You are involved in a conspiracy bigger than anything in history

It’s a tale of epic portions that defies even the logic of the multiple shooters in the John F Kennedy assassination, the Moon landing hoax or even Barrack Obama’s birth certificate cover-up. It reaches into the deepest halls of power and authority in human history and you, dear reader, are a part of it. Yes, you! In The Greener Grass Conspiracy, our co-conspirator Stephen Altrogge takes us into the darkest and biggest conspiracy known to mankind, the conspiracy to steal our happiness that we have through Jesus Christ. Our hearts, along with the world and Satan, have come together to make us perpetually discontented.

Pastor Altrogge, using personal experience and biblical wisdom, carries us through our own cohabitation with the enemy in the “perpetual [manufacturing] of idols”, our foolish attempts to be God and other factors of the GGC to bring us to a point where we can fight the conspiracy within and find the contentment that God provides for us on our “side of the fence” rather than be continually enticed by the belief that it is truly ‘greener on the other side.’

Through though-provoking questions at the end of each chapter and a steady, easy-to-grasp style of the profound, Altrogge takes us through the journey to realize that the grass beneath our feet is the best in the world because our God has provided for our contentment regardless of where we are. But unlike other authors, Altrogge doesn’t stop at the end pages of the book but offers to continue to the discussion in his blog, www.theblazingcenter.com , and his connection on Twitter (twitter.com/stephenaltrogge) and Facebook (Facebook.com/StephenMAltrogge).

After reading this easy and thought-provoking book, you may want to take him up on his offer of continuance.

Altrogge is a Pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania leading worship and working with college students. He is an accomplished song writer with worship songs on the Sovereign Grace Music label and has authored another book entitled Game Day For the Glory of God: A Guide For Athletes, Fans, and Wanabes, which was published by Crossway Books in September 2008 as well as his latest offering, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence.

You can purchase The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence at Crossway.com

God's Will....not dependent on ours....

"I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in me while I abide in him produces much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5 ISV)

I've rejoined the Men's group that I had originally quit to answer the need in the Awana's program (children's ministry at The River). They are studying the book by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King called "Experiencing God: Knowing and doing the Will of God." This study was previously done by the women's group that my friend Cherie attended and in which I saw steady, definable growth by her in her walk. She asked me what I hoped to discover taking such a 'basic' course, a compliment to my spiritual knowledge I guess. I told her, this is the only way to establish relationships that will enable me to create my own bible study group, at least by church philosophy. I finally received the study book and started on it to 'catch up' to the group.

We equate spiritual strength and vitality with wisdom. The wisdom that is reflected in a 'spiritual' walk...i.e. church attendance, social repentance and the shadowy land of 'good fruit'. If you struggle, well it must be because you're not repentant, not being spiritual or -horror of all horrors, unsaved. God is good, and promises the world for us...prosperity, victory and happiness. Therefore, you're not taking ahold of God's promises if you're none of those things. The poor of this world must not be following God, the defeated of the world must not know God's grace and those who aren't happy must not be realizing the joy of the LORD. If we pray for God's will in our lives, and are met with silence…then we must either not be willing to listen or praying the 'right' prayer. We must have a 12-step, an action plan or the vision of a grand campus in which all the ministries we are enticed by can be gathered into one location….or we must not be in God's will for our lives. As I've been told in my quest to answer the call God's placed upon me…one that I thought was simply to function as a 'mouthpiece' for Him….but is so much more (and nothing like I would believe it would/should be); God will provide, if you are indeed anointed to His calling.

Blackaby/King's book is an opportunity for me to slack the sails and let the ship slow down a bit…so that God, walking with me in the midst of this journey, can get a few paces ahead so that I can see the fullness of what He has given me of Himself so far. The authors hit you right in the eyes in the first few pages: "What is God's will for my life? -- is not the right question. I think the right question is, What is God's will?" Dr. Gaines S. Dobbins, a seminary professor the author learned under, is quoted. "If you ask the wrong question, you are going to get the wrong answer." If we want to know God's will, we cannot conform it to the narrow view of our life but must look at God's will and bring ourselves into conformance with it so we can experience God.

Most Christians want instant solutions to the problems they present to their congregational friends, pastor and fellow believers. A child's death should be experienced in the context of the unknown, rather than sitting in the sorrow and grief. A financial burden, well…financial stewardship must be implemented or else assistance won't be forthcoming. The recurrence of sin; you must not be accountable enough or must not be truly repentant. Few stand reflective of the example set by Jesus and what one of my mentors, Scott Engelman, calls a "wise elder". A Christian with passionate convictions about God, His people and this life that come from biblical revelation who moves in wise, powerful and sensitive ways into other people's lives with a godly vision of spiritual maturity with implications of possible continuing struggles with the problems experienced in those lives. The focus is always on God, not our lives or the life problems of others, but what God is doing and how experiences, circumstances and spiritual maturity will look are being used for God's purpose and plan. "What is God doing?" Scott would say. As Blackaby/King ask, are we as the body of Christ, ready to go forward without a clear idea of what God's will ultimately will look like? Or do we require a step-by-step description of what going forward in God's will ultimately will look like? One way relies on God's eyesight, the other our own.

God calls us to an intimate and personal relationship with Him, not for our own gratification or prosperity, but solely for the purposes to which we were created, purposed and are designed for by His own hand. Through the experience of being in the Word, living a life absent of agenda (i.e. this is what I need to be comfortable now) and pursuing God, we find ourselves confronted with our selfishness and protective old nature..coaxed into demanding recognition by the enemy who's only avenue left for our disillusionment is to demand God give us His promises in the context of our own reality. The children never die, finances are always on track and God sends us only where we want to go with a itinerary of what is going to be accomplished.

We want to live our lives under God's protection in the ways we can look without effort for His hand in it. We subject our will to His, as long as it is convenient and we know what He will do with it.

Leonardo da Vinci, who is known as an excellent painter, sculptor, poet, architect, engineer, city planner, scientist, inventor, anatomist, military genius, and philosopher said:

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment…Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and lack of harmony or proportion more readily seen."

Sometimes in that pursuit of knowing God, we have to stop and take stock of what we've learned….in essence, allow God to get a bit ahead of us (not out of sight, but where we can see the fullness of what He's shown us so far). The corrupted old nature still sways and pulls us, redeemed sinners, into paths and degrees of error that can only be realized when we stop and check for a course correction. Granted, if we only kept our eyes on the compass….i.e. God….we wouldn't have to fear such deviations….but we don't, even the 'most' spiritual of us and only a few degrees of error, over time, can lead to disastrous course variations in our journey towards home and the pursuit of God.

It is when we are still in the water, the sails limp upon the masthead and the waves rocking the deck beneath our feet (whether gently or violently) is when we approach our understanding of God, and that intimate relationship, the closest. And we realize that some of the tasks, the assignments and even directions that God beckoned us to join Him in don't seem logical or even worthwhile when He first spoke but in the fullness of the journey, we can see the wisdom of His plan. Too many times, though, we refuse to go without a logical explanation detailing the design and wisdom of God. We speak our dogma with such requirement, we seek out our teachers who can espouse it in our language and 'correct' our scriptural understanding to fit God's word into our demandedness.

Abraham, having the fulfilled promise God made him in Isaac, was told by God to take him to "a mountain" in the Moriah region so he could be a burnt offering. God didn't even tell Abraham which mountain, only that it would be 'one….I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2) Abraham didn't have the guarantee that things would end the way they did….God didn't provide such information to him. Obedience without cost is easy and empty, for there is no faith engaged in such obedience that doesn't require us to believe in the illogical. So much of the 'basics' are easily understood, but when we get into the depth and width of God….the logic is hidden from us, just over the horizon.

