ on those things that you didn’t do today or you make jokes about finally getting that big-screen TV that was abandoned by the raptured folk or looting the grocery stores.
You participate in the world’s madness or the world’s mockery of this ‘beginning of the Kingdom come.”
If you live with your eyes towards the sky, sobered by the fact that we cannot know the day or the hour of His return, only that we can remain ‘awake’ assured of its guaranteed happening, then such predictions are a method of answering the brokenness and sinfulness of the world desperate for God’s salvation.
You stand upon the biblical truths of this event and you use the mockery of the world to speak truth……”We know not the day or hour, but we do eagerly look to the sky for His coming.”
We live with the realization that tomorrow might not come and therefore the importance of what we do becomes relevant to what we believe. We hear the din of the battle waging and we grow not weary in our fight for the souls of the lost and the redemption of the worldly.
We no longer ‘panic’ when such predictions are uttered because we know regardless of truth or falseness, we are destined for home…..in God’s time. But we ‘panic’ about the abundance and overwhelming amount of ‘work’ left to be done under a timeframe we are not privy to.
There is no doubt that the end of the world as we know it is coming the 21st of May, 2011…this Saturday……..because we will know either the folly or the accuracy of Reverend Camping’s prediction.
Christianity will be proven right in the finality of the world or mocked again because of the misguided theology and predictions of one who claims to know God’s timing. Either way, the world changes. It will become more worldly or have judgment passed.
Either way, how are you living?
As I posted on the page on Facebook promoting a ‘looting party’ after the rapture day,
“I won’t be looting but preaching the Gospel to those of you who are.”
As I will do today……
And tomorrow……………
And the next day……………..
Until I see my Savior galloping on a white horse across the sky.
Sunday, May 8
Waiting
“However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth.” [Exodus 9:16 HCSB]
The complexities of life sometimes overwhelm me and the simplicity of ‘waiting’ on the Lord becomes a painful reminder of how unworthy and inadequate I am for any cause or purpose that He’d put into my fragile and weak hands to carry. In every aspect of my life, every bump and resultant bruise that happens along the bumpy road of this journey, there is struggle and painful realizations of how accurate the ol’ song is “If it weren’t for bad luck……”
I’ve come to realize just how broken and lost my life before Christ had become, not by some simple measuring stick that I’ve come across in the Bible but as I’ve faced the situations that have left me grasping for air, struggling for understanding and agonizing over the feelings of being left behind again. As I face on a daily basis that major wound of community, with which I’ve been told I’ll never be able to find acceptability of my purpose within the family…..I’ll forever be the crazy old uncle or brother or friend who runs on the outskirts of the family muttering crazy things no one listens to.
Gone are the illusions of those who spoke edification into my life as if deranged themselves about me being some mighty leader on the front lines with lines of faithful standing with and behind me as I race over the hilltop screaming the battle cry “For My God and King!” (yes, someone actually said that to me years ago….) Gone are the assurances that sometime, in God’s time, such realized purpose will suddenly burst upon the landscape of this world like an atom bomb…..like a revolution of the Gospel speaking salvation into lives once as broken as mine. What I once saw my life as, not as completely in that moment of this imagined call as it had morphed and developed over time, is not what I now see my life becoming.
A friend of mine sent me a post via that great social media called Facebook all the way from the country of England (known as Great Britain or ‘our cousins across the pond’ in some circles). It’s not Mother’s day over there in the enlightened lands of the Brits…..but I digress. I’ll just print what the ‘gist’ of the post was:
“[Message] was on "If we are humble": Shepherds were detested by Egyptians; Moses, having been raised as Egyptian would have known that his kind didn't become one, became shepherd for 40 yrs, during which time he may have thought his being used by God wasn't really going to happen; God was teaching and developing Moses to be humble in tough times so he could be used in later good times.....”
No, I don’t suddenly see myself as a modern-day Moses…..born into slavery and sneaked into royalty until the realization of his birthright drove him to ‘connect’ with his ethnicity in quite the wrong way and he suddenly became a fugitive from both cultures after 40 years of the ‘good life.’ For one, I can’t recall ever having the ‘good life’ (though I am sure there are some who would dispute this fact with me…..) and I definitely screwed up my life well before my 40th year.
But Moses fled and spent the next 40 years in the wilderness tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian around the wilderness of Horeb (the mountain of God). A Shepherd, something the Egyptians despised (at least according to one pastor), is the very thing that Moses became…..apparently without argument or fight. He marries, has a son and doesn’t even have his own wealth….rather he protects and nurtures the wealth of another, his father-in-law, for 40 years. A royal, trained to lead a nation and educated in the methods of the time, puts his staff in front of him and pulls his body along after the sheep. Hard times? Indeed…..hard times that become so commonplace that he doesn’t recognize the hardships anymore.
I have come to learn the purpose of family by the hard road of having treated my family so loosely that I didn’t seek a covenant marriage in which to grow one…..I am blessed with three great kids; one of whom I have just been back in contact with since he was twelve (he’s now sixteen) and two who are living with me, struggling with the broken family that such foolishness of my actions caused. The ignorance of the Gospel only serves as a excuse and not a very valid one at that.
I have come to realize the power of intimate relationship in the brokenness of the many I thought I had before; where I thought I was a contributor and not a destroyer. Where, with God as the true center, there is glorious blessing and where God is put into a makeshift temporary shelter, disaster strikes as you try to make blessings of your own manufacture. The reflections of my earthly relationships have driven holes into the shallow relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. I have come to realize the truthfulness of the trio of a relationship being sacrosanct….you, the other person and God. I have also realized that I’ll never open the door to that possibility again…..some things are best left in the rearview mirror of our departure, for everyone’s sake. Some would call me a coward, but I realize some wounds will never heal and if they cannot be identified…..the soundest course of action is inaction.
I have seen the good and bad of community, both within the larger context of the universal family of God and in the smaller context of earthly communities where I have spent my time as a resident and an outsider. I see how hard it is for that community to break from the stagnate stillness of the protective walls of its ‘society’ and I’ve seen the harshness that comes from the ‘inbreeding’ that takes place when such a community is so isolated. I have seen communities who struggle successfully despite disadvantages and achieve the type of fellowship that God intended for His bride and be brutally attacked by the world and even other Christians, myself included. Of course, I am one of those who wander in and out of community because my opinions have been said with the intentionality of murder, like Moses and the overseer while others have been because there are those who wonder by what authority I proclaim what I do……like Moses and the Israelites in captivity.
