Meditations of a Mediocre Mind

A non-commital resignation from blogging.

2006-08-28T22:44:00.000-04:00

I am going to follow the lead of several of my compadres. I'm shutting the blog down for a while. I might come back and then again I might not. I guess that is all anyone can truly expect from a mediocre mind like mine. I have a lot more I'd like to say, but I am just not sure I want it to be on the internet, at least not for now. I'll leave it here and it might reappear later with a new name or in an anonymous form. To all who have been readers thanks, that is if you are still reading. To quote my favorite Winnie the Pooh Character --- TTFN "Ta ta for now"

This is just depressing to me.

2006-07-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

I am officially disappointed. I guess I should wait until the second test comes back, but either way it ain't looking good for professional cycling. You see, I don't watch or play sports really. I am like the anti-guy when it comes to sports. I do have other "guy" things like being mechanically inclined. But the one sport that I truly enjoy is cycling.

If they do bust Floyd will that give anyone more confidence about Lance's seven victories since there was never a hint of doping going on in any of his tests?

Tommorow its the big 3-0

2006-07-26T23:37:00.000-04:00

I am listening to this song tonight. It is the one time that it will specifically apply to me. It's another one by DW. I am a little introspective at this time of my life. I have to wonder is it really "all down hill from here".

Say good-bye to your twenties

Tomorrow is the "Big 3-0"

For my birthday present

I've got a place where we can go

It's a lesson in motion

To ride the wildest ride

We're gonna climb to the top of the roller coaster

And look down the other side

So let me ride in the front car

And you ride right behind

And I'll click my snapshot camera

At exactly the right time

Shoot back over my shoulder

Catch the fear no one can hide

When we tip the top of the roller coaster

And look down the other side

Over the hill

So when the prints come back

We can look at that unmistakable birthday fear

Like your younger days are over now

And its all down hill from here

It was a happy birthday

You surprised us all

So take a look at this glossy picture

I framed it for your wall

It's the moment of truth

It's the top of your youth

The camera don't lie

You might be screaming

But there's a meaning

In the laughter in your eyes

It seems to be saying

"Of course there will be fear"

But this is why we stand in line

Spend that time

Make that climb

To finally feel the other side

And it's all down hill from here

We're gonna climb to the top of the roller coaster

And look down the other side

David Wilcox

Naked Baby Pictures

2006-07-13T16:27:00.000-04:00

Okay hopefully these are not the kind of pictures that are terribly embarrasing later on in life for our child, maybe just the last one. Today was the "gender" ultrasound. That is the last picture in the group. See if you can guess.

The Journey Into the Heart of God #2

2006-07-12T10:58:00.000-04:00

In the interest of not plagarizing, I got the main points of the next few sermon posts in this series from a brief study by Louie Giglio.

---------------------------------

In the Iditarod race, dog mushers from around the world annually compete for the prestige of first place in a grueling test of endurance. The famous Iditarod trail begins in Anchorage and concludes 1,100 miles later in Nome. It winds through Alaska's treacherous passes, over the frozen Yukon River, and along the windswept Bering Sea. In any given year it takes the first-place musher between eight and twenty days to complete the course.

One thing is unique about this race though. Although it is not mandatory, mushers greet mushers at the end of the 1,000-mile trail as a way of celebrating each person's achievement. Having already completed their own race, they cheer on those who are about to reach their goal.

The scene of mushers cheering mushers is a beautiful picture of Christians who have completed the race of faith who wait in heaven for those still completing their journey. (Source: Preachingtoday.com)

Won’t that be a beautiful scene in Heaven when we see all those who have gone on before and completed the journey? More important to me however is this journey not to arrive in heaven, but to travel together with God on my way there. I want to live a life that draws me daily deeper into the heart of my creator. I know that to be able to enjoy that kind of walk with God one of the most important issues is the issue of faithfulness to God.

The journey to intimacy with God is a Journey of faith

To begin knowing God we must believe that He IS – that is, not just that He exists. It is easy enough to have faith in evidence. There is plenty of evidence. Plenty of people believe that He is in the sense that He exists.

A 2005 Poll taken by Newsweek and Beliefnet had these results—Do you believe that God created the universe?"

Created by God—80 percent
Not created by God—10 percent
Don't believe in God—1 percent
Don't know—9 percent

80 percent of those surveyed believed that He is. Only one percent went as far as to say that they did not believe He exists. But does the 80 percent really know God?

Here is where I think the rub is. Most of Americans believe in some concept of God – that varies widely. Hopefully all that wear the name of Christ believe in God. But even then there is a level of breakdown. Many Christians believe in God, but their belief is really not that different from people who do not claim to be Christians. To them God is simply a concept, an idea. They may think of God as an unseen force, an aloof uninterested creator, or the universe itself.

For us to know God we must believe and know that he is truly present in our reality, or rather we are present in His ultimate reality. He is a real being– Not just some vague “notion” of God but a real being with a real personhood.

Remember how God addresses Moses in the Old Testament. – Moses walks up on this giant bush that is on fire. He notices right away that it is not being consumed by the fire. “I’ve gotta check this out” He says. Then he hears his name. “Moses.” … “wha”… “Moses”…. “Who said that?” “Take off your shoes Moses” – “This is Holy Ground” – “I know about my people. I know about the oppression that they have endured.” -- “Moses I wan’t you to lead my people out of bondage.” “Who me?” “You’re Kidding right” “I…I…I, can’t do that”

Then the rest of the story…Exodus 3:10-16 "Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain." Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you ' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. "Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.

– Don’t you see how present and real Jehovah God is. He is not I was, or I might be, He is I AM! He is definite and He is infinite.

We must believe that He CAN be and wants to Be KNOWN –

While I was in college I wrote a book review for one of my classes. The book was one that attacked historical Christian beliefs. It was called “Why Christianity Must Change or Die”. John Shelby Spong wrote it. Spong was also part of The Jesus Seminar, which was a group of so-called scholars who went verse by verse through the New Testament and decided by majority vote what really happened and what didn’t. Being the self-important college student that I was I tried to contact him for an interview for my book review. After searching for hours to try to find some way to contact him. I got a lady on the phone who told me in no uncertain terms – “You will not be able to contact him”. And I thought that they would just let me right through. I suppose I could have kept trying and maybe eventually I would have been able to speak to him. But here’s the deal, he did not want to be contacted – He didn’t want to be known.

On the other hand God has throughout history revealed Himself to man. He has shown over and over that He can be known. Sure we can’t FULLY grasp Him and understand Him, I don’t know that we will ever even in eternity – FULLY know him. That is part of the depth of the mystery of God that will draw us deeper and deeper into Him throughout eternity.