It is when God calls us to join Him in the impossible, the incalculable and the unknowable that obedience becomes a walk of faith….a willingness to walk into the furnace that kills even the tenders….to journey the desert for forty years following a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night…or even to journey into the darkness and sorrow of our past to give witness and voice to that which we would deny and are certain means death. Obedience born of faith that seems illogical, that carries impossibly heavy cost (even the cost of a promise God has given) or is so beyond what we consider to be our 'calling' is were God walks closest to us because we live through that faith….a faith that believes God can kill all our dreams, remove all our promises and blessings but that He also has the power to resurrect them, restore them and fulfill them.

We have to face that which is our most deepest fear, journey back into the timeless pain of a chaotic and troubling childhood to face those giants that stand in the way of God's victorious mercy. Why doesn't God just heal us without that accounting? Without reliance upon God to face those giants, we will equip ourselves with the armor of our choosing and find ourselves ill-fitted to journey alongside our brethren in their struggles. We become counterproductive to the cause of the Kingdom and ineffective in the Potter's hands.

Paul tells us that we should 'rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." (Romans 5:3-5) In the times to come, whether facing the giants of our past, dealing with the human tendency of self in our dealings inside and outside the family of God or even growing closer to God in the intimate relationship of His will and our lives; we will need faith tested that has persevered to the point of unshakeable and undeniable hope. For in the end of all things, hope is all we have left.

God calls us to bring our garbage to Him for disposal. To be burned in the righteousness of His forgiveness, cleansed by His grace and redeemed by His mercy. Not so that we can live a life prosperous by the standards of the world; wealth, health and glory but so that we can more clearly see a God who defies all understanding and is more powerful that the most complex of our problems. So that we can reflect to a darkened world a light that is unworldly, simplistic and clear by living a life that is illogical in the face of our wounds, our situations and our circumstances.

In a kingdom long ago, there was a murder committed in the light of day. A King killed his beloved son, the literal image-bearer of his face to whom he found displeasure for the apparent handicaps of his wisdom, knowledge and vitality. No justification could or has been given for this murdering, no accounting has been given for its commission. One of the perpetrators of this dastardly deed has walked into the ultimate judgment and another still wanders the worldly hallways of dark freedom….yet the crime must be attributed and assignment of guilt given. God mourns the loss of that beloved son and wants to bring resurrection, restoration and purposed joy to the corpse of that son that still wanders the world….

An illogical trip into the darkness of my childhood is where God whispers to me to go; to journey into the void created and to find that beloved son, without a promise of victory and a proclamation of healing…..but I have faith that God can take me into that place and that He can resurrect that lost child for the promotion of His glory.

Jesus is much more than....what He did.....

"God called you to endure suffering because Christ suffered for you. He left you an example so that you could follow in his footsteps." (1 Peter 2:21 GW)

It was the sensation that sparked the little wristbands, the bumper stickers, and even conversations around the water cooler…..WWJD or "What would Jesus do?" It has faded because of two reasons: Everyone already knew the answer and no one could sustain doing what Jesus would do for long. There was no deep, reactionary change from shallow Christianity to a deeper relational understanding and commitment to God through His Son, Jesus Christ that must happen before the question becomes the reaction.

Jan Johnson feels even knowing that mysterious "WWJD" and doing it is prone to the same failure, because outward obedience is corrupted unless inward transformation of the heart towards "the kind of person from whom good deeds naturally flow" happens. In her theological understanding of 'Christlikeness', Johnson endeavors to look beyond the knowledge of "what" Jesus did to "understanding" seventeen 'underrated and particular' characteristics of Christ so that a 'curriculum of Christlikeness' will lead to a sustainable, transformational change within where what Jesus would do is replaced by doing what Jesus would do.

Johnson offers us a perspective of a "Jesus who was more than what He did" and a different look at the examples He left for us to follow.

A handy guide for helpers of the hurting

When I was faced with the daunting task of preparing both my dearest sister in Christ, her family and the congregation for the ending of her earthly journey, it was my first experience as a chaplain and I was woefully unprepared.

There is a wealth of denominational handbooks that speak doctrinal traditions, but there have been no concise, structured handbooks available that make this journey as a layperson, a chaplain, or even a pastor somewhat less daunting….

Barbara Roberts has put the wealth of her experience, tested and tried upon the field of ministry, into such a handbook. Less of a personal story of lessons learned, it is rather a precise and no-nonsense reference guide that anyone facing the call of ministering to those facing life's challenges can quickly read, understand, and then apply the support of the Holy Spirit to so that the expression of God's love can be realized in the midst of the heartaches of this world.

This is a 'must-have' for anyone called to go into the mess of life with the heart of the Savior so that the needs of the ministered can be met with Christ-like love and compassion. Lay-counselors, Chaplains and even Pastoral staff will find this a vital and welcomed help.

Sweet aromas.....

"But praise be to God who makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of him. For we are a sweet perfume of Christ to God in those who are getting salvation and in those who are going to destruction; To the one it is a perfume of death to death; to the other a perfume of life to life." 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 BBE

"The church exists in order to change the subject from us and our deeds to God and his deeds of salvation, from our various "missions" to save the world to Christ's mission that has already accomplished redemption." Michael Horton writes in his article "Christless Christianity" (Modern Reformation May/June, Vol. 16 No. 3 2007 pp 10-16) "If the message that the church proclaims makes sense without conversion; if it does not offend even lifelong believers from time to time, so that they too need to die more to themselves and live more to Christ, then it is not the gospel."

Michael Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, California), host of The White Horse Inn national radio broadcast, and editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. He is author of several books, including Power Religion, A Better Way, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology (Baker, 2006), and Too Good to be True: Finding Hope in a World of Hype (Zondervan, 2006).

We are called, by the authority of the Great Commission, to preach the Good News (read Gospel) to the ends of the Earth to every people, tribe and nation. But the more mankind takes 'charge' of his religion, the further from such 'preaching' or 'evangelizing' we wander. It is no wonder, in the complexities of our institutions of faith, that we are as unattractive as a wart on a hedge hog.

And the world, in its ignorance and blind sinful state, has the right and the logic to accuse us of being hypocrites. For the message of the Good News is lost in our 'painted faces' that we've put on in the churches throughout our land to attract the 'seeker'.

What is this Good News? Simply put, Christ came to Earth born of woman, fully God and Man, and was crucified upon the Cross, died. After three days, He rose again and ascended to Heaven. He will be coming back. The simplest of stories, lacking the complexities of human interpretation or desire that is often added to and subtracted from depending on our ability to 'read' the other person's level of interest.

And when the flame is put to the 'progressive, modernistic' form of Good News retelling, the odor is far from pleasing to anyone's nostrils, too often making them sick to their stomach with the malodorous stench of self-righteousness and believed authority. Doctrine becomes interchangeable with conviction and is as fleeting in its resoluteness. Absolute Truth becomes a manner of subjective interpretation and the battle lines, once so clearly drawn, have become hazy in the smoke screens of charismatic and energetic leaders.

As my mentor puts it, the main character in the telling of our 'story' is an indicator of our spiritual journey through this world. If God is the author and main character, then it is His larger story that ours is told in context with. If we are the main character, the woes and tribulations become an indictment against God's love and authority.

In the first context of 'story', when God is larger than we ourselves and His plan is of primary highlight within its borders….as a mountain top covered in the mist of the burning off of the darkness' deposited moisture by the dawning sun that we know is there despite the denial and inability of our eyes to see its contours.

In the context of our own 'story', not seeing the mountain top invokes anger and disillusionment within us. We walk around the mountain, denying its existence and its authority to block our path. When someone else tells us that 'there be a mountain', we argue and berate them into silence; for our acknowledgement of that mountain would invalidate our very existence and call into question the complexities of our lives.