I realize that my life, wrought with pain and trials and suffering and sorrows, has not been worthless or in vain…….the very pain in my joints and the brokenness of my mind have existed because of the road I once walked and that beckons me from over the treetops of this path is nothing more than part of the journey I have been on since I was first gasping for breath in the harsh light of this cold, cruel world…….
We tend to look to God and expect as He has performed open heart surgery that we will recover quickly and completely…..new creatures who simply skip through this world with joy, joy, joy in these newly beating hearts with nar a sorrow to revisit. We find rather quickly that some of us are born for the adversity and others for the nobility of our Father’s kingdom. Some will struggle forever and some will find healing in the morning light.
Saint or Sinner. Noble or Shepherd.
All serve His purpose.
The complexities of life sometimes overwhelm me and the simplicity of ‘waiting’ on the Lord becomes a painful reminder of how unworthy and inadequate I am for any cause or purpose that He’d put into my fragile and weak hands to carry. In every aspect of my life, every bump and resultant bruise that happens along the bumpy road of this journey, there is struggle and painful realizations of how accurate the ol’ song is “If it weren’t for bad luck……”
I’ve come to realize just how broken and lost my life before Christ had become, not by some simple measuring stick that I’ve come across in the Bible but as I’ve faced the situations that have left me grasping for air, struggling for understanding and agonizing over the feelings of being left behind again. As I face on a daily basis that major wound of community, with which I’ve been told I’ll never be able to find acceptability of my purpose within the family…..I’ll forever be the crazy old uncle or brother or friend who runs on the outskirts of the family muttering crazy things no one listens to.
Gone are the illusions of those who spoke edification into my life as if deranged themselves about me being some mighty leader on the front lines with lines of faithful standing with and behind me as I race over the hilltop screaming the battle cry “For My God and King!” (yes, someone actually said that to me years ago….) Gone are the assurances that sometime, in God’s time, such realized purpose will suddenly burst upon the landscape of this world like an atom bomb…..like a revolution of the Gospel speaking salvation into lives once as broken as mine. What I once saw my life as, not as completely in that moment of this imagined call as it had morphed and developed over time, is not what I now see my life becoming.
A friend of mine sent me a post via that great social media called Facebook all the way from the country of England (known as Great Britain or ‘our cousins across the pond’ in some circles). It’s not Mother’s day over there in the enlightened lands of the Brits…..but I digress. I’ll just print what the ‘gist’ of the post was:
“[Message] was on "If we are humble": Shepherds were detested by Egyptians; Moses, having been raised as Egyptian would have known that his kind didn't become one, became shepherd for 40 yrs, during which time he may have thought his being used by God wasn't really going to happen; God was teaching and developing Moses to be humble in tough times so he could be used in later good times.....”
No, I don’t suddenly see myself as a modern-day Moses…..born into slavery and sneaked into royalty until the realization of his birthright drove him to ‘connect’ with his ethnicity in quite the wrong way and he suddenly became a fugitive from both cultures after 40 years of the ‘good life.’ For one, I can’t recall ever having the ‘good life’ (though I am sure there are some who would dispute this fact with me…..) and I definitely screwed up my life well before my 40th year.
But Moses fled and spent the next 40 years in the wilderness tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian around the wilderness of Horeb (the mountain of God). A Shepherd, something the Egyptians despised (at least according to one pastor), is the very thing that Moses became…..apparently without argument or fight. He marries, has a son and doesn’t even have his own wealth….rather he protects and nurtures the wealth of another, his father-in-law, for 40 years. A royal, trained to lead a nation and educated in the methods of the time, puts his staff in front of him and pulls his body along after the sheep. Hard times? Indeed…..hard times that become so commonplace that he doesn’t recognize the hardships anymore.
I have come to learn the purpose of family by the hard road of having treated my family so loosely that I didn’t seek a covenant marriage in which to grow one…..I am blessed with three great kids; one of whom I have just been back in contact with since he was twelve (he’s now sixteen) and two who are living with me, struggling with the broken family that such foolishness of my actions caused. The ignorance of the Gospel only serves as a excuse and not a very valid one at that.
I have come to realize the power of intimate relationship in the brokenness of the many I thought I had before; where I thought I was a contributor and not a destroyer. Where, with God as the true center, there is glorious blessing and where God is put into a makeshift temporary shelter, disaster strikes as you try to make blessings of your own manufacture. The reflections of my earthly relationships have driven holes into the shallow relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. I have come to realize the truthfulness of the trio of a relationship being sacrosanct….you, the other person and God. I have also realized that I’ll never open the door to that possibility again…..some things are best left in the rearview mirror of our departure, for everyone’s sake. Some would call me a coward, but I realize some wounds will never heal and if they cannot be identified…..the soundest course of action is inaction.
I have seen the good and bad of community, both within the larger context of the universal family of God and in the smaller context of earthly communities where I have spent my time as a resident and an outsider. I see how hard it is for that community to break from the stagnate stillness of the protective walls of its ‘society’ and I’ve seen the harshness that comes from the ‘inbreeding’ that takes place when such a community is so isolated. I have seen communities who struggle successfully despite disadvantages and achieve the type of fellowship that God intended for His bride and be brutally attacked by the world and even other Christians, myself included. Of course, I am one of those who wander in and out of community because my opinions have been said with the intentionality of murder, like Moses and the overseer while others have been because there are those who wonder by what authority I proclaim what I do……like Moses and the Israelites in captivity.
I realize that my life, wrought with pain and trials and suffering and sorrows, has not been worthless or in vain…….the very pain in my joints and the brokenness of my mind have existed because of the road I once walked and that beckons me from over the treetops of this path is nothing more than part of the journey I have been on since I was first gasping for breath in the harsh light of this cold, cruel world…….
We tend to look to God and expect as He has performed open heart surgery that we will recover quickly and completely…..new creatures who simply skip through this world with joy, joy, joy in these newly beating hearts with nar a sorrow to revisit. We find rather quickly that some of us are born for the adversity and others for the nobility of our Father’s kingdom. Some will struggle forever and some will find healing in the morning light.