Not only CAN he be known, but He desires for us to know Him. He has made Himself available. He made Himself available in the person of Jesus. John 14: 7-9

Not only that but He has never been more available than He is right now. John 16: 5-15

We must believe that HE is Worth knowing Well – Have you ever known a person that was worth knowing? I have known a few people that were not worth knowing, at least not in the sense that being with them was… indeed a blessing. I know some people that I wish I had never met.

But have you ever known someone really worth knowing? In other words you were blessed by simply being acquainted with them. Your relationship with them had value. You benefited from something they taught you. – Maybe a mentor, a close friend from your childhood, maybe a grandpa, maybe your Dad, or your Mom. Either way you know that your life would not be the same if you had never known them.

In the passage we looked at last week Paul said that the one thing that was of surpassing value was knowing Christ Jesus. To Paul, Christ was someone like that person we just described. He was worth knowing and knowing well.

Some Christians give off the impression that being a Christian and knowing God are not worth bothering with. It is easy to tell the people who couldn’t care less about knowing God well. You can see it in their expression. It looks like this: (this is by no means a commentary on President Bush or his faith, just his facial expression.)

“Oh, but I’m faithful.” They might say. “I haven’t missed a church assembly in thirty years. I’ve had a frown on my face the whole time, but I’m here, so I am faithful to God.”

“I don’t buy all that personal relationship nonsense.” “I just try to follow the pattern as I see it and tear down everyone who doesn’t see it the way I do. So I’m faithful”

“I know that I am not perfect and can’t ever be, and therefore can’t earn my salvation BUT if I want to go to heaven I have to live like I am trying to be perfect even if it makes this ‘abundant life’ that Jesus promised into a miserable system of rules and regulations. By doing that I’ll be faithful.”

-Do you see how atrocious that theology is? That is a SOUL-Killing Gospel. The Gospel that somehow by just coming to church and getting the doctrine right and doing all the “have-to’s” but never really knowing God I can get to heaven. Well,... Maybe, but is that at all really what God desires for you and I?

Lest you think that I am talking about some “straw man” let me tell you that I have heard more than a few people say things similar to these. While they may not have actually admitted the negativity that I wrote into the above statements, it was evident by their tone and actions, and by the way that they lived their lives. Passionless, missionless, and motionless, they were satisfied with a gospel of “God appeasement”.

Not long before his death, Henri Nouwen wrote a book called Sabbatical Journeys. He writes about some friends of his who were trapeze artists, called the Flying Roudellas.

They told Nouwen there's a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air.

One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen, "The flyer must never try to catch the catcher." The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.

I think that it relates to the way that we must learn to trust God. The more we try to appease God and try to MAKE ourselves appealing to Him, the further we are from knowing Him. But when I learn to trust Him with exactly who I am exactly as I am it is then that I begin to know Him and it is then that HE begins to change me into what HE wants me to be. That leads to a life that is nothing like that soul-killing gospel of “God Appeasement”.

It leads to a life of true abundance and real relationship. That is where true intimacy with God lies.

Say what...who's blessed?

2006-06-21T18:11:00.000-04:00

I've been working through the beatitudes, and I have to agree with Dallas Willard. They are definetly not a "how to" list, but instead a realization of our present condition and an acknowledgement that we can do nothing about it. Kingdom living is about me being a subject of the King more than it is about my "rights" as a citizen. I will get back to posting my series soon. For now here's a song that has been resonating with me of late. It is kind of where I am on my journey. I am realizing my own spiritual poverty, and the need for me to now more than ever cling to Jesus.

Its an oldie by Simon and Garfunkel. I am not sure why, but I think that they get the beatitudes better than most of us professing Christians have gotten them. The last line to me is the most striking. "I have tended my own garden much too long."

Blessed -- Simon and Garfunkel.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows.
Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on,
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
I got no place to go,
Ive walked around soho for the last night or so.
Ah, but it doesnt matter, no.

Blessed is the land and the kingdom.
Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to.
Blessed are the meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers.
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
My words trickle down, like a wound
That I have no intention to heal.

Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass.
Blessed is the church service makes me nervous
Blessed are the penny rookers, cheap hookers, groovy lookers.
O lord, why have you forsaken me?
I have tended my own garden
Much too long.

The Journey Into the Heart of God. #1

2006-06-04T00:06:00.000-04:00

(A couple of weeks ago I climbed to the pulpit wearing a full trail ready backpack and a walking stick. I told them that we were going to go on a journey together. This journey is something that has been brewing in my life for a while and I greatly desire to share it with others. Below is the full text of my sermon for that week with some minor changes. I added a couple of things that I might not have been able to say from the pulpit, simply because they might be innappropriate in that context. Read on and find out more about our journey.)

When I was a boy scout we took quite a few backpacking trips to the Appalachian Trail. One of the funniest memories I have of those trips is when one young scout showed up ready to go with two brown paper grocery bags full of canned food and other necessities. The Boy Scout motto is “be prepared” – well that young man wasn’t to say the least. Someone needed to tap lightly on that boy's cranium and say : "Hello!!... McFly!!... did you not get the memo this is a BACKPACKING trip!! Not a Papersacking trip. Now make like a tree and go away"

Preparing for the Journey.

Philippians 3: 7-21 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

A couple of questions: What is the prize that Paul wants to lay hold of? Notice Vs 8 – The thing that is of surpassing value is “Knowing Christ” – Not just his salvation, not just the blessings I get from him, not just the benefits for me of my relationship with him, but Knowing HIM, knowing him deeply, knowing him well. Knowing Him is the first thing above all other things. In fact, Paul says that to him that in comparison with Knowing Christ everything else was rubbish or even more literally in the greek -- Bull****.

You see what Paul says is what we already should know. The most important thing in the world is Knowing God, loving God. What is the first and greatest commandment. “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” MT 22:37

I wonder how realistic that is. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, because I can honestly say to you that hearing that commandment is sometimes overwhelming to me, sometimes discouraging. I want to love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and all my mind, but admittedly I don’t think I am there yet. Do we love God as the first thing in our lives? I dare say that we all want to, we need to, but I also believe we aren’t sure how to approach that kind of relationship with God. How do we know and love and enjoy the creator of the universe?

This is why I am relating this series in the metaphor of a journey. Because coming to know God and love God deeply is a process, it is a journey. I want to invite you to go on that journey with me. I want to invite you as an individual. I want to invite us to together begin to deepen our journey toward knowing God well.

Some things for us to consider before we begin our journey.