We smell the 'sweet perfume' of Christ and gag; for His aroma is displeasing to our illusions, like the 'burning', heavy-laden and misty smell of the morning air from that imaginary mountain.

Humans are gifted story tellers, especially when it is a subject or experience by which they have personal acquaintance with. Be it horror, science fiction, or documentary in nature; mankind will not speak or reiterate that which it doesn't know and we often look down upon those who claim such ignorance. Many Christians, in an effort to be considered 'growing', find themselves overwhelmed by the various doctrinal and theological discussions out there.

It's simple, really……if God said it, God meant it and we're to follow it even if we don't understand it.

Even in our broken, sinful humanity we are to boldly go forth, tripping over our own feet that often want to go in the direction opposite of our LORD's which calls to our very souls with a sweet melody.

"The more we confess our sins and receive forgiveness, and pass this good news on to others, the more our lives will be authentically changed in the bargain." Horton says, "…..the gospel is only something that can be told (i.e., words), a story that can be declared. When our lives are told within that larger story, rather than vice versa, there is genuine salvation for sinners and mission to the world."

In the manipulation of activities worthy of Jesus' pleasure, tailoring 'worship' to suit the emotional strings of hearts yet spoken for by Christ and corporate-style leadership where the legalistic protection of the church is greater than the desire to bring ordinary ministries that express the Good News and the reception of Christ's salvation that is given to us by grace and grace alone.; we lose Christ as the sole answer to our condemnation through the commission and denial of sin's embrace. That we must suffer as Christ did, though realistically often far less than the suffering inflicted upon His human body on the Cross.

But the Church wants to be 'relevant' to the seekers, progressives, liberals, lost and disenfranchised of the world and can only promote such an agenda through a gospel retooled to offer Christ as the answer to everything else and a lifestyle of prosperity of all too-human desires.

"Our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us." Henry Alford, the English Churchman and theologian said, "His defeats of us are our only true victories." God is 'made manifest by us', that is; His triumph lies within the 'catching' of us and preserving us 'alive in Christ' so that the sweet aroma of that triumph over the wages of our sins is manifested in the Triumphant Conqueror's victory.

That sweet smell of Christ's triumph assaults the eyes, invades the nostrils and overwhelms all of our senses. And it is that righteous, holy incense that brings attacks from those who would promote an alternative offering of what the Good News is. To those who find delight and profitability within preached Word of God, such a smell is sweeter than the finest offerings of our finest cooks, and brings life within the dead flesh of our broken bodies within our spirits that cling to the realized hope of eternity.

It is those, willingly ignorant and obstinate, that have their corruption heighten by this aroma of Christ, and reject through the alteration, manipulation or simple denial the Good News; creating in their limited capacities the 'humanistic' gospel of survival and make-up perfumes in the form of a 'god' to cover the stench of their sin.

Josh Graves, Teaching and Young Adult minister of Rochester Church of Christ and author, writes about Phyllis Tickle's new book The Great Emergence, in his blog "Jesus Feast: Spirituality for the Hungry" (www.joshgraves.blogspot.com). Tickle, Graves mentions, categories the types of Christianity that exist in an "emerging world landscape." (141-143) that I have placed unaltered here:

• Traditionalists: "Like those who have fallen heir to Grandpa's old home place and who still like things just the way he had them, they see no need either to fight with the neighbors or to change the furniture." This group is content, fine with business as usual.

• Re-traditioning: This group has chosen to stay with their inherited group, but unlike the Traditionalists "they energetically wish to make it [the church] more fully what it originally was." These folks want to keep the house, but make major interior changes and modifications: create a new kitchen, update the plumbing, drop new floors.

• Progressives: "[W]hile wanting to maintain their position in institutional Christianity, they want also to wrestle with what they see as the fool heartedness of holding on to dogma based ideas and doctrinally restricted governance and praxis." This group will knock out some walls, extend favorite rooms, even build additions if need be.

• Hyphenateds: "[T]hey recognize theirs is the most schizophrenic of the encompassing circles . . . householders who have fallen heir to Grandpa's old home place, feel a compelling need to honor the land it sits upon and the trees that surround it, but no need to retain its structural shape. Imaginatively enough, though, while they may tear down the house, they will savage some of the material out of which it was built and incorporate those honored bricks and columns, plinths and antique doors into the new thing they are building."

I haven't read Tickle's material, but I would offer (based on these categories) one more to add to the list.

Pilgrim: Those who, through no appreciative ability or reasoning of their own, have been told that they are being given inheritance in the form of a homestead from an forgotten Grandfather to whom they were estranged from. And as they walk upon the grounds of their inheritance, amid the majesty and beauty of the landscape, they realize that it is far more than they could ever be capable of comprehending its uniqueness to the point where they feel comfortable enough to attempt alternations. For any alteration that they could do would diminish and tarnish the glory and scope of the original.

Far from maintaining status quo like the "Traditionalists", returning to remembered comforts like the "Re-Traditionalists", or listening to the yammering of the latest contractors to loose this or that like the "Progressives" or the self-justifying 'honoring' of the homestead while dismantling the structure standing upon it to morph into their own expression of 'inheritance' the 'modern homestead' like the "Hyphenateds", the pilgrim realizes that all they will ever need is already built and lies simply- as yet- undiscovered within the rooms of Grandpa's old home and scattered throughout the trees and fields of the landscape.

And they realize within the context of the inheritance that they won't be there long enough to fully explore the power and strength of the foundation or the craftsmanship of the builder, for the inheritance is of a temporary nature and they will, in the fullness of time, move on as their Grandpa did, to a more permanent homestead to which their Grandpa went to prepare. It is that to which the inheritance has been obtained.

It is that, to me, which is the truest expression of what we have in Christ and it is the aroma given off by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the lives of those who have embraced the sweetness of salvation in its full reality that attracts others into our sphere where we, as commissioned story-tellers in God's epic adventure, are compelled beyond the utterance of a doctrinal formula or formal declaration to speak the "Good News" that has been brought into our own lives so that others may see the grace of God and His love for those who would turn to Him.

Living life in a realized outlook of an eternal future, bringing joy and peace within the storms of our lives to attract the wonder of those who are rocked in the same stormy seas as we are.

Living in the context of the inscription on Alford's tomb;

" Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis"

("The inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem")

Journey on........

The blame is......

“Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40 BBE)

Pastor Jim Combs, the Lead Pastor of the River Church, spoke about Job this Sunday. About faith being tested and refined in the harsh winter of trials and tribulations, a subject of which I am too well-versed as of late. In my relationships, in my roles as father/ex-husband/friend/man and in my economic/social status, I have been found wanting (in the standards of society and by the stewardship of the Biblical instruction) and yet God continues to call me forth…into the wealth of His purpose and the work of the Kingdom.

Such as I am is where God’s glory becomes undeniable and most highly evident.

I have begun reading the fable by C.S. Lewis entitled “Till We Have Faces”, which is his rendering of the Cupid and Psyche tale of mythology which embodies his love of ancient cultures and his artistic style. Yet this is the one book in the offerings from this great apologetic that was never really well received by the reading public…….

I also continue to read about George Mueller, and I am in a constant state of shaking my head in amazement and awe of the powerful testimony this man has given to the cause of the Kingdom. The power of prayer, of true heart to heart with God is another lesson that I have been learning lately. I’m far from a giant of Mueller’s stature, but I can hear the echoes of what he learned so earlier in his own journey towards home.

Everyone is offering their ideas of why we’ve gotten into the economic and social mess that wraps us up into the cloak of worldliness; Christian and sinner alike.