Saint or Sinner. Noble or Shepherd.
All serve His purpose.
Wednesday, May 4
Financial Peace......maybe for my children
Tonight, at the 'worldwide' headquarters of the Mosaic A2 Church offices, I sat down with some friends and some yet-to-be friends and listened to Dave Ramsey, the celebrated Financial Guru talk about how I need to seek the hard road to financial freedom.
It all starts with savings.
It is heartbreaking to see the charts of compound interests and how to effectively use them, knowing that if I would've started in the darker years of my life (19-27) just saving a measley 2,000 a year how much of my life would be different right now. Of course, if I had that kind of financial responsibility back then, life would indeed be so much different right now. Ramsey has learned from his mistakes that took him from a 4 million dollar empire and left him with a wife, a home and the clothes on their backs when he was 30.
For the next ninety-one days, one night a week, I will sit down with my cohorts in this endeavour and face the realities of financial bondage as we learn how to be realistic about finances. "Money is not the root of evil," Ramsey reminds us, "It is the LOVE of money that is." Not only is Ramsey going to show us how to 'beat debt' but actually turn the tables and make some wealth to be debt-free for the rest of our lives.
A wise and important process to learn, especially in a college town where many of the very future of this country are already indebted by heavy expenses for the education they are pursuing.
I don't know if Ramsey's process of focusing on the hard road to financial freedom is going to be able to transform my life; I have no unemployment to rely on and am laid off of my temporary position for at least the next three months with only enough to keep the family in a home and with electricity for this month alone. Back in the search for employment, even if it makes me nothing more than the 'working poor.'
The fantastic idea of having an emergency fund AND six months worth of living expenses is a fantasy that I might be able to fool myself enough to get to sleep tonight but not a realistic way to face the scary future to come. These are ideals that I never even thought of when I was young.
Ramsey might be a genius on the financial market but he isn't a miracle worker.
But looking at the effect that 'credit' has had on my life and the destruction of living beyond the average 'paycheck-to-paycheck' mentality that afflicts most Americans, I have to do my best because it is not me I hope to save from the hardships that are ahead, but my children....one of whom is coming up closely on that 'magical' 19 year old mark. Amid the fact that I won't have a car in a month (its dying) and am behind the proverbial 'eight-ball' with too much needed to even start off at the basement level of living, I have three children that are looking at our situation and wondering how they can do any better.
This is what I believe Dave Ramsey can teach them and through the process of attending and struggling through the classes, this is what I hope to teach them; something as valuable and freeing as anything else I can bring to them....biblical principles of money management in a practical format for the realities of this world.
You can go to the daveramsey.com website and look up other classes that are beginning or underway in the Ann Arbor Area and begin the adventure of reclaiming your financial freedom from this life through the realistic teaching of Dave Ramsey. You can do this as a single person, as a married couple or a family......but until we, as the American citizen, reclaim this area of our lives, we will always be victims of the ill-advised "American Dream" of stuff.
And if we start teaching a generation to live financially free maybe, just maybe, we will create a generation that will become those statesmen and women of the Federal Government who will reclaim for the country its own financial freedom from the debts that we have allowed to be incurred in the name of democracy.
Maybe in this process, you'll learn to reclaim your lives from the financial bondage that has gripped many American families in the declined economic market and then we can, as a country, reclaim our government from those who have indebted generations to come.
One 'baby step', as Dave Ramsey would say..........
Begins the journey towards its reality.
It all starts with savings.
It is heartbreaking to see the charts of compound interests and how to effectively use them, knowing that if I would've started in the darker years of my life (19-27) just saving a measley 2,000 a year how much of my life would be different right now. Of course, if I had that kind of financial responsibility back then, life would indeed be so much different right now. Ramsey has learned from his mistakes that took him from a 4 million dollar empire and left him with a wife, a home and the clothes on their backs when he was 30.
For the next ninety-one days, one night a week, I will sit down with my cohorts in this endeavour and face the realities of financial bondage as we learn how to be realistic about finances. "Money is not the root of evil," Ramsey reminds us, "It is the LOVE of money that is." Not only is Ramsey going to show us how to 'beat debt' but actually turn the tables and make some wealth to be debt-free for the rest of our lives.
A wise and important process to learn, especially in a college town where many of the very future of this country are already indebted by heavy expenses for the education they are pursuing.
I don't know if Ramsey's process of focusing on the hard road to financial freedom is going to be able to transform my life; I have no unemployment to rely on and am laid off of my temporary position for at least the next three months with only enough to keep the family in a home and with electricity for this month alone. Back in the search for employment, even if it makes me nothing more than the 'working poor.'
The fantastic idea of having an emergency fund AND six months worth of living expenses is a fantasy that I might be able to fool myself enough to get to sleep tonight but not a realistic way to face the scary future to come. These are ideals that I never even thought of when I was young.
Ramsey might be a genius on the financial market but he isn't a miracle worker.
But looking at the effect that 'credit' has had on my life and the destruction of living beyond the average 'paycheck-to-paycheck' mentality that afflicts most Americans, I have to do my best because it is not me I hope to save from the hardships that are ahead, but my children....one of whom is coming up closely on that 'magical' 19 year old mark. Amid the fact that I won't have a car in a month (its dying) and am behind the proverbial 'eight-ball' with too much needed to even start off at the basement level of living, I have three children that are looking at our situation and wondering how they can do any better.
This is what I believe Dave Ramsey can teach them and through the process of attending and struggling through the classes, this is what I hope to teach them; something as valuable and freeing as anything else I can bring to them....biblical principles of money management in a practical format for the realities of this world.
You can go to the daveramsey.com website and look up other classes that are beginning or underway in the Ann Arbor Area and begin the adventure of reclaiming your financial freedom from this life through the realistic teaching of Dave Ramsey. You can do this as a single person, as a married couple or a family......but until we, as the American citizen, reclaim this area of our lives, we will always be victims of the ill-advised "American Dream" of stuff.
And if we start teaching a generation to live financially free maybe, just maybe, we will create a generation that will become those statesmen and women of the Federal Government who will reclaim for the country its own financial freedom from the debts that we have allowed to be incurred in the name of democracy.