Evaluate where you are.

In several of his books Larry Crabb talks about finding your “Red Dot”. This is where we learn to evaluate where we are. So what does he mean by Red Dot? – You know when you go the mall. When you come in the entrance there is usually a big map there. The first thing you do when you look at that map is look for the red dot that says “YOU ARE HERE”. That is where the RED DOT idea comes from.

This may seem like a silly question to ask, but I am being serious. Is knowing Christ something that you regard as having surpassing value? -- How important is it to you? I mean are you sure that you really do want to Know God that well. – I want to encourage you to look again at Paul’s words – VS 8-10 – This journey that we are considering will be costly. There will be suffering involved. It is not going to be a cake walk. Are you okay with that?

It will require humility and honesty for us to truly evaluate where we are.

James 1:22-24 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

We forget far too easily where we stand. We are sinners saved by God's grace. Let us humbly approach knowing our God, rather than demanding that he reveal himself to us.

Envision where you want to be.

I have recently been reading Dr Crabb's book called "The Papa Prayer" – in it he asks a question that stopped me in my tracks – “Do you know God well enough to enjoy His company, the same way you enjoy being with a family member or close friend?” -- I say that that question stopped me in my tracks because I don’t think that I know God that well. I want to. I’d love to, but I don’t think that I do. At least not yet.

See I think Paul knew where he wanted to go. He had envisioned where he wanted to be in his relationship with God. VS 12-14 – This phrase has always stood out to me in that passage. “I want to lay hold of that, for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

If Jesus Christ has laid hold of me, I have to wonder have I ever truly really laid hold of Him?

Where do you want to be in your relationship with God. Do you want to know and desire Him more than ANY other thing in the world. Do you really want Him to be the First Thing in your life. Are you willing to settle for anything less than God’s best for you? You have to decide where you want to go. You need to seek a vision of where GOD wants you to be “Where there is no vision the people perish” Prov 29:18

Embark on your journey into the heart of God.

An old Chinese proverb says that The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I still like Murphy’s version better – The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. – To be certain the road of getting to know God well may be long and difficult. We may experience some broken fan belts and leaky tires maybe even a busted radiator or two, which will without a doubt lead us into frustration with this journey toward God. We may want to get to know Him right NOW!!! but we can truly only take it one step at a time.

I can’t stand here and tell you that I know exactly how to live deep within the heart of God. I can only tell that I desire to. More than anything else I want to know God. More than anything else GOD wants me to know Him.

My favorite part of the Prodigal Son story in Luke 15 is when the young spendthrift heir was on his way home and the scripture says these puzzling words “While he was still a long way off…” While he was still a long way off...a long way off...a long way off, the Father ran out to meet him. He hugged him. He kissed him. He fell on his neck. He loved him. He loved that boy with the smell of pig feces on his clothes. He loved that boy with the dirty face and the tired, cut up, and shoeless feet. He loved that boy who was so worn out from the journey that he collapses in his father's arms weeping uncontrollably. His sobs are only interupted by the fathers words; "I love you son, I love you son, I love you son, I love you son. His face wet with not only his tears but the tears of his father as his dad embraces him so tightly that it seems he'll never let go.

You know what. That is just a glimpse into the heart of the Father. Just a touch of what God's love is like. I want to experience that. I really really do.

One of my favorite songs is Graham Kendrick's it does a good job of explaining what a peek into the heart of God might look like.

KNOWING YOU

All I once held dear, built my life upon,

All this world reveres and wars to own;

All I once thought gain I have counted loss,

Spent and worthless now compared to this.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You

There is no greater thing.

You’re my all, You’re the best,

You’re my joy, my righteousness,

And I love you Lord.

Now my heart’s desire is to know You more,

To be found in You and known as Yours

To possess by faith what I could not earn

All surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh to know the power of Your risen life,

And to know You in Your sufferings;

To become like You in Your death, my Lord,

So with You to live and never die.

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You

There is no greater thing.

You’re my all, You’re the best,

You’re my joy, my righteousness,

And I love you Lord.

Will you join me on this journey to a place where we can truly say "Knowing you Jesus, Knowing you

THERE IS

NO GREATER THING!!!!

Superman Wears Jack Bauer Pajamas.

2006-05-23T14:33:00.000-04:00

I like many Americans am addicted to 24. It is ~~one of the best shows~~ the best show on television, period. However, "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" runs a close second.

Last night's season finale was just,... wow! Poor Jack, c,mon let the guy rest a minute. I am eagerly awaiting the next season. Too bad it wont come until January 2007.

Brian that gives you a chance to catch up and watch it with the rest of us.

Christianity is not a spectator sport!

2006-05-20T00:54:00.000-04:00

Patrick Mead has a great post about living our lives so that we "leave a hole" rather than simply fill one when we are gone. Right on!!! We need to get serious about calling people to BE the church instead of just going there. I recall one of my professors (Dr. Floyd Parker Jr.) talking about people who go to church for "a nip, a sip, and a two dollar tip". I am getting ready to prepare a series to call our church to become more missional as a body and as individuals. This has stirred my thoughts. Thanks Patrick.

Native Tongue

2006-05-07T23:43:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite pastimes on Sunday evenings is to sit in my chair in our livingroom and mellow out while listening to music. Tonight this song just hit me between the eyes. Sometimes I struggle with talking to God. I don't always know how to connect with God I just know that I have to. For me just sitting quietly and letting music speak to me is worship. This particular song is by one of my favorite singers David Wilcox. I know that I have mentioned him before. He is still one of my top 3 favorite musicians, and he is coming to ATL in June. You better believe that I'll be there if at all possible.

Native Tongue

Truer words were never spoken
You picked them up when you were young
Maybe woven in a story
That goes back to where you're from
Truer words were never spoken
And for an audience of one
But where you're healed is where you're broken
And God knows your native tongue

So build a bridge with what's behind you
The scattered pieces of your past
Build it out over the chasm
To the promised land at last
Start a bridge with what's behind you
And God picks up where you've begun
'Cause where you look is where Love finds you
And God knows your native tongue

Spoken words in Aramaic
Sounds I wouldn't understand
In a local ancient dialect
For the people of that land

No little words can hold a candle
To the splendor of the sun
That can explain this world of wonder
And shine the same on everyone

But little words can hold a candle
All your own when darkness comes
They're just the size for us to handle
And God knows your native tongue

Jesus, Mary, and 15th century art

2006-05-05T01:53:00.000-04:00

This is my sermon for this Sunday. This is the first time I have written a sermon on such a "current events" topic as The Da Vinci Code. Some of the material is borrowed from preachingtoday.com and some other sources. The main points and the majority of the "commentary" is my own. This is not the "final draft" so please overlook any typos, spacing errors etc. I am posting it here because I could really use some feedback. I hope my handling of the matter is well recieved on Sunday. Even if you are just a "lurker" here I'd really appreciate if you'd take a minute and maybe make a comment. Thanks alot.