The wealthy blame the poor, the poor the wealthy.

The financially irresponsible are blamed by the financially stewards of well-renown, while they deny any culpability in the current state of their own affairs.

The older generation blames the younger, the younger points to the outrageousness of the older.

The Christians who voted for Obama are quick to call those who didn’t racist, while those who voted for Obama are confound those who didn’t.

And the Church sits in the back pews of this fight, afraid to raise its voice because it has been complacent for far too long in the worldly things, seeking to ‘make the Gospel culturally acceptable’ rather than standing upon the morality and ethics of the Gospel message, creating disillusioned religious-ites than disciples.

In the midst of the entire finger pointing, God must be sitting patiently…sadly shaking His head at the foolishness of the ones who call Him Father, at least in name, and the ones He desperately wishes would (who tend to be at least more truthful in their foolishness than the other). Foolish children, who have become engaged in pursuits of self-serving ends and who ignore the very signposts and waypoints that were so plainly laid out upon the narrow path…….

T.S. Matthews, a past managing editor and editor of TIME, wrote in the preface to C.S. Lewis’ book “Till We Have Faces”, in the 1966 reprinting, what would seem a prophetic word about the American concept of happiness that has begotten the liberal and universalistic concept of ‘self-fulfillment’ and personal choice.

“The pursuit of happiness, which has always been good American doctrine, has largely degenerated into the sentimental heresy of the ownership of happiness, the notion that happiness can actually be shared; that the sum total of material prosperity and vague humanitarian inclination that make-up the American way of life can be or should be happiness itself.”

There is a song, I don’t recall off-hand by whom, whose lyrics pop into my head as I write this, “Sometimes it rains night after night, but our hope remains….”

Does it really?

We question God’s love for us;

Especially when we are struggling ‘well’ (as one of my mentors is oft to say) in the effort to bring our earthly and sinful flesh into the bondage of our spiritual life.

A child goes away to an event, healthy and strong, and now lies in the morgue of the local hospital awaiting burial by his parents who have loved them with a godly passion and taught them with spiritual wisdom.

And yet, another who is full knowledgable of God and refuses Him grows healthily until the pain becomes so isolating that they walk into school one day and kill their schoolmates in a shout of anger.

Loved ones, cherished and honored, disappear into the seemingly never-ending jaws of war and we quail at the cost of our nation in the pursuit of national security to the point we are willing to cultivate the worldly wisdom of atheistic and immoral nations that we once stood at a distance from.

Everywhere, we seek to throw the blame upon a group, a culture, a community or a nation….everywhere but upon the doorstep of our own foolishness and pride. For us, after all, are a God-fearing, God-seeking people set upon by a nation that seems intend on destroying itself from within, like so many empires and cultures of the historical past.

We quail at the price yet to be paid, in full, by a nation for its rejection of what it once acknowledged as ‘good and true’ because of a desire to be ‘accepted and loved’ by all people.

We don’t look to our own doorstep and the guilt of our own relaxing of absolutes, or moral authority, of a God who doesn’t fit into our desired opinion of what a God who truly loves us would be like. Painful events, foolish suffering and the trials of a morality that was born in the purest of desires surely wouldn’t happen if such a God existed.

Surely a God who can do no evil would not utilize its birth through the actions of man to chastise, discipline and correct such foolishness as a momentary lax of sexual purity or prideful anger. Surely not.

We discuss, theorize and form an opinion on scriptural context, ethical biblical considerations and moral issues that often seem to conflict, just like our view of a good, loving God who allowed a nation to wander the desert for forty years, until a sinful generation was gone, before the Promised Land was opened to them. A peaceful God who wreaked havoc upon the enemies of that nation because of His wrath, delivering them into His chosen's hands.

We don't rely upon God anymore. We talk, we argue and then leave such discussions empty and without fulfillment. Because we have an agenda that is far beyond what Christ gave us when He commissioned the Church.

Humanity has made Christianity complicated and alien.

We no longer mourn a godless direction our nation takes, but pat ourselves upon our own disillusionment and call ourselves enlightened and religious. We have gotten to the point where the wait for the return of the Messiah has become a tedious journey into the unknown and we've gotten weary with the constant watch.

Jesus says we have to have faith like children.

Most children, myself included, waiting with anxious gazes upon the living room the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday; not questioning the fact that something would be placed underneath that evergreen tree that would bear their names. With wholesome and wild gee, they would race downstairs at the second the clock showed the appointed hour and rummage through the stacked presents to select that very first one to open……

The longer we wait for God to release His Son to return to the earth in victory, the less we act like those children. We dig deeper into the mysteries of the faith and make up our own decisions upon the text that is written there. What we can't explain, we justify with 'well, that was a different time' or 'culturally-speaking its not revelent.'

We relax our standards to the degree where sin becomes commonplace and immorality the norm.

And we blame the others. Society, Culture and the base sinner for our woes.
We don't want to examine our own ways and bring them into compliance with God's word. We don't want to say, "This is the absolute and we will follow it" because we are fearful of being 'unloving' and 'uncaring'. We excuse ourselves in any way possible and call it 'faithful execution in trying times.'

And become the very people that the LORD said he would "spit from His mouth."
Faith doesn't guarantee us prosperity of equal measure, equal physical shaping or of monetary/health wealth. Some were made to do with less, some with more and it is the usage of that measure that brings the testimony of the grace received within the bounds of salvation and enriched by tribulations.

God's love doesn't mean we can walk away from the punishment of our transgressions, rather that the full measure of the price has been paid in full by another, who walked within the Law and overcame with Love the fullness of God's righteousness. We suffer, of our own making, by being less than firm on the commandments we know.
We twist the example of the One until it fits within the square hole of our making, thereby justifying lukewarm love, hollow accountability and plastic faith.

George Mueller was one who refused to listen to the 'easy road' of faith.

C.S. Lewis refused to allow such pettiness as another's ignorance or pride interfere with the message he was compelled (and gifted) to write.

In the context of Lewis' Till We Have Faces, we find the answer in its simplistic form about why God allows what God allows:

"Are the gods not just?"

"Oh no, child. Would become of us if they were?"

And a few GODLY MEN will redeem......

"Help, O LORD. No godly person is left. Faithful people have vanished from among Adam's descendants! All people speak foolishly. They speak with flattering lips. They say one thing but mean another. May the LORD cut off every flattering lip and every bragging tongue that has said, "We will overcome with our tongues. With lips such as ours, who can be our master?" "Because oppressed people are robbed and needy people groan, I will now arise," says the LORD. "I will provide safety for those who long for it." The promises of the LORD are pure, like silver refined in a furnace and purified seven times. O LORD, you will protect them. You will keep each one safe from those people forever. Wicked people parade around when immorality increases among Adam's descendants." Psalms 12:1-8 (GWT)

Most theologians believe that David wrote this psalm during the reign of King Saul, when honesty and religious piety were in a decaying state in the government and country as a whole. David, in his typical fashion, also probably included his personal affronts suffered at the hands of treachous friends and the boldness of his sworn enemies. He mourns the loss of godly men, once abundant in the kingdom but now few in number, though whether through death or a falling away from the Truth he doesn't highlight.

"The only way to be manly," Dr. Larry Crabb states in The Silence of Adam, "is first to be godly."

In the wake of the emasulation of manhood by society through the promotion of 'feminism' and the destruction of the family, men throughout the world are seeking to right the wrongs visited by their own silence in the promotion of such humanistic declarations and find true masculinity. The problem for most is that they forget that first and foremost is a relationship with God, through which true masculinity is taught, understood, and emulated. The Creator of it all has the definitive answers men seek.