Maybe in this process, you'll learn to reclaim your lives from the financial bondage that has gripped many American families in the declined economic market and then we can, as a country, reclaim our government from those who have indebted generations to come.
One 'baby step', as Dave Ramsey would say..........
Begins the journey towards its reality.
Have you seen them?
“Joseph, a Levite and a Cypriot by birth, whom the apostles named Barnabas, which is translated Son of Encouragement, sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.” [Act 4:36-37 HCSB]
Some people say to follow the fruit back to see what spiritual gifts you have been given by the Spirit to use for the sake of the Kingdom and the mission of all of those in the family of God. It is in the evidence of what has been done that what can be done is visible to expand upon and grow into an orchard of fruitful trees. They often use that in justification of the mega-church or multi-church phenomenon that has overtaken the Western Christian faith in the postmodern world.
We love successful things, tangible and concrete metrics to measure the effectiveness of our God’s investment in our lives. And it makes great business sense as well, which is the typical ‘structural’ integrity of our church system, whether it is fundamentalist Baptist, nondenominational bible-believing, missional Protestant or Roman Catholic. What chaos would ensue if we didn’t follow a successful model?
We want it in our leaders as well, that unblemished and unaltered image of success; pews or seating filled to capacity, a worship style that has them swaying in their seats and clapping out loud and a sermon that fits the needs of everyone without offending anyone. It’s a condition of the American dream; success. We don’t want those who aren’t successful by the standards set or at all to ever be in charge of something as important as the church we’ve worked so hard to establish. We fracture, angrily lash out or are heartbroken when one of the “leaders” of the universal church falls or goes off into unbiblical grounds.
We defend those who preach a gospel absent of total, absolute truth like Rob Bell and Joel Osteen "because its not hurting anyone" while crucifying those who have been isolated to the accountability of brothers and sisters around them to the point of falling into sin "because they've fallen from grace". We cheer and clap as those who have committed sin daringly stand in defiance of Scripture and proclaim themselves healed and yet keep underfoot those who openly struggle with worldly things……for they aren’t allowed to speak God’s word.
Makes me wonder if there are any Barnabas’ left in the postmodern Westernized Church of Christianity.
I know there are, because I have seen them. They aren’t the ones who grace the leadership team, spending 65% of the church’s budget to pay for their salaries and those of the rest of the team. They aren’t the ones who typically lead the ministries that are customized by the leadership to reach the ‘maximum’ people. They aren’t the ones who are visible in the church social functions or outreach events or tithing accountability.
They aren’t the ones who sit in the pews, nod at the appropriate times and dutifully clap when a worship song is done particularly well. They aren’t vocal in church dissension and don’t usually argue their cases before the authorities that be. They are silent, unassuming and dedicated to a cause that defies church walls and is unrealized by social circles.
They are the ones who are always there in the church, always doing something within its walls to encourage those who are in power positions to thrive, to do the job right that God has graced them to have and to make the mission of primary and utmost importance. They are the ones who never say no, even when they would rather take a break from volunteering and maybe be served for some time instead. They are the ones who step up when stepping up gives them nothing except a heartfelt thanks.
They are the ones who encourage those who are in better positions than they to keep on when the going gets rough and who impart the knowledge gained from their own failures for the sake of someone else’s triumphs. They very seldom sit down in a meeting or silent during discussions.
They wear their hearts on their sleeves and their lives on their shoulders. They take slights and insults, bear misery and denials and grudgingly give up on God inspired dreams when faced with opposition. They allow the lives they themselves would rather have to be lived through those who are in better positions to live them and yet they never say a word to anyone. They struggle in their weaknesses and acknowledge them for the benefits of others to avoid or draw comfort from them while encouraging those who struggle with things that aren't as bad (on the human scale).
Barnabas, the Encourager, was still active in the Lord’s work in 55 A.D., though we are not told what or where he is. Church tradition says that both Barnabas and John Mark “continued their missionary work and Barnabas became the first Bishop of Salamis, his native city, where he is said to have been martyred and secretly buried by his cousin Mark” (Meinardus 1973: 11; Acts of Barnabas). Barnabas was active in ministry in Rome, Alexandria in Egypt and Caesarea in Judea, according to The Recognitions of Clement (1994: 78-80; Zahn 1907: 459, footnote 2).
To the west of the ancient ruins of Salamis there is a Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to Barnabas and a tomb in the surrounding area that is said to be his.
Dr. D. Edmond Hiebert notes this about this man, “Barnabas stands out as one of the choicest saints of the early Christian Church. He had a gracious personality, characterized by a generous disposition, and possessed a gift of insight concerning the spiritual potential of others. He excelled in building bridges of sympathy and understanding across the chasms of difference which divided individuals, classes, and [ethnic groups]. He lived apart from petty narrowness and suspicion and had a largeness of heart that enabled him to encourage those who failed and to succor the friendless and needy. He did have his faults and shortcomings, but those faults arose out of the very traits that made him such a kind and generous man – his ready sympathy for others’ feelings and his eagerness to think the best of everyone” (1992: 52).
Do you know someone in your church fellowship who is like that? Who stands firmly in the shadows of those who need or have to shine brighter for the sake of all those who stand in the darkness? Can you see the weaknesses that they have being a part of who they are valued as?
I know a few Barnabas’……
They don’t grace the stage on Sunday, power the glorious worship in the beginning or even drive the ministries in the Church walls or without. They are there, they are unseen mostly but always sought out when things need to be supported with prayer, with time/money tithing or even physically. They never quit even when they long to be encouraged.
They are our safety net in a world that would abuse us.
They are a reflection of God's desire for us.
And that is more valuable than any success we could have.
Some people say to follow the fruit back to see what spiritual gifts you have been given by the Spirit to use for the sake of the Kingdom and the mission of all of those in the family of God. It is in the evidence of what has been done that what can be done is visible to expand upon and grow into an orchard of fruitful trees. They often use that in justification of the mega-church or multi-church phenomenon that has overtaken the Western Christian faith in the postmodern world.