Jerrad

What’s the Deal With the Da Vinci Code?

Text: I Peter 3:8-16

I am a very sick little boy. My mother is typing this for me, because I can't. She is crying. Don't cry, Mommy! Mommy is always sad, but she says it's not my fault. I asked her who’s fault it was but she didn't answer, and only started crying harder, so I don't ask her that anymore. The reason she is so sad is that I'm so sick. I was born without a body. It doesn't hurt, except when I go to sleep.

The doctors gave me an artificial body. My body is a burlap bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that was the best they could do on account of us havin' no money or insurance. I would like to have a body transplant, but we need more money. Mommy doesn't work because she said employers don't hire crying people. I said, "Don't cry, Mommy," and she hugged my burlap body. Mommy always gives me hugs, even though she's allergic to burlap, and it chafes her real bad.

I hope you will help me. You can help me if you forward this e-mail. Dr. Johansen said if you foward this e-mail then Bill Gates will team up with AOL and do a survey with NASA. Then the astronauts will collect prayers from school children all over America and take them up to space so that God can hear them better. The doctors could help me better then.

Maybe one day I will be able to play baseball. Or maybe just use my lungs and heart, when the doctors make them. The doctors said that every time you forward this letter, the astronauts can take another prayer up to heaven. Please help me. Mommy is so sad, and I want a body. I don't want my leaves to rot before I turn 10.

If you don't forward this e-mail, that's OK. Mommy says you're a mean heartless person who doesn't care about a poor little boy with only a head. She says that she hopes that you stew in the raw pit of your own guilt-ridden stomach. What kind of wretched person are you that you can't take five lousy minutes to forward this to all your friends so that they can feel guilt and shame for the rest of their day, and then maybe help a poor, bodiless nine-year-old boy?

Please help me. I try to be happy but it's hard. I wish I had a puppy. I wish I could hold a puppy.

Thank You.
Billy 'Smiles' Evans,
The boy with just a head.
And a burlap sack for a body.

That is pure satire. It is a response to the amalgam of wild internet rumors that pass from inbox to inbox. They are casually forwarded along by those who are either too naïve or too lazy to verify their veracity. This one of those things that I really have a hard time with. You might say I am a little obsessed, but I believe that I have a good reason. The reason is that so much untrue stuff is passed along that as a culture we have a hard time distinguishing between what is real and what is false.

Case in point, in just a couple of weeks the movie version of the book will be released in theaters. For those of you who have not read the Da Vinci Code yet, let me give you a quick sketch of what you need to know just for this message. The central character is a guy named Robert Langdon. He is a 40-something, gray-haired, very bright, dashing, attractive Harvard professor who stumbles onto the amazing secret that, according to the book:

(a) Jesus is not at all like the Gospels present him and that, in fact, Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and they had a child whose descendents may still be alive. (I don't know whether any of you saw the ABC special a few weeks ago, but they interviewed a Scottish guy who thinks he may be one of the descendents of Jesus.)

(b) That Jesus' intent was for Mary Magdalene to become the head of the church after his death.

(d) That the early church and the New Testament documents engaged in a massive cover-up to conceal Jesus' marriage and his mortality in order to put men in control.

(e) The book also asserts that Jesus was not regarded as divine until centuries after his death, when the Emperor Constantine suppressed the “80 Plus” other gospels ancient documents that tell the real story and had the Council of Nicaea cobble together what we have today as the New Testament.

What about those audacious claims? Fact or Fiction

Although the book makes claims to be based on genuine scholarship and historical reference, it is without a doubt from cover to cover a work of fiction. It is a fictional novel. Even the author Dan Brown admits that. There is a smattering of facts, laced with some other very lacking historical “theories”.

If we realize that it is a work of fiction and understand it as such then, “Hey, no big deal.” And we could all go home early. But there is where the problem lies. Too many people are taking this work of fiction as historically accurate.

In a beliefnet.com survey, 27% of respondents said that Mary Magdalene was "Jesus' wife."

Not to be outdone, one in three Canadians who read The Da Vinci Code believe "there are descendants of Jesus alive today and a secret society exists dedicated to keeping Jesus' bloodline a secret."

A more recent Canadian survey found that 17% of all Canadians and 13% of all Americans are of the opinion that “Jesus’ apparent death on the cross was faked” and that "Jesus was also married and had a family." If accurate, this means that tens of millions of North Americans believe Dan Brown's fictions to be true.

How should Christians respond?

In 1988 Martin Scorcese released “The Last Temptation of Christ”. The movie was heralded by critics and attacked by Christians. In France some even resorted to terrorism by throwing Molotov cocktails into a theater which was showing the movie. – Somehow I believe an opportunity was missed. Rather than reacting by protesting, picketing, and violence, what would have happened if the movie was used as a springboard to discussion about Christ?

What would happen today if we began to look at our culture’s “attacks” on our faith such as the Da Vinci code, not as attacks but as opportunities to present the truth and engage our culture with the reality of Jesus. Nothing could be more biblical.

Consider Jesus’ admonitions -- Matthew 5:38-44; or Paul’s words “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone” Romans 12:17 – Or our current text of 1 Peter 3: 8-16

So How do we respond?

With An Informed Defense

V15 – What does it mean to “make a defense” – We think of building walls and digging trenches – That is not the sense of the word however – The greek word is “apologia” – To give an explanation, or clear argument. – To make a case for – in one sense like a lawyer – A lawyer does not try to draw battle lines between himself and the jury – He tries to make a compelling case an informed case based on evidence.

Rather than boycotting, or protesting, everything that comes down the pike we ought to see what it is first. To read the book or go see the movie, if we can with a clear conscience. By all means don’t do it if you feel convicted that you shouldn’t – but even if you don’t there are other resources and ways to educate yourself.

With A Gentle Response

Vs 15 – “yet with gentleness and reverence” – To often when we are opposed to something we come out guns blazing. We forget the wise Proverb writer – “ a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 -- Or the southern version “You get more flies with honey than vinegar” – I heard that and always wondered why anyone would want to catch flies.