"Finding Christ," Crabb continues, "is a long, pride-crushing battle that leads through despair to the unmanageable joy of Spirit-fulness and then back again through darker despair to an even brighter joy."

In today's society, where the measure of 'bad times' is financial stresses, poor economic growth, and the abundance of war, we have been misled; as a nation, as a people, and as men. It isn't such that God declares is 'bad times', but rather the abundance of godless men who speak with mouths full of pride, profanity, viscious words, and ineffective utterances. Sin abounds without declaration of its existence, as men once again remain silence, unwilling to fulfill their role as warriors standing against darkness and chaos to protect the beauty and order that God created.

Men have allowed society to declare what is manly and forgotten the lessons taught by the One who created both man and woman. God will punish such men, and as a result, the evilness of society which has been allowed to run unchecked through the marrow of society's bones.

We truly live in 'bad times' as godless men and purposeful immorality has been allowed to run unchecked to the degree where openly sinful men are declared to be the 'best' among us and allowed to run for political office to affect, control, and minimize godly direction in this great nation.

These men, confusing with their utterance of 'religious tolerance' and 'religious authority' the Truthfulness of God, stand in the public square and declare, "With our tongues will we prevail against the cause of virtue; our lips are our own and we may say what we will; there is no one who can stop us or call us to an accounting!"
We, as a people, can be false; our flesh being the primary ruler of our emotions and reactions. Self-protection and preservation is paramount. But God is faithful and God has proven His trustworthiness where man cannot deliver such absolutes.

And it is those men, fast men as they have been called by in other times, who are faithful to God who will lead this nation into redemption and restoration to Godly blessing and truth. These godly men use their words as confirmation of their bond to God through the conscience decision and effort to being true to God for the sake of all mankind. It is these men, who value faithfulness to God above themselves and use their power to lead in service to those in their marriages, families, and communities, that will bring Truth to a world dying.

"Men of this generation must learn to count the cost of following Christ," Crabb states, "(The cost is easily calculated: everything we have)......resist[ing] the christian culture that values self-discovery and self-fulfillment above abandoning ourselves to God."

Such men value godliness and spiritual wisdom more than worldly degrees and toughened skills gain in the corporate world. They look to the absolute authority and Truth of God's word, silver refined to the purest degree as shown through the proof of its power and inpurviness of worldly influence. And it is the visible representation of consistency and agape love that will attract the lost and wayward of this world to seek these men out, as they shine with the light of the Heavenly Father in the darkness of troubling times.

To cause a people to seek not comfort in the manipulation of man of God's design but to search and value the mentoring of godly men and women who humbly refute their 'gentle discernment and spiritual wisdom' as not their own but something given by God to all His people, to lead them in spiritual pursuit of their Creator God. These men will create a culture shift; from worldly pursuit of personal godliness to a influencing life lived in pursuit of God-led involvement in social and moral leadership to lead through the emulation of a servant (Christ) that will radically alter how we live in marriages, families, and communities and give value to Godly pursuits instead of secular 'spirituality'.

These men have been, are, and will be forever forged in the fires of struggle, trials, temptations, and pay a price that few today are willing to pay; absolute and continous surrendering of everything to God. It is these men, and women of the same ilk, that will forever be the source of restoration and redemption in the world until Christ Himself returns.

Such men, even in society today, are valued as friends by Christian and non-Christian alike. The North American Indians have a more eloquent word for 'friend' than we do in English. In their language, the word for friend literally means, "the one who carries my sorrows on his back." Such are the service given by Godly men, real men by the original and perfect intent of God, who value service to the people above personal pursuits. Who seek God's wisdom and discernment and avoid their own.

Until such men, pursuing masculinity in themselves through the Creator who made them, stand and declare themselves willing, the men who seem so populous in the world today will continue to be exalted into places of authority, trust, and power and the laws that govern us will promote rather than prevent immorality and reward a sinful people according to self-serving pursuits. Until such is resisted by godly men and women, the wickedness of the world will control society's destination and those who deceive, debauch, and destroy others in unchecked, willful, and unafraid sin will continue to cause the moral and spiritual descent into darkness for this nation, society, and the world.

Wickedness abounds in the world today; in the halls of European countries and down to the very paths to the Executive Office of this once God-fearing nation. Under the continued protection and countenance of those in authority, such sinfulness and moral decay can only promote rather than abolish 'very bad times'.

Until these places of authority and trust are once again returned to those who seek to bring spiritual truth and justice, to shine the Light upon the highest hill, to a society enamoured with its sinful, self-serving pursuits, we have continued trouble ahead.

It is time for 'a few good men' to answer the call of their country and their God.

Will you be such a man?

"But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." 2 Timothy 2:20-21

The first thing that greeted me at work this morning when I arrived was my neighbor in the bay next to me, who knows that I'm a Christian (we've had many discussions). He looked at me and simply said, "You know that God of yours? You can tell him for me to kiss my a**. He took my grandmother last night."

I told him, "I can understand your feelings, I recently lost my grandmother. I hope that it was a peaceful passing and I hope that the journey home for your parents is uneventful. As for me telling God, you can honestly do that yourself. I'll pray for your peace and comfort in this trying time." Not exactly what one is taught in the chaplain training, or what usually would've come out of my mouth. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'll pray for you." would've been my standard reply.

Four years ago, the standard response would've been given without any more thought. And, even with the standard sorrow greeting, I would've just thought...'Gee, I've got alot of worse and more immediate problems than that. Your grandmother lived a long time, it happens." A callous response, not totally uncaring, but dismissive all the same.

Involvement in this guy's life isn't one of my top choices; he constantly ridicules my faith, my beliefs, and my God. But God's put me here next to him. For a reason I assume. That is a change from the way I was, but that wasn't the biggest thing that confronted me today.

Faced with a impending loss of my residence because I cannot pay the rent, the lawsuit that will surely follow because of the breaking of the lease agreement, the continued problems with the vehicle that I drive to and from, my daughter's emotional struggles, my son's congitive impairment, the situation with my soon-to-be ex wife and her health issues, the bleak and dismal outlook of my job of five years being laid off because of the automotive market, the beak and equally dismal outlook of me going back to school (a 42,000 price tag), and the beating I'm taking from myself in regards to all of that..........

My first thoughts weren't of myself and the disaster looming over the horizon, but of my coworker's statement, the sorrow and loss, and the grief that wrapped itself around the anger and mistrust of God that this young man has. I wondered how this would be best handled, how Christ would've answered this young man's grief. And I started to pray. For wisdom, for guidance, and to give this young man a glimpse and a bit of heaven's peace.

His grandmother was a believer, he told me. She was in good health, at least appearance wise, and this was definately unexpected. She was travelling Europe, a life long dream, with his parents who were now coming back home with a inert body that once was his grandmother, his mother's mother.

"You can see her again, you know." I told him, before we began our workday that separates us widely despite the physical proximity.

"Yeah," he said as he turned away. "Say some prayers for my parents and me."

"I always do and will continue." I replied. He gave a brief smile and turned away.

A seed planted. I look forward to the possible growth.

And I thanked God for the opportunity to represent Him in this crazy and chaotic world we have to live in......

I've finished Dr. Larry Crabb's book Finding God, and find myself in the unique (well, not so unique in Michigan anymore) position where I am at that crossroad between the actual beginning of the destruction of the fallen structure I have lived with for most of my life and the rebuliding of a godly structure, where I long to set hammer to nail to begin the work before me.

As I cried out in my stress, my grief, and my pain to God, "Where are you?", He answered.

Not by giving me a financial windfall that will answer my bills or shelter needs.

Not by fixing my car of its ailments.

Not by giving me the assurance that everything will be fine with my children.

Not by giving me the glib and quick 'christian' comment to another's sorrow.