We love successful things, tangible and concrete metrics to measure the effectiveness of our God’s investment in our lives. And it makes great business sense as well, which is the typical ‘structural’ integrity of our church system, whether it is fundamentalist Baptist, nondenominational bible-believing, missional Protestant or Roman Catholic. What chaos would ensue if we didn’t follow a successful model?
We want it in our leaders as well, that unblemished and unaltered image of success; pews or seating filled to capacity, a worship style that has them swaying in their seats and clapping out loud and a sermon that fits the needs of everyone without offending anyone. It’s a condition of the American dream; success. We don’t want those who aren’t successful by the standards set or at all to ever be in charge of something as important as the church we’ve worked so hard to establish. We fracture, angrily lash out or are heartbroken when one of the “leaders” of the universal church falls or goes off into unbiblical grounds.
We defend those who preach a gospel absent of total, absolute truth like Rob Bell and Joel Osteen "because its not hurting anyone" while crucifying those who have been isolated to the accountability of brothers and sisters around them to the point of falling into sin "because they've fallen from grace". We cheer and clap as those who have committed sin daringly stand in defiance of Scripture and proclaim themselves healed and yet keep underfoot those who openly struggle with worldly things……for they aren’t allowed to speak God’s word.
Makes me wonder if there are any Barnabas’ left in the postmodern Westernized Church of Christianity.
I know there are, because I have seen them. They aren’t the ones who grace the leadership team, spending 65% of the church’s budget to pay for their salaries and those of the rest of the team. They aren’t the ones who typically lead the ministries that are customized by the leadership to reach the ‘maximum’ people. They aren’t the ones who are visible in the church social functions or outreach events or tithing accountability.
They aren’t the ones who sit in the pews, nod at the appropriate times and dutifully clap when a worship song is done particularly well. They aren’t vocal in church dissension and don’t usually argue their cases before the authorities that be. They are silent, unassuming and dedicated to a cause that defies church walls and is unrealized by social circles.
They are the ones who are always there in the church, always doing something within its walls to encourage those who are in power positions to thrive, to do the job right that God has graced them to have and to make the mission of primary and utmost importance. They are the ones who never say no, even when they would rather take a break from volunteering and maybe be served for some time instead. They are the ones who step up when stepping up gives them nothing except a heartfelt thanks.
They are the ones who encourage those who are in better positions than they to keep on when the going gets rough and who impart the knowledge gained from their own failures for the sake of someone else’s triumphs. They very seldom sit down in a meeting or silent during discussions.
They wear their hearts on their sleeves and their lives on their shoulders. They take slights and insults, bear misery and denials and grudgingly give up on God inspired dreams when faced with opposition. They allow the lives they themselves would rather have to be lived through those who are in better positions to live them and yet they never say a word to anyone. They struggle in their weaknesses and acknowledge them for the benefits of others to avoid or draw comfort from them while encouraging those who struggle with things that aren't as bad (on the human scale).
Barnabas, the Encourager, was still active in the Lord’s work in 55 A.D., though we are not told what or where he is. Church tradition says that both Barnabas and John Mark “continued their missionary work and Barnabas became the first Bishop of Salamis, his native city, where he is said to have been martyred and secretly buried by his cousin Mark” (Meinardus 1973: 11; Acts of Barnabas). Barnabas was active in ministry in Rome, Alexandria in Egypt and Caesarea in Judea, according to The Recognitions of Clement (1994: 78-80; Zahn 1907: 459, footnote 2).
To the west of the ancient ruins of Salamis there is a Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to Barnabas and a tomb in the surrounding area that is said to be his.
Dr. D. Edmond Hiebert notes this about this man, “Barnabas stands out as one of the choicest saints of the early Christian Church. He had a gracious personality, characterized by a generous disposition, and possessed a gift of insight concerning the spiritual potential of others. He excelled in building bridges of sympathy and understanding across the chasms of difference which divided individuals, classes, and [ethnic groups]. He lived apart from petty narrowness and suspicion and had a largeness of heart that enabled him to encourage those who failed and to succor the friendless and needy. He did have his faults and shortcomings, but those faults arose out of the very traits that made him such a kind and generous man – his ready sympathy for others’ feelings and his eagerness to think the best of everyone” (1992: 52).
Do you know someone in your church fellowship who is like that? Who stands firmly in the shadows of those who need or have to shine brighter for the sake of all those who stand in the darkness? Can you see the weaknesses that they have being a part of who they are valued as?
I know a few Barnabas’……
They don’t grace the stage on Sunday, power the glorious worship in the beginning or even drive the ministries in the Church walls or without. They are there, they are unseen mostly but always sought out when things need to be supported with prayer, with time/money tithing or even physically. They never quit even when they long to be encouraged.
They are our safety net in a world that would abuse us.
They are a reflection of God's desire for us.
And that is more valuable than any success we could have.
Sunday, May 1
God....so much more than that
"He stretches out his heavens over empty space. He hangs the earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the water in his thick clouds, and the clouds don't even split under its weight. He covers his throne by spreading his cloud over it. He marks the horizon on the surface of the water at the boundary where light meets dark. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished when he yells at them. With his power he calmed the sea. With his insight he killed Rahab the sea monster. With his wind the sky was cleared. With his hand he stabbed the fleeing snake. These are only glimpses of what he does. We only hear a whisper of him! Who can understand the thunder of his power?" (Job 26:7-14)
I don’t write like I used to.
I find myself being sidelined or even pushed out of the way, it seems. Everyone tired of the same old weary repeat of my life being a struggle or a fight to even breathe sometimes. No one wants to listen to a story that is crawling along, seemingly without merit, in the drearily pre-morning gloom before the dawning of the sun. The Christian life is supposed to be one of salvation, struggle and then achievement…..the overcoming of the many strongholds that complicate our lives.
When someone brings up the fact that Christ struggled, many times in His ministry time on this planet, they are shooed quickly out of the picture. God doesn’t want us to suffer, He doesn’t want us to feel the bitter pain of abuse or neglect or hatred, and no, no, no--- He doesn’t send things our way that seem usually harsh and full of sorrows. He is a gracious God, a good God and would never deliver upon us difficulties that we, as our bodies are lashed to the main mast of our ship, are not sure we will survive. That would be evil, and our God cannot do evil.
Funny thing is, no one said God does.