The point is that when we respond in anger and frustration to things that don’t match up with what we believe, then it is not long before our anger leads us to a place where our Actions don’t match up with what we believe. Nobody wants to listen to some crazy on a vitriolic tirade about what is wrong with the world, at least not for very long. Besides how could we ever expect the Gospel to get a hearing from our world if Christians are only known for what they stand against. – Affirm truth yes, but affirm truth that is bathed in love.

With An Engaging Conversation

Vs 16 – “will be put to shame” -- What kind of shame is that? Shame when they are proven wrong? Perhaps. Proven wrong by who? Us? Christ? What is the reason for “making a defense” – well it is to “give an account of the HOPE that is in you”. I don’t know about you but my HOPE is not to win arguments with non-believers. My hope is that by making a defense – in an informed and gentle way that I can LEAD someone to Christ.

We can win arguments all day long if we want to, but if that is our aim I doubt we will see many souls come to Christ. We might win a battle but we will have lost the war.

And you thought you had it bad

2006-04-14T00:49:00.000-04:00

You may have already seen this and if so well then, I apologize. But hey a least your not having to pay for it. I checked this story out and it is true or at least it was true. Calle has since moved on to the great Pachyderm Paradise in the sky.

Have you been complaining how difficult things are? Think your life's a pit?

The San Francisco Zoo has an elephant called Calle who has a chronic illness requiring medication. The zoo people couldn't get Calle to take her dose orally, so a California pharmacologist developed a suppository. The 10-inch-long, four-pound, cocoa-butter bullets are crafted by the good folks at Guittard Chocolates in Burlingame.

Administering the daily medication takes five zoo workers, including one person to distract Calle with treats and one person who wears a full-arm glove.

Why am I telling you this?

Whenever you're prone to complain about your job, your life, just think: FIVE people out there have jobs worse than yours!

Thought of the day.

2006-04-12T14:36:00.000-04:00

Some people are like slinkies,
They don't really have a purpose,
But they still bring a smile to your face
when you push them down the stairs.

A season of yuck...

2006-04-11T16:45:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a season of yuck in your life. I don't neccessarily mean anything disgusting other than a sort of emotion of, well, yuck...for lack of a better word. I am not really discouraged or downtrodden or otherwise in any "pit" of despair. I have just been experiencing a season in the doldrums. I am just plodding along, not really excited about much, not really upset about much. I have good thoughts that I really ought to write down, but I lack the desire too. I just don't want to do anything. Can anyone relate? How can I get out of this?

Pimping Jesus?

2006-03-25T23:50:00.000-05:00

I shudder to think of the truth revealed in this article over at out of ur. I fear that more often than not we do turn Jesus into a product. With a slickly worded message delivered by a silver toungued salesperson, we might get the world to believe in Him. But will we really fulfill the great commision? Will anyone truly be converted? I'm not so sure.

Sad Story

2006-03-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

Mandy knew Matthew in college, they casually dated. She is pretty broken up. This is just awful. I pray for the church and the families involved.

Troublesome times are here...

2006-03-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

I received an email this morning that bothered me greatly. I usually don't even read these, but this one caught my attention. It was one of those "watchdog" exposes on problems in the church, specifically the Churches of Christ. I know that many people are concerned about change in the church and doctrinal "error". Okay, that's fine, be concerned, write letters, point out what you believe to be false teaching, etc. whatever you need to do to feel correct (read righteous). But here is what troubles me the most. I won't include the entire text of the letter that was titled "I won't apologize..." but I wanted to include a snippit that I find highly vicious and reprehensible:

^{Brethren, if we do not take the sword of the Spirit and drive it through the hearts and souls of these ungodly Christians and destroy these wicked brethren in the Lord’s church, then God will hold us responsible.}

I don't know about you but this language sounds a lot different than the language of my Savior. Sword--drive it through their hearts--ungodly Christians (really, I thought those words were mutually exclusive). The phrase that really bothers me is "destroy these wicked brethren". That just sounds so unChristlike. Even if you believe that you are correct--there is never cause to destroy anyone. I thought the goal was "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". Something about this whole thing is just creepy to me and very, very vitriolic.

Hold it up to the light.

2006-03-09T23:22:00.000-05:00

This song has been in my head a good bit lately. From David Wilcox, if you have read my blog for very long you know that he is one of my favorite musicians. He is a profound lyricist. Check him out.

Hold it up to the light
It's the choice of a lifetime - I'm almost sure

I will not live my life in between anymore

If I can't be certain of all that's in store

This far it feels so right

I will hold it up - hold it up to the light,

Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

The search for my future has brought me here

This is more than I'd hoped for, but sometimes I fear

That the choice I was made for will someday appear

And I'll be too late for that flight

So hold it up - hold it up to the light,

Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

It's too late - to be stopped at the crossroads

Each life here - a possible way

But wait - and they all will be lost roads

Each road's getting shorter the longer I stay

Now as soon as I'm moving - my choice is good

This way comes through right where I prayed that it would

If I keep my eyes open and look where I should

Somehow all of the signs are in sight

If I hold it up to the light

I said God, will you bless this decision?

I'm scared, Is my life at stake?

But I see if you gave me a vision

Would I never have reason to use my faith?

I was dead with deciding - afraid to choose

I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose

But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move

And trust that the timing is right

Yes and hold it up hold it up to the light

Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light

Off to the loo.

2006-03-07T14:55:00.000-05:00

This gives new meaning to the words -- "getting out of your comfort zone" This is a real working toilet that was/is part of an art display in Europe.

Apparently you can see them but they can't see you, but STILL!

Late Lenten Fast

2006-03-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

Prompted by Keith's post about lent I (albeit a little late) have decided to fast from soda and sweets until easter. I have done this in the past but with limited success. I want to also try a regular or possibly a juice fast during passion week this year, but I know that I will have to find others to join me. Is anybody interested?

Is this the end of the church as we know it?

2006-02-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

George Barna seems to think so

This town looks like a pig sty!

2006-02-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

I just have to feel sorry for the people of this little German village. A foot and a half of pig manure? That's just nasty.

Words...do they matter? or Massive Cache of WMD's Discovered Right Under Our Noses

2006-02-18T01:46:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a book titled: The Book of Poisonous Quotes. It is filled with many critical, cynical, often venomous, often humorous statements of many people of note about other people and things of note. The political ones are the funniest to me. For example, “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of congress, but I repeat myself.” You may have heard that one before, but it is one of my favorites. It is attributed to Mark Twain. How about this one? “Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them.” – Lily Tomlin.

Many of the quotes are humorous, as I said, but many others are truly as poisonous as the title indicates. What occurs to me is that we easily forget that our words can truly be toxic. Sometimes even a well-intentioned ribbing or a “constructive” criticism may actually do more to damage than to heal. If there is one thing that we should remember it is this, WORDS ARE IMPORTANT!!