And He answered today. "This is what I've called you to do. This and nothing more."

I've been on sabbatical from the chapel ministry. Recently I asked my ministry leader, Chaplain Gotberg, if the offer for ordination was still available even if I didn't return to the chapel on a full-time basis. He said it was. I was going to use the ordination cert to see if that met the Army's qualifications to reenlist and send me to seminary before I serve my obligation of two years for each one of education. But the silence from the recruiting arm of the Army has been ominious in its errie lack of noise.

But it has been on my mind lately to pick up that purpose that I seem to have dropped, to move forward despite the uncertainity, the total lack of confidence, and the ridicule of others that claim the same 'family name' as me. To press on.

It has been a rough, time-consuming, difficult, and personally terrifying trip these last few years as I've fought against the 'floors' of my fallen structure; I doubt God (terror and rage), I need you (demanding dependence), I hate you (interpersonal conflict), I hate me (poor self-image), I will survive (arrogant determination), and Here's how (foolish and self-centered style of relating). All the buried, fallen structure Dr. Crabb says we all have standing in our path of finding God in this broken, sinful, and chaotic world.

I have tried to work at buliding the godly structure, that leads to 'fruitful living', through the slow progression of buliding the floors; I believe God (quietness, trust, worship), I love you (freedom from dependence), I accept you (intimacy), I judge me (repentance and rest), I will obey (humble cooperation and joy), and here's how (wise and other-centered style of relating).

Sometimes the buliding looks like a mottley collection of both structures, intermixed and poorly designed. And other times, I've watched the 'godly structure' fall and began rebuliding the 'fallen one' in its place.

Each time, the godly structure goes up quicker, last longer, and is gaining more preference over the fallen structure when rebuliding is necessary.

"God has a unique call on each one of our lives. Our biggest barriers to true growth in Him comes from our refusal to trust Him to point the way. We are simply often afraid of the unknown so we stop ourselves dead in our own tracks and end up wandering for a season. The amazing grace of God is that even in our wanderings He is guiding us slowly back to the starting gate and then empowering us to bolt free to a future of unlimited possibilities asking only that we stay in His will. Praise Him. He alone is worthy." Carolyn Baker says in her devotional prayer today.

I would have to agree.

I have to trust God because the world seems bent on not having me around, the stack in that place is against me and mine. But, God promises and God delivers, in His way and His time.......but He does.

I will trust God

I will obey God

and I will praise Him in this storm.


side note: I also finished reading The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann. Apparently I missed something in the reading, based on the comments by others on my reading list website, www.goodreads.com and other locations on the worldwide web.

I wrote my blog about the book and the author, agonzing about listing it on my blogpage because I am not too happy with the discussion of 'consciousness' and 'alternative realities'. It may be just my heavy heart about the emergent, universalist, and new age predomination that has hit the christian community and is causing it's fracture. Scholar wise, Brueggemann is a intelligent, and thought-provoking authority.

Spiritually, I think he is more of the 'emergent' bent and it shows. But, if you wish to read that article, you can access it on www.faithwriters.com. Look for it under the author name Jim Hutson or under the title "The Prophetic Imagination".
I'd love to get comments from those who read this blog, about either book comment.

The journey to "Find God"

I have started to read "Finding God" by Dr. Larry Crabb as part of my discipling class that I have been attending. Even the "Inside Out" book that Dr. Crabb wrote that this is a 'lost final chapter' of didn't prepare me for the connection between what he writes and the thirst of my soul. I would probably bring this all under the verse he uses to begin this personal journey of finding God.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

We forget too often that the Bible is not some tome of age old wisdom, stagnant in its revealing truths and mind numbing logic. We forget that the writers of the books contained within were real, and were touched by God's own spirit to write His words to the generations to follow. We look to theologians and seminary trained leaders to guide us in the wisdom that lies weeping upon its pages when all we need is to remember what it is to be Christ-followers. Seeking our Abba Father's face, that intimate knowledge to know Him and love Him. The 'traditional' church, expressed in the pages of the New Testament books, taught us that our purpose is to glorify God, to please Him, and to enjoy the blessings that are of Him forever. We have strayed into running the church according to our revelations and forgetting God's.

The modern church is attractive and powerful to the seekers and the developing faithful. We gaze upon our westernized Christianity as an thing to be dressed up and made attractive so that passersby on the street will stop to window shop and potentially come inside to buy into the gospel of love and acceptance of a turnstile God, who is standing still, turning us around as we allow. We don't hear in those 'hallowed' hallways of fine carpet and cushy seats that God is 'no respecter of persons." In the backdrop of hardships, suffering, and extreme distress we are taught to find the 'healing' power of God to make our world more comfortable and pleasant, a recreation of the Garden from whence we were bodily tossed righteously on our butts. We learn that God is there for us, not us for Him.

And, for too many within the Body of Christ, when those hardships and suffering does not pass like a bad dream, our faith lies crushed upon the floor of those same churches and God is grieved by the disservice done. Our church, created for Kingdom purpose, has become a house of our own self-serving gospels of limited passions.

In this intense struggle over the situation ruling my life's focus, I have slowly learned that the passions that are part of my humanity; the desire to be happy and the desire to influence my environment to that pursuit, are going to always be part of who I am as a broken, sinful human being. But there is hope; not a hope that will have to wait until the other side of heaven, but a hope for today. That my passion to know God deeper and more intimately can be realized step by step in the midst of hardship and pain. In fact, it is that pain that I can use to grow closer to the Abba Father.

And I have plenty of pain and hardship in my life that gives me a wellspring to wander into the desert seeking my God.

As I slowly unwrap the gaudy clothing that I have wound around myself in an effort to protect myself from the pain of a sinful world, I find myself not cutting myself off from God but Him drawing nearer as I realize that my comfortable world isn't meant to mean anything if I don't realize that it means nothing to God….He is no respecter of persons. But in that realization that I am nothing before God and He gives me meaning to Himself, I find the sound theology that Christ Himself told of.

I hope that this speaks something to someone. And I hope that you will go and get Crabb's book "Finding God." Although it is but a tool in which to realize the potential and truth of walking with God, it is a great read in which to reflect upon.

In Christ,
JIM

Bitter heart, realistic joy.....

"Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy." Proverbs 14:10 NIV

Sorrow is no stranger to my life, whether self-induced or at the hands of other people. I have known great heights of experience; the 'human' condition at its finest (or rather what I thought was the good side of humanity). But no one told me that I would also know the great despairing depths of darkness. As my complaint has been lately in this valley of dark evil, I haven't been asked to come here and I wouldn't have chosen to do so. But I wasn't ASKED. And if you would've told me that Christianity isn't a exciting and joyful guarantee, I probably would've told you to get out of my face.

That abundant life Jesus promises has been misrepresented and misused in the Church today. Promises of joy on earth only if we believe and only if we turn that 'stinking thinking' into 'name and claim' realization will we become mature Christians. After all, the best dressed who show up in fancy new vehicles to the modern, 7000 seat auditorium to hear the latest utterings from the dynamic buddy who adorns the concert quality stage….they are the ones who get it, right? And the rest of us are left to spin out of control until we can tame our thoughts and subject our will to the power of positive thinking. How many times in your Church have they asked for the sad, distressing, and uncomfortable moments we go through rather than a 'praise' report of comfort and commitment to the Christian cause?

Dr. Larry Crabb, in his book INSIDE OUT, asks a very logical and direct question; If Jesus promises springs of living water, why do many Christians have the wrong view of real joy and abundant living? Why do the Churches preach the 'have it now' lifestyle? "Christ promises," Crabb states in chapters five and six of his book, "to do something about the core desires of our soul."