We struggle with who this God is, what He is about and how we can fit Him into our understanding. So we come up with highlighters and go through the Bible marking each and every love phrase that we can possibly contrive such feeling from……and when we hit the hard ones, the ones that bring us face to face with the realistic image of God….a complete image of Wrath, Anger, Love and Compassion, when we hit those we stumble and twist them around to try and fit our image of who God is. We try to bring God back down to earth on our terms.
And we fail.
Once upon a time, when this was all new and fresh to me……you know the time I’m talking about, when God’s voice remained fresh in your ear as if He had just whispered “I love you” in them. Where you can still feel His hand upon your shoulder as He displays all of His glory for you……in that time, I believed the powerful, magnificence and beautiful authority of my God when He spoke those words that sent me into a wild frenzy of denial and hysterical laughter. I believed when, as I finally surrendered before Him yet again, that He would do what He had planned free from the constraints of my past and my future even as He walked in my present. Believed that, in Him (not through, because or even for Him) that I would do what He wanted because it was His plan, His ideal and His life to do with what He would do. I gave it to Him that February day, because I thought anything less was not showing my gratitude for the gift of mercy that He gave me.
Me. Chief of all sinners (as Paul would say).
Even as I started on the systematic journey of demolition to my life, (you see even the joists in the floor were rotten) I was still walking on the proverbial cloud nine….God would, God could and therefore God was going to do what He wanted in my life to prepare me for the purpose that He had presented to me that October day. Oh, there were plenty of moments in the midst of the pain, in the heartache of the disbelief and the discouraging, that I would wonder why, why this God would even bother with this mess called humanity. Why He wouldn’t simply just erase and repeat with a better design. I questioned even as He presented the next part of the journey, the next desert experience and those late night campfires in the wilderness of despair. I wondered why me and pondered the divinity behind the call, the purposing behind the purpose.
I have been uncomfortable since that day in February and completely lost without a clue of my direction since that October day even as I’ve grown comfortable in His provisions and focused only where He would have me go rather than the journey to get there. I have argued, cried and begged just as many times as I have calmly thanked Him for the limitations, healing and discipline that He has introduced into my life. Even as I’ve realized how far I’ve come, I realize how far I yet to go with the likelihood I will never get there this side of the White Throne.
But in everything, even this journey towards the Home I’ve never known, I guess the ‘honeymoon’ phase has to come to an end and the mundane of just the daily walk come to a collision point and the mundane takes over. Like an ‘old’ married couple, the Christian settles into an easy kind of life where things turn into blessings on a dime and your steps become a graceful gliding sweep through chandeliered ceiling halls and beautiful ordained gardens. Struggles become those moments at ‘tea time’ when the cupcakes aren’t perfect and the tea a bit tart.
God becomes this great guy who wants nothing but love and is willing to do anything for us to get us to love Him. Why wouldn’t He want to ‘bless’ us with more money than we can spend in one lifetime? Our tithe of 10% would be so much more if we had more money to take care of everything else too. Why wouldn’t He want to fix our wounds, binding them tight with His healing mercies? He doesn’t want to have us experience pain or sorrow.
What we fail to realize, what we don’t want to understand and what we dare not think is that God is not us. And He ‘owes’ us a lot less than we think we are due, even if we are simply grateful for His gift of Salvation. And He is God, unlike us in every way.
His own Son, three-in-one/Fully God-Fully Man/Messiah, felt the struggle of despair and sorrow. He experienced the harshness of death and the silence of hatred. In the Garden, the night before His death, He wept tears of blood and was broken in the despair of what was to come. But He did it, not because of love but because of the commitment He made to His Father’s will……He doesn’t say in the night before that He was doing it because of love, though love was surely one of the motivations He felt. He did it because it was His Father’s plan, because He had to.
And God, in His way, turned His back upon His only Begotten Son as He was draped with the sinfulness of the whole of mankind in disgust and shame as He died. He despaired for this lost Son even as He waited for the plan to go forth to its conclusion for this part……
That sounds like a Father of Love to me.
He owes us nothing more than the penalty for the sinfulness that we have, even these ‘crystal-clean’ Christians. He is more than justified to reach out and strike us all dead as He did the generation in the desert who made the Golden Calf idol rather than redeem any one of us. The greatest of us, the ones without many sins, are just as guilty of the punishment we deserve as those like me who have more than a lifetime full of penal labor to try to start paying for the price of our admission in Heaven. He has more than a right to demand our lives in servitude and withhold judgment on whether we are getting into His mansions or even the grounds of His kingdom. Just because He desires that all would be saved, He doesn’t force everyone to be saved.
He doesn’t have to remove the penalties of this world upon our lives or instantly change all the imperfections that we develop over the life spent in the darkness; the bruised knees and shins, the bleeding cuts and scrapes or the bumps rising on our heads from the collisions in the night.
We have but a whisper of who He is and what He is capable of.
It would take an eternity to understand who God is and what He thinks about the struggles in our lives or the sorrows that come our way. Part of our Heavenly eternity is going to be the eternal opening of our eyes to His wonders anew and the deep awe of how far off we were of His grace in view of His power, His wrath and His righteous anger towards our sinfulness.
But the church isn’t all bad, as Pastor Will from the church plant group I attend every other Sunday was pointing out today. Far from being understanding of our lack of perfection and highlighting what is good and right in this warfare that is taking place on this world. We aren’t prone to divorce more than non-Christians nor are we lacking in charity or other works. We are not perfect and it is that lack of perfection that hazes the image of God. We are told we’re constantly screwing up when it is not us who do the real work anyway. But we become complacent in our worship, bored in our walk and fade away from the fellowship…a fellowship we vitally need, if the stats that Pastor Will showed us tonight are truthfully as best they can be.
Connection with church and the fellowship helps us be better followers and the fruits that come from our faith are exponentially greater in the community of believers. But I digress…..
As we grow closer and closer to this God we cannot get a ‘full picture’ of because of our humanity, our humanity is more conformed to what God intended us to be in the first place and we become less combative about ideologies that are wrong and more interested in enticing them to grow in those ideologies to the point where they realize the emptiness of the religious movements by humans. We become less bitter about the deliberate wounding by the world, those who are in league with the enemy and those within the family who stumble along as much as we do. We seek as a community, as a family, to gather our understanding of God together and dialogue about the mysteries that are revealed in the discussions about our Father and His Son and His Holy Spirit. Then we become a even great force for the glory of the Kingdom’s King and less marked by the world’s culture because we are the ‘dominant culture’ by our effectiveness at love with accounting, mercy and grace.