The proverb writer hit the nail squarely on the head when he said, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21 Each one of us has one of the most powerful and dangerous WMD’s hiding right behind our teeth. We can speak life or we can speak death to others and to ourselves.

I ache inside when I think about the careless words I have said in jest or in anger toward others. I shudder to think of the hurt this little fleshy muscle has caused intentionally and unintentionally. It is the height of selfish arrogance for any of us to say, “hey it’s no big deal, I didn’t mean it.”

We are so skilled at blowing off our responsibility to control our tongues that we say hurtful and misguided things without even realizing it. James reminds us of the power of our words, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” James 3:5-6

One phrase really jumps out at me—our tongues can “set on fire the course of our life”. What James? Are you saying that our words can determine the course of our life? That is exactly what he is saying. You and I have not only an obligation to manage our mouths but a very real NEED to, because if we don’t it could send us plummeting down in flames like Pan-Am 103.

You see, according to Jesus own words there is no such thing as “well I didn’t really
mean it.” You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the
mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. “The good man brings out of his good
treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.
“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” –Matthew 12:34-37

He who has ears let him hear. Words...do they matter? You bet your bottom dollar they do!

Just a Friendly Hunting Trip.

2006-02-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

This is funny no matter what your political persuasion is.

This is a new one for me.

2006-02-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

This is so stupid it makes my head hurt. Click here and see an indepth description of what I am talking about, just don't spend too much time or energy trying to figure it out or you might blow a tube.

Try the New Jesus Juice Supernatural Energy Drink!

2006-02-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

No, this post has nothing to do with Michael Jackson, or children, or coke cans filled with wine. Sorry for the somewhat sardonic title. But have you noticed how many different kinds of “energy” drinks there are--Red Bull, Full Throttle, Rooster Booster, and a host of others? People drink this stuff like water. Our culture has developed an affinity for anything that sounds like an adrenaline rush. I believe that if you had a can that was labeled “Heart Exploder” -- With the warning "Use caution. This drink could cause your heart to explode" someone would buy it. “I want something that will keep me up at night, make my head hurt, and give me a bladder infection, where can I find an energy drink that will do all that?”

How does this translate in the spiritual realm? We find ourselves low on spiritual energy. We find emptiness in our lives. So what do we do? What do we want? We are into the quick fix, energy boost, feel-good theology. We want a pill, a secret formula, and a 3 easy step – solution to our spiritual weariness.

“If you’ll just read this book, "The One Minute Christian" -- brother it will change your life.” “You ought to listen to brother Uber Preacher on the radio, he has some great ideas.” “You know I just couldn’t get through the day without my handy little blueberry muffin scented hip-pocket devotional book.” The list goes on.

Hear me when I say this. There is nothing wrong with reading books, or listening to teaching, or using some devotional tool. As long as we understand those things for what they are. They are simply tools.

Even God’s word is a tool. Isn’t it possible to treat the bible and even our relationship with Jesus the same way that we treat other things? “Oh, if I just read my Bible a few minutes it will give me a lift to get through the day.” Or maybe we think that a superficial, surface level relationship with Christ will bring us the “spiritual energy” that we desperately need. The Bible or Jesus becomes a pill or a shot to inoculate us from the difficulties of day-to-day life.

What I think is that what we really need is not some five-minute, quick fix solution. What we need is much deeper. We can’t expect to get very far with our faith if we are unable or unwilling to take the time to refuel.

See, being a believer is not something that can be approached in the same way as our culture teaches us to approach… pretty much everything.

Can you imagine an infomercial for Christianity “You too can become a more faithful Christian in just 60 minutes 3 times a week!” “ You’ll have less trouble in your life and more blessings than you can count!” “But wait there’s more” “If you call within the next ten minutes we’ll throw in a relationship with Jesus, and we’ll even include our communion bread and fruit of the vine diet, (a $49 value) so you can get a slimmer waistline!”

Sounds great! But it does not conform to what scripture says. Scripture says that a walk with God is often difficult, trying, and demanding. But it also promises a deeper – more real – more passionate – more holy – more wonderful life than can ever be gained outside of Christ.

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 2 Cor 1:5

Make no mistake – walking by faith is no easy way to live. Following God is difficult and anyone who would tell you different is either lying to you or they do not really understand Christianity. If life to the full is the life that we want from our relationship with God it will require endurance, and there will be times when we need to refuel and recharge our faith. Our hearts will need RENEWAL.

God’s word has something more to tell us.

Isaiah 30:15, 18 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 15 "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. 18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (NIV)

Repentance, Rest, Quietness, trust – That sounds like a far cry from the lives of most of us today.

Renewal is the result of a deepened relationship with God. That is not something that can happen with a one shot approach or a five minutes of “God-time” It is part of an ongoing plan that God has for our lives as believers. But there are obstacles to God’s plan – Busyness and an Unwillingness to Trust God.

Renewal cannot happen if we are TOO BUSY. Part of the reason that the quick fix is so popular in our culture is because apparently that is all we have time for. Busyness is now a status symbol in our culture. “How was your week?” “Oh, busy, busy as usual!” We somehow link busyness with success. Somebody who’s busy must be accomplishing something big we think.

We live lives of interminable busyness.

John Ortberg writes: Not long after moving to Chicago, I called a wise friend to ask for some spiritual direction. I described the pace of life in my current ministry. The church where I serve tends to move at a fast clip. I also told him about our rhythms of family life: we are in the van-driving, soccer-league, piano-lesson, school-orientation-night years. I told him about the present condition of my heart, as best I could discern it. What did I need to do, I asked him, to be spiritually healthy?

Long pause. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life," he said at last.

Another long pause. "Okay, I've written that one down," I told him, a little impatiently. "That's a good one. Now, what else is there?" I had many things to do, and this was a long-distance call, so I was anxious to cram as many units of spiritual wisdom into the least amount of time possible.

Another long pause. "There is nothing else," he said. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

Consider this verse:

The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. Mark 6:30-32

Can you imagine the apostles – “Jesus, we just can’t wait to tell you all the great stuff we’ve been doing. Ministry is so exciting. There was this guy who had a demon”— “Whoa there…Why don’t you guys slow down a while, rest, refuel, you haven’t even taken the time to eat.”

Says David Henderson "The emptiest lives are those stuffed with motion from morning to night." I tend to agree.