We each are designed from a basic template; though unique in our 'full dress' mode, we each have basic commonality that we share as designed and cherished children of God. The most basic and profoundly ignored part of our humanity, that part which gives us the Creator's imprint, is those longings that—as Dr. Crabb puts it, "must be met if life is to be worth living…….crucial longings." God designed us to be in relationship, to Him and each other, but since the Fall we have desperately tried to ignore that relational need. And, if we are honest with ourselves, there is nothing in this world---friends, work, exciting things, or even our spouses, that will fill that crucial longing. Something is wrong with everything is the declaration Dr. Crabb made in the last post I wrote on this book. And all our attempts to fix fail.

"Critical longings," Dr. Crabb points out, "[are] the legitimate and important desires for quality relationships that add immeasurably to the enjoyment of living." These longings bring us closer to the design intent. But we not only have those critical longings, we also have what is labeled by Crabb as 'casual longings' that tend to 'fill in' the cracks of our life. These casual longings range from hopes of a good movie experience to the more weighty issues of health and longevity. But how to tell the difference, one might ask. Too often, we used our feelings to define the value of the longing. And with the 'whatever fits' church mentality, how can we understand this concept?

Simple. Although the experience might cause severe and excruciating discomfort, nothing that is core to my 'existence as a person' is threatened. Dr. Crabb distinguishes this further in pointing out that even the possibility of death is a 'casual' longing because it threatens our physical existence and not the personal—core to the Christian belief. But when we face those critical longings, the ones that show us the Creator's design, we feel deep sorrow, what Crabb calls a "immobilizing lostness", that robs us of the desire or energy to continue. We have all experienced this feeling, it is what caused us to seek out more than what the world presented us……to seek God.

It was when we acknowledge the existence of unfulfilled expectations in our circumstances and relationships with others, we realize that Christ's promise of living water can only fulfill our thirst. We enter into the timid beginnings of relationship with a God that has created us with that intent. But then the Church fails us; giving us the doctrine of being fully into God means that we will be happy and joyful, being rewarded with blessings untold. We will be able to ignore the disappointing reality of a world gone wrong because God will cause the blessings to flow into us and our lives. Happy relationships, happy work, happy friendships, and financial enjoyment are all ours to have….if we are fully in God, the Church has offered.

Mature Christians can realize how things should be, in accordance with the Creator's original plan, and how despairingly different they really are. This inevitable distress of a world gone mad, that manifests itself—according to Dr. Crabb—in relational disappointments and even sometimes physical suffering, causes those who truly seek God to thirst all the more for the goodness of God despite the removal of unrealistic joy. They realize that the professed desire to live comfortably internally and externally are not fulfilling but that living to know God fully is the only choice that makes sense.

God becomes our critical longing, not through fervent prayer, commitment to the cause, or even driven service within ministries. By embracing the reality of our deepest hurts and disappointments in the unfulfillable expectations of our lives, we draw closer to that fulfillment of the God-designed thirst in a deep and embracing trust in Christ. The path to this realization brings to light another truth Christ speaks, where those who wish to save their lives will actually lose it and those who lose their lives for Christ will actually gain it. It is this reality, Dr. Crabb points out, that shows how far off course humanity actually is.

The realization that we cannot find true fulfillment in another fallen, broken human being causes us to fulfill another commandment Christ has left us, to love one another unconditionally. It is freeing ourselves from the unrealistic perfection expectation of others that causes us to be capable of loving in Christ-like fashion. As Crabb puts it, "Overlooking one's faults is a different matter than pretending they don't have any." Turning our focus from our own longings to another's causes us to embrace the longings unfulfillable in our lives and move beyond self-preservation. We die to ourselves. And it is that movement, to please God in keeping His commandments for us that causes us to ignore the self-motivating desire to relieve our distresses. We realize an accepting love of others that is unreliant upon our self-preservation reaction and reach towards them with a love that is unchanged by the disappointments that all of us cause in our humanistic expectation of perfection.

Because we learn to HOPE.

Hope of a reality that we were designed for and will achieve again when we are restored to our place in Creation. Hope that the seemingly permanent and painful experiences of a world gone mad is not the permanent future we face as children of God. Hope that our thirst will be satisfied.

Then we are free of the enslavement of the devil's deceit and capable of Godly love towards others. We are more passionate and less 'legalistic' in our pursuit of a God who wants our personal relationship with Him. And it is this image of passionate pursuit of the Bridegroom of His Bride that draws others to question the longings unfilled in their own souls.

As Solomon said in the Proverbs….the heart knows its own bitterness and no one else can taste its joy.

That is what the book INSIDE OUT said to me in the chapters 5 and 6 of my study. I hope that it speaks to you and you read along.

Everybody hurts.....Everybody cries.....sometimes

"Moreover, [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation." Romans 5:3-4 AMP

My accountability brother warrior gave these verses to me at the beginning of last week as I faced the intensified struggles currently storming in my life. He said that another brother, praying for me, gave him the reference. We discussed it, and I jokingly concluded that I had enough character already to run for President and win. Sometimes I speak too fast, thinking because I'm usually attuned to what God has to speak to me that I will hit the homerun on the first pitch, but sometimes I go down swinging. And so it was this week. Tuesday, I spent time with brothers that I know and respect and the anger was so intensified by the end of it that I resented these men whom I know I respect, honorable and loyal warriors all. The oscillation effect started, between my emotions and logical faith. By Thursday, God must've thought that the ground was pliable enough to get some deep seeds planted because He brought me to my knees in the parking lot (I think I spoke of this in prior blogs). And by Sunday, with my heart sufficiently agitated and the groaning so loud surely all around me could hear, knowledge flowed into the wounds I've discovered.

Looking inside, knowing what my reactions to the situations today come from a wounding in my past that was covered and never given the opportunity to have Holy Spirit healing, was what I had already done and I spent the rest of the time wondering why the pain was still there, why nothing was changing, and how much more endurance did the Creator think I needed to be "joyful of my salvation."

My struggles are not uncommon, and it is the commonality of the struggling that brings frustration and despair into the landscape of my soul. We all want to feel respect, to be involved with someone who accepts us deeply, agape love, and we all pursuit those goals of love and meaning in the varying degrees to which we related to people. These are common to each and every one of us. We expect fulfillment of Christ's promise of an abundant life, not just a common existence that even the unsaved can experience. And we wind up, based on what the Church today is preaching, lied to by the very Creator that tells us that He is good. The paradox between reality and our promised joyful, abundant lives crashes against sharp rocks of what we experience.

In a group this weekend, God made my eyes open more to the unrealistic faith I had imposed upon myself and the box in which I had placed Him. Dr. Larry Crabb's discussion, "I don't want to admit it, but something's wrong", he discusses this very paradox. And God used him to speak to my heart, battered, broken and pliable to instruction.

We want to be respected, and we want to be deeply accepted by someone are the points Dr. Crabb makes in his book and video series, INSIDE OUT. I've spoken of the book before, in previous blogs. These are called thirsts, those deeply held desires of our hearts that we all feel and yearn for fulfillment of. Christ tells us, in John 7:37, for all who thirst to come to Him and even this instruction for fulfillment echoes in the Old Testament as Isaiah speaks of 'coming to the waters, all who are thirsty' (Isa. 55:1-2). We have all experienced that calling of our inner most desires and the promise of fulfillment in Christ, to a life abundantly lived.

And it is at that point where most preaching fails to reach our hearts and those we related to cause never-ending disappointment; in our home, work, and even church relationships. We seem to forget that people are people; broken and fallen, sinful and bruised. We expect fulfillment of our inner most desires and look to the wrong place for fulfillment, others. Be it the husband to his wife, the worker to their boss, or even a member of the church to its pastor; all are guaranteed to fail to give us our most intimate desire to be loved and shown we have substance (meaning).