And when the stories of struggles, trials and pain come into the repeat mode of life, when a brother or a sister struggle with an addiction, disease or mental fatigue yet again or a once-dedicated and effective warrior for the Kingdom is tricked and swayed by the enemy’s lies when they shouldn’t have been, we don’t hesitate to step into those lives and see the glory of God working itself even in those places and by our rejoicing in the struggling well of our family member they are empowered once again to rise back into God’s grace and be repurposed in His plan for them.
And it no longer becomes a game of ‘when are you going to be ready’ but a life of dedicated ‘we will get you ready’ for what God has in store for His people.
So, if your beliefs are so fragile that you cannot dedicate the time to a family member in the body who has been struggling well, but struggling long or you look with painful sorrow upon a brother or sister who was once of prominence in the body but has fallen from the isolation of leadership or the whispered lies of the enemy that have opened those old wounds……then I would ask God to strengthen you for the primary duty of this Body, to love one another and strengthen one another, accountable in love. Because when we focus on what God calls family with what God tells us the characteristics of that family, we live that life as undeniably God’s. We stop worrying about a 'definable' progress, check marks on a list of things that we cannot control in a general sense and become more specific in our personal dealings with someone else.....we seek God's will not our own definition.....we worry less about our agenda and more about His.
This is why I don’t write so much anymore…….I really don’t know if anyone is listening anymore. And this is why part of the adore of the call has faded into the background of the din of battle……
God is so much more than what we can even imagine and as Job says, we have glimpsed but a whisper of His thunderous power…….He is so much more than the simplicity of love and more wrathful than our worse and darkest anger……
He is our God and jealous for us…….
With just the glimpse of His power and character, I’ll stand steady for Him on the mysteries I have yet to become revealed on….
Because of what I’ve already seen, He is worthy of my praise and justified in His plans for me, whether sorrow or joy, peace or chaos, pain or peace……
God is god, and I am not, and He is not limited by my lack of understanding.
Understand if you've made it this far in this blog, I am not saying that God is capable or even willfully involved in the evil works of the enemy. I am saying that in the definition we use of what bad and good is, we must realize that we are using our definition and not necessarily God's. For if what we once thought was a bad thing (mislabeled as evil) actually brought us closer to God or disciplined us to be effective warriors for the Kingdom, isn't that a good thing?
Just my thoughts.
I don’t write like I used to.
I find myself being sidelined or even pushed out of the way, it seems. Everyone tired of the same old weary repeat of my life being a struggle or a fight to even breathe sometimes. No one wants to listen to a story that is crawling along, seemingly without merit, in the drearily pre-morning gloom before the dawning of the sun. The Christian life is supposed to be one of salvation, struggle and then achievement…..the overcoming of the many strongholds that complicate our lives.
When someone brings up the fact that Christ struggled, many times in His ministry time on this planet, they are shooed quickly out of the picture. God doesn’t want us to suffer, He doesn’t want us to feel the bitter pain of abuse or neglect or hatred, and no, no, no--- He doesn’t send things our way that seem usually harsh and full of sorrows. He is a gracious God, a good God and would never deliver upon us difficulties that we, as our bodies are lashed to the main mast of our ship, are not sure we will survive. That would be evil, and our God cannot do evil.
Funny thing is, no one said God does.
We struggle with who this God is, what He is about and how we can fit Him into our understanding. So we come up with highlighters and go through the Bible marking each and every love phrase that we can possibly contrive such feeling from……and when we hit the hard ones, the ones that bring us face to face with the realistic image of God….a complete image of Wrath, Anger, Love and Compassion, when we hit those we stumble and twist them around to try and fit our image of who God is. We try to bring God back down to earth on our terms.
And we fail.
Once upon a time, when this was all new and fresh to me……you know the time I’m talking about, when God’s voice remained fresh in your ear as if He had just whispered “I love you” in them. Where you can still feel His hand upon your shoulder as He displays all of His glory for you……in that time, I believed the powerful, magnificence and beautiful authority of my God when He spoke those words that sent me into a wild frenzy of denial and hysterical laughter. I believed when, as I finally surrendered before Him yet again, that He would do what He had planned free from the constraints of my past and my future even as He walked in my present. Believed that, in Him (not through, because or even for Him) that I would do what He wanted because it was His plan, His ideal and His life to do with what He would do. I gave it to Him that February day, because I thought anything less was not showing my gratitude for the gift of mercy that He gave me.
Me. Chief of all sinners (as Paul would say).
Even as I started on the systematic journey of demolition to my life, (you see even the joists in the floor were rotten) I was still walking on the proverbial cloud nine….God would, God could and therefore God was going to do what He wanted in my life to prepare me for the purpose that He had presented to me that October day. Oh, there were plenty of moments in the midst of the pain, in the heartache of the disbelief and the discouraging, that I would wonder why, why this God would even bother with this mess called humanity. Why He wouldn’t simply just erase and repeat with a better design. I questioned even as He presented the next part of the journey, the next desert experience and those late night campfires in the wilderness of despair. I wondered why me and pondered the divinity behind the call, the purposing behind the purpose.
I have been uncomfortable since that day in February and completely lost without a clue of my direction since that October day even as I’ve grown comfortable in His provisions and focused only where He would have me go rather than the journey to get there. I have argued, cried and begged just as many times as I have calmly thanked Him for the limitations, healing and discipline that He has introduced into my life. Even as I’ve realized how far I’ve come, I realize how far I yet to go with the likelihood I will never get there this side of the White Throne.
But in everything, even this journey towards the Home I’ve never known, I guess the ‘honeymoon’ phase has to come to an end and the mundane of just the daily walk come to a collision point and the mundane takes over. Like an ‘old’ married couple, the Christian settles into an easy kind of life where things turn into blessings on a dime and your steps become a graceful gliding sweep through chandeliered ceiling halls and beautiful ordained gardens. Struggles become those moments at ‘tea time’ when the cupcakes aren’t perfect and the tea a bit tart.