The other side of this is that renewal will not happen if we are UNTRUSTING. Another problem of our culture is that we live with a high level of suspicion. We are not sure who we can trust. Sometimes we aren’t sure that we can even trust ourselves. And though we say that we trust God our actions say otherwise.

Recently I heard someone remark, “It’s easy to feel good about saying ‘I TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE’ but It’s not so easy to do when a large unexpected bill shows up in the mail.” If we are paralyzed with fear every time that we face a situation where we should trust God, then are we really trusting God?

We can say we trust God, but there are times when our emotions scream at us, “HE can’t be trusted! You need to take care of this yourself. Do something right now, because you don’t have time to wait on God!”

This is demonstrated by the way we interact with other believers too. We are not sure that we want to reveal ourselves completely to others. What will they think? What will they say? Don’t you see how this affects the way we look at GOD too? We pray the prayers that sound righteous even when we are alone with God. How many of us would have the nerve to pray like the tax collector – “God have mercy on me a sinner” in a public prayer -- Or to be as honest as the man in Mark 9 who said “I do believe, help my unbelief” at a hospital bedside.

I have to admit that while there are parts of me that trust God completely there are other parts of me that sometimes cry out “He can’t be trusted!!” But you know what? That is okay. That is a faith that God can use. He can’t use me as long as I am lying to myself, saying “Yes, I trust God completely,” but living a life that demonstrates that I am going to “take care of number one.”

To experience real renewal in our lives we must be willing not only to say that we trust God fully, but also to trust God with the parts of us that aren’t saying that.

When genuine renewal happens it produces new life, not just the ability to trudge on. The quick fix will get you by for a while, but eventually you will need it again and again. The trite old saying: give a man a fish…is still true. Spiritually speaking I don’t just need the fish, I need to know where to find them and how to catch them.

I am reminded that what Jesus offers is not a quick energy boost, but a life giving spring, a well of water that springs up within me. (John 4) I think you and I need to stop drinking from a leaky bucket, and start drinking from the well.

Me and Jesus on a curvy dirt road

2006-01-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

My first vehicle was a 1985 ford ranger pickup. I got it not long after I turned 16. I loved my truck. I drove all over the place in it. I developed a habit of exploration. I drove down every road to see where it went. I was always looking for a shortcut from here to there. That hasn’t changed a whole lot in the last fifteen years.

One day I was on my way to visit a friend that lived in the next town over. Between my house and his house there were a lot of back roads that you could take. Some of them were not even paved. I headed for his house and turned off of the main road onto an old rutted out gravel road that I frequently used. There were just a few houses on the road and very little traffic.

With my vast driving experience of 6 months or so, I thought that this would be a good time to see what kind of speed I could pick up in the little truck. It had a manual transmission, which made it quite easy to spin the tires and just generally play with it like a toy. I pushed the accelerator down and tore off down this pig trail of a road. Now this road wasn’t a straightaway. It had a few curves but nothing too serious. I was probably running between 50-60 mph, which doesn’t sound that fast, that is unless you are on a gravel road.

I don’t how much you know about driving a pickup, but if even if you have never driven one much, you are probably aware that there is a big difference between the weight in the front and the weight in the rear of the vehicle. Now it doesn’t take a physics major to figure out how a vehicle such as this traveling at a moderate to high rate of speed will respond to a curve on a loose gravel roadway.

As I entered the curve it began to fishtail. I then felt a sensation that was previously unknown to me. I knew that I was no longer in control of this 2500-pound truck that I was in. I responded, naturally by overcorrecting, and it turned back the other way. Then of course there was another over correction with a similar result. This cycle continued for about a week and a half, or at least that is what it felt like. Then came a moment of stark realization for me. There was no hope of regaining control of this vehicle. It was either going to come to an abrupt halt when I hit the ditch, or worse it might flip over. I just knew that I had messed up pretty badly.

At that point I did something that probably saved me from crashing. I simply let go of the wheel and completely took my foot off the gas and the brake. The truck spun completely around in the road and skidded to a stop, facing the opposite direction from the way I had been going. I was relieved, but more than that I was convinced that I would NEVER do anything like that again.

When we are traveling down the road of life there is often a temptation to believe that we are in control. We are moving along at a pretty good clip and things seem okay, in the straight-aways. Before long though we come to a curve in the road and we begin to lose control. We try to hang on to the illusion of control (that is really all that it ever is) for as long as we can, but eventually we reach a point where we must LET GO because the more we try to hang onto control the worse our situation becomes.

Our faith is like that little Ford Ranger. We often find ourselves trying to maintain control when we never really had it in the first place. I think that we can relate to the man in Matthew 19. (you can look it up rather than me cutting and pasting it into this post.) This rich young ruler was in control. At least he believed that he was. Notice what he says to Jesus: “What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life.” Those I’s are quite telling. Apparently he believed that obtaining eternal life was about something that he needed to do or that it was otherwise based on some sort of checklist of obligations that he could perform and therefore merit salvation. That is the illusion of control. Satan has deceived humanity since the beginning of time into believing that if we do enough or we can be good enough or that we can control ourselves enough that we can somehow weasel our way into the kingdom of God. This is a tremendous lie. Unfortunately, Satan has put together a convincing enough façade that most people believe the BIG LIE.

The big lie: It all depends on me.
So obtaining eternal life is all about controlling our behavior. Wrong! WRONG! WRONG! This guy had it all figured out and in a nice neat little package didn’t he? Jesus said: Well, in response to your question, you already know the answer. Follow the commandments. And Rich young ruler thought, “Wow that’s a cinch! I have been doing that all along. I’ve got it under control.” But wait there’s more. “You are going to have to relinquish your control addiction and trust God.”

I don’t think this passage is a much about how much money this man had as it is about his control issues. What Jesus was asking him to do sounds quite difficult, but it is still doable. Look at the disciples. They make it clear that they had given up their possessions. But He wasn’t merely asking this man to give up his “stuff”. He was asking him to give up his “self”. Which is by no means easy.

At the heart of this story is a real man with a real desire to be a man of faith. Unfortunately for him (at least at this point in his walk) he is not willing to live a lifestyle of repentance.

See, repentance is not about saying “I’m sorry” to God and then trying to manage our sinful behavior. That is a Gospel of death. Repentance is where we come to a curve in our road of life where we say to God, “I can’t do anything about my sin. So I trust you to take care of it God.”

12 steppers have a statement that I believe Christians would do well to think about. Step #1 We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable. Repentance is when we admit to God that we are powerless over our sin – and that our lives are unmanageable.

I believe that without that kind of genuine repentance, we will never experience the true power of the Gospel in our lives. As long as we are trying to get closer to God by controlling our behavior by our own power then we will only experience terrible frustration and an utter lack of peace.