But you are probably where I was…..no, not looking completely to those around you for that fulfillment that you've started to acknowledge as you seek to know Christ. You have studied and taken to heart John 7:37 and other verses where Christ talks about being able to fulfill us in ways we can never fully understand. And when the tempest rages, and the waves swamp your fragile little boat, your heart probably rages as mine does at the injustice and the unfulfilled promises. Which is why our faith ebbs and flows and our inner conflict between the old man and the new seem to never end, because they never do.

We are taught by the Church today that we have to accept Christ to gain what only Heaven can provide (joy, peace, abundant life) and we gain it now. All we have to do is seek meaningful activity, in Christ, and we will be fulfilled. And when the storm crashes upon our imaginary shore, we are swept away into the unforgiving sea with cries of 'not being faithful enough' or 'punishment for sins' echoing in our ears…….

We never realize that, as Larry Crabb puts it, "Something's wrong with everything!" The world is broken and cannot be fixed. And the more we realize that, the more conflicted we become with the message of the Church and reality. Christianity doesn't fit the model presented to us in a world realistically drawn. That is why so many Churches who seek to be culturally sensitive attract so many 'seekers', because the traditional Church hasn't changed it's tune. The world is broken, Christ is the answer, and we'll suffer from duality living until we die.

Who wants to hear that???????

But, Dr. Crabb points out that it isn't until we admit that, that no one (our spouse, our children, our bosses, our friends, our church leaders) can fulfill the thirst of our souls, we don't gain wisdom from relying on Christ; not to give us the fulfillment of our thirsty hearts upon this world but the endurance to deal with the realization that we long for what we cannot gain upon this planet and have to wait for the slaking of our soul's yearnings. Christ is the solution to our thirst, but as Paul points out the satisfaction of our thirst doesn't lie available to us in the world but in the " joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation." Our salvation won't come until Christ returns….until then, we are of this world but not part of this world.

The mature Christian, those who we look at in wonderment, has reached this understanding that they have expectations of what they know should be that are corrupted by the disappointment of what really is in a broken, sinful world and they stop demanding fulfillment of that desire, that thirst, in this life but rather trust in the hope given through salvation's gift. These are the ones who trust God fully and are often strong in a storm….swaying only a bit to the tempest winds.

Because they love everyone unconditionally, no longer demanding fulfillment from those around them but accepting the limited sips of contentment that are given. They groan loudly for Christ's return, seeking the slaking of thirst only He can give.

When we achieve that understanding, we work closer to the God we love and serve. And we realize it isn't the journey's travel that gives us reward but the focus on the journey's end. Where we will swim in the waters of life.

This is my thoughts on what I've learned from the video presentation of Dr. Larry Crabb's book INSIDE OUT.

Men to Men ministries entry by my brother, Garry....

Character Counts
What is character? A definition I once heard for character was that, “Character is that which we display even when we think no one is looking.” This is fine from the world's point of view, but the simple truth of the matter is, someone is always looking. God not only sees the deeds we do when we think they are being done in secret, he sees the attitude of our hearts when we do them; whether done in public or in private. Perhaps a better definition from a godly point of view would be, "Character is not forgetting that God is always watching and that everything we do is to bring honor and glory to Him. It is putting into practice the attributes of a holy, loving God."

In the study book, "The Man God Uses," Blackaby lists several godly character qualities he believes should be evident in the life of every Christian man. These character qualities, like so many other godly characteristics we strive to practice are not things that develop over night. They are characters that only the Spirit of God can help us achieve. Since there are several godly characters mentioned in The Man God Uses, instead of glossing over all of them at one time, I would like to look at each one individually over the course of the next several weeks. So, the first character we will look at is the character of “holiness.”

The Character Of Holiness
Character is developed in the life of a Christian as he continues to allow the Holiness of God to fill his life and become part of his own nature. In The Man God Uses, the author describes holiness as, “being set apart and separate from anything that does not please God.” It goes on to say that we cannot make ourselves holy. “We become holy only through the power of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.”
Though our holiness will never reach God’s level of holiness, we can learn through scripture about God’s holiness and strive to make the attribute of holiness a part of our own lives. [It is when we become aware of God’s holiness that we see our lack of holiness.] (1) Isaiah noticed this when in a vision he saw God seated on his throne and the Seraphim were calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:3) In this vision he saw his own sinfulness and unworthiness and he cried out to God. Because Isaiah had a heart that wanted to serve the Lord God, God was able to shape him and mold him in the likeness of His own holiness. God was able to use Isaiah because of his willingness to surrender himself to God. Because of his desire to become holy as God is holy, Isaiah became a great voice for the Lord his God through out his life.

As stated in the Man God Uses, we can only become holy through the power of Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul ended chapter seven of Romans as he did when he said, “Wretched man than that I am, Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And because of what Christ did for us on the cross, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) We have been set free to live holy lives. Lives that do not have to be enslaved by the sin that is in us as we continue to live in our fleshly bodies. Paul saw that it was only through the redemptive power of Christ that we could live holy lives for God and be victorious over sin.

Living holy lives is like being on a spiritual journey as stated here in Isaiah 35:8 “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.” [God is building a highway of holiness that the wicked cannot travel. God desires that our lives be that highway, the road over which others may be drawn. An unholy heart and mind are barriers, roadblocks on that divine highway that keep us from effectively praying and seeking the Lord. If we choose to fill our minds with pornography, violence, immorality, hatred, promiscuity, and self-centeredness, it becomes spiritually impossible to produce fruit of an opposite condition, a holy condition. The condition of our hearts will reflect our actions, and our actions will reflect the condition of our hearts.] (2)

What Is Holy Living Some of the evidences we and others will see in our lives if we are living holy lives are outlined in the following Scripture.

II Corinthians 7:1a points out that if we are living holy lives our lives will be pure, "Purifying our bodies from everything that contaminates body and spirit." And 7:1b says that by living a holy life we are showing a "reverence to God."

I Thessolonians 4:3-5 defines holy living as avoiding sexual immorality, learning to control our own bodies in an honorable way. We are not to live our lives in passion and lust like the heathens. Verse 6 goes on to point out that a person who is living a holy life does no harm to his brother or takes advantage of him.

According to Ephesians 5:1, "Holy living is observing God's holiness and being imitators of Christ's love." Because Christ was the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), by imitating Christ's holiness, we are observing God's holiness.


Staying on Track So, just as Christ was pure, righteous, gracious, merciful, and loving to name just a few things, we too must practice these things in order to live holy lives. How then do we stay on track and continue living holy lives? First , we continue by spending time in God’s word on a daily basis. Just reading it is not enough. We must apply it to our hearts, memorize it, and let it be the thing we fill our minds with, not the garbage around us. Secondly, by constantly reviewing the Spiritual Check list mentioned at the beginning of this study. Thirdly, remember that there is an enemy out there who wants us to fail, so never take off the armor of God, keep it on at all times. Fourthly and most important of all, we continue by realizing that we cannot be holy on our own. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to fill us and to empower us from within.

God did not tell us we had to be perfect, He knew that as long as we were clothed in human flesh we would never be perfect. He did however, tell us to be holy as He is holy, "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.' (Leviticus 19:2). Therefore if it is something he has commanded us to do we can know first of all that it is not something that will be impossible for us to do and secondly it is something He will help us to do.
Let us continue to strive for holiness as we press on to be all that God has created us to be.

Garry....

1. The Man God Uses, Henry & Tom Blackaby, 1998 The Way Press, 8th printing 2005
2. The Man God Uses, Henry & Tom Blackaby, 1998 The Way Press, 8th printing 2005