God becomes this great guy who wants nothing but love and is willing to do anything for us to get us to love Him. Why wouldn’t He want to ‘bless’ us with more money than we can spend in one lifetime? Our tithe of 10% would be so much more if we had more money to take care of everything else too. Why wouldn’t He want to fix our wounds, binding them tight with His healing mercies? He doesn’t want to have us experience pain or sorrow.
What we fail to realize, what we don’t want to understand and what we dare not think is that God is not us. And He ‘owes’ us a lot less than we think we are due, even if we are simply grateful for His gift of Salvation. And He is God, unlike us in every way.
His own Son, three-in-one/Fully God-Fully Man/Messiah, felt the struggle of despair and sorrow. He experienced the harshness of death and the silence of hatred. In the Garden, the night before His death, He wept tears of blood and was broken in the despair of what was to come. But He did it, not because of love but because of the commitment He made to His Father’s will……He doesn’t say in the night before that He was doing it because of love, though love was surely one of the motivations He felt. He did it because it was His Father’s plan, because He had to.
And God, in His way, turned His back upon His only Begotten Son as He was draped with the sinfulness of the whole of mankind in disgust and shame as He died. He despaired for this lost Son even as He waited for the plan to go forth to its conclusion for this part……
That sounds like a Father of Love to me.
He owes us nothing more than the penalty for the sinfulness that we have, even these ‘crystal-clean’ Christians. He is more than justified to reach out and strike us all dead as He did the generation in the desert who made the Golden Calf idol rather than redeem any one of us. The greatest of us, the ones without many sins, are just as guilty of the punishment we deserve as those like me who have more than a lifetime full of penal labor to try to start paying for the price of our admission in Heaven. He has more than a right to demand our lives in servitude and withhold judgment on whether we are getting into His mansions or even the grounds of His kingdom. Just because He desires that all would be saved, He doesn’t force everyone to be saved.
He doesn’t have to remove the penalties of this world upon our lives or instantly change all the imperfections that we develop over the life spent in the darkness; the bruised knees and shins, the bleeding cuts and scrapes or the bumps rising on our heads from the collisions in the night.
We have but a whisper of who He is and what He is capable of.
It would take an eternity to understand who God is and what He thinks about the struggles in our lives or the sorrows that come our way. Part of our Heavenly eternity is going to be the eternal opening of our eyes to His wonders anew and the deep awe of how far off we were of His grace in view of His power, His wrath and His righteous anger towards our sinfulness.
But the church isn’t all bad, as Pastor Will from the church plant group I attend every other Sunday was pointing out today. Far from being understanding of our lack of perfection and highlighting what is good and right in this warfare that is taking place on this world. We aren’t prone to divorce more than non-Christians nor are we lacking in charity or other works. We are not perfect and it is that lack of perfection that hazes the image of God. We are told we’re constantly screwing up when it is not us who do the real work anyway. But we become complacent in our worship, bored in our walk and fade away from the fellowship…a fellowship we vitally need, if the stats that Pastor Will showed us tonight are truthfully as best they can be.
Connection with church and the fellowship helps us be better followers and the fruits that come from our faith are exponentially greater in the community of believers. But I digress…..
As we grow closer and closer to this God we cannot get a ‘full picture’ of because of our humanity, our humanity is more conformed to what God intended us to be in the first place and we become less combative about ideologies that are wrong and more interested in enticing them to grow in those ideologies to the point where they realize the emptiness of the religious movements by humans. We become less bitter about the deliberate wounding by the world, those who are in league with the enemy and those within the family who stumble along as much as we do. We seek as a community, as a family, to gather our understanding of God together and dialogue about the mysteries that are revealed in the discussions about our Father and His Son and His Holy Spirit. Then we become a even great force for the glory of the Kingdom’s King and less marked by the world’s culture because we are the ‘dominant culture’ by our effectiveness at love with accounting, mercy and grace.
And when the stories of struggles, trials and pain come into the repeat mode of life, when a brother or a sister struggle with an addiction, disease or mental fatigue yet again or a once-dedicated and effective warrior for the Kingdom is tricked and swayed by the enemy’s lies when they shouldn’t have been, we don’t hesitate to step into those lives and see the glory of God working itself even in those places and by our rejoicing in the struggling well of our family member they are empowered once again to rise back into God’s grace and be repurposed in His plan for them.
And it no longer becomes a game of ‘when are you going to be ready’ but a life of dedicated ‘we will get you ready’ for what God has in store for His people.
So, if your beliefs are so fragile that you cannot dedicate the time to a family member in the body who has been struggling well, but struggling long or you look with painful sorrow upon a brother or sister who was once of prominence in the body but has fallen from the isolation of leadership or the whispered lies of the enemy that have opened those old wounds……then I would ask God to strengthen you for the primary duty of this Body, to love one another and strengthen one another, accountable in love. Because when we focus on what God calls family with what God tells us the characteristics of that family, we live that life as undeniably God’s. We stop worrying about a 'definable' progress, check marks on a list of things that we cannot control in a general sense and become more specific in our personal dealings with someone else.....we seek God's will not our own definition.....we worry less about our agenda and more about His.
This is why I don’t write so much anymore…….I really don’t know if anyone is listening anymore. And this is why part of the adore of the call has faded into the background of the din of battle……
God is so much more than what we can even imagine and as Job says, we have glimpsed but a whisper of His thunderous power…….He is so much more than the simplicity of love and more wrathful than our worse and darkest anger……
He is our God and jealous for us…….
With just the glimpse of His power and character, I’ll stand steady for Him on the mysteries I have yet to become revealed on….
Because of what I’ve already seen, He is worthy of my praise and justified in His plans for me, whether sorrow or joy, peace or chaos, pain or peace……
God is god, and I am not, and He is not limited by my lack of understanding.
Understand if you've made it this far in this blog, I am not saying that God is capable or even willfully involved in the evil works of the enemy. I am saying that in the definition we use of what bad and good is, we must realize that we are using our definition and not necessarily God's. For if what we once thought was a bad thing (mislabeled as evil) actually brought us closer to God or disciplined us to be effective warriors for the Kingdom, isn't that a good thing?
Just my thoughts.
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