Jesus made it clear in the passage what it was that the man was lacking in his understanding. "What is impossible with man is possible with God."

It all depends on God.
Real, genuine, life is only possible when we depend on God. When we rely on Him and trust in Him then and only then can we have life to the full. Then and only then can we have full-throttle faith.

Revelation 3: 19-20 (again, you can look it up) -- A friend pointed something out to me recently about these verses, especially verse 20. Quite often this is applied to evangelism and evangelistic efforts. We missed the point of the verse. This is a letter written to the church, to believers, people that are already converted.

Jesus wants us to know that if we are willing to allow Him into our lives we can have the most fulfilling kind of relationship possible with Him. To often though we are not willing to let Him into the inner rooms of our hearts. We are satisfied with having the external righteousness of the Rich Young Ruler. But when He knocks at the door we run and hide, or maybe we say, “No, you can’t come in right now, I need to clean things up in here first.”

Do you realize the significance of what He says to us? I don’t think these words impact us the same in our culture as they did in Jesus’ day. One of the most intimate things that could happen between people was the sharing of a meal. Not only does Jesus want to come into our lives, he wants to share them with us. He wants to have an intimate loving relationship with us. This relationship is the heart of the good news of the gospel. “This man eats and drinks with sinners.” Hey, that’s us. It can only occur when I hang on to him in the curves, when I let go of the wheel and relinquish my death grip on control and fully trust Him. What would it take for me to give God the wheel?

Too Funny

2006-01-13T17:21:00.000-05:00

If you like blonde jokes Wade Hodges pointed me in the direction of a great one.

2006-01-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

It has been several weeks since a post (okay over a month). I know I slack off too much to be a real blogger, but hey! life is pretty busy. Since my last post Mandy and I have moved from our raccoon, rat and, mold infested house back into and apartment. For the first time since we have been married we finally live in a place that we actually enjoy. We had some folks help us with decoration and unpacking and such and our place looks great. It feels warm and cozy and the living area is much more spacious and open. There is plently of natural light (not the beer) to make it feel bright. We love it.

There is much more to report but for now I will leave you with a few thoughts on the new year. I recieved this as a forward and it was reportedly written by TD Jakes several years ago, so I will leave that for you to decide who actually wrote it, but I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment.

There are people who can walk away from you.
And hear me when I tell you this! When people can walk away from you: let them walk. I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you. I mean hang up the phone. When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. The bible said that, they came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us. [1 John 2:19] People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay. Let them go. And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over. Let me tell you something. I've got the gift of good-bye. It's the tenth spiritual gift, I believe in good-bye. It's not that I'm hateful, it's that I'm faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have He'll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don't need it. Stop begging people to stay. Let them go!! If you are holding on to something that doesn't belong to you and was never intended for your life, then you need to...... LET IT GO!!! If you are holding on to past hurts and pains ..... LET IT GO!!! If someone can't treat you right, love you back, and see your worth..... LET IT GO!!! If someone has angered you ........ LET IT GO!!! If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge...... LET IT GO!!! If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction...... LET IT GO!!! If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs or talents .... LET IT GO!!! If you have a bad attitude....... LET IT GO!!! If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better...... LET IT GO!!! If you're stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a new level in Him...... LET IT GO!!! If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship....... LET IT GO!!! If you keep trying to help someone who won't even try to help themselves...... LET IT GO!!! If you're feeling depressed and stressed ....... LET IT GO!!! If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handling yourself and God is saying "take your hands off of it," then you need to...... LET IT GO!!! Let the past be the past. Forget the former things. GOD is doing a new thing for 2006!!!

A Song for Mandy

2005-12-01T23:28:00.000-05:00

I have tried my best to write a song for my wife. I intend to play it for her on my guitar tommorow night (Friday) at her surprise birthday party. Let me go ahead and say without qualification, I am nervous. I have performed in front of people a few times, but never a song that I have written. I covet your prayers tommorow evening. Anyway here is the song:

When you know, you just know

Verse
On a cold November day a few years ago
I met a girl at a country store
She walked in and our eyes met
No words were even said
We just knew

Verse
A few months later, when there was snow in the air
With trembling hands down on my knees
I tried to ask that girl to marry me
The words wouldn’t come but she didn’t care
She just knew

Chorus:
They say when you find the love of your life
You don’t have to guess – you’ll just know it’s right
Cause when you know, you just know
Sometimes words just get in the way
When you know, you just know

Verse
We’ve been together now about 4 years
There’s been some hard times
And we’ve shed a few tears
But even on the darkest of nights
We just know

Chorus

Samson: What was and what could've been

2005-11-27T00:56:00.000-05:00

I am again posting the full text of my sermon for Sunday the 27th. I think this one is right on, if I do say so myself. Not that I am boasting, I just think that God gave me a strong message. Oh and I start this sermon with about a 1 minute audio clip from "On the Waterfront" the 1957 Marlon Brando flick. Even if you haven't seen the movie I think you'd recognize the clip. I alluded to it in the first line of the sermon.

Here goes:

—"You don't understand! I could've had class. I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am." The Movie is On the Waterfront. It is probably one of Brando’s better films. In it he plays Ex-Boxer Terry Malloy who forsakes his dream of being a great prize fighter and ends up involved with the mob. He started with great potential, but then failed to live up to what he could have been.

Let’s face it. Nothing is more sad or more discouraging than watching someone with great potential to do great things pour it all down the drain. I doubt that any of us have not been saddened by the countless athletes-actors-politicians-musicians-and yes even people of great faith, who have been overflowing with great potential, and yet have blown it all away on a whim, a momentary lapse of judgement, or sometimes a continued pattern of poor choices.

They have names like Darryl Strawberry, Len Bias, River Phoenix, James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, and Chet Baker. They are all connected one common thread. They were gifted.

Samson, our hero (and I use the term loosely) in today’s text also shares that same thread.

Samson was gifted, truly and utterly gifted. From his birth he was given tremendous potential. His birth was announced by an angel, to his mother who was barren. The Angel told his parents that he would be set apart, consecrated to the lord, from the time he was born until he died.

He was to be a Nazirite which meant that he was not to drink fermented wine or even eat grapes for that matter. He was never to touch a dead body which would make him unclean, and he was not to cut his hair. The messenger also told them that Samson would be the man who would begin the deliverance of his people from the hands of the Philistines.

As I have already alluded he didn’t quite live up to the great expectations for his life. The life of Samson illustrates the ancient truth that a good beginning doesn’t guarantee a good ending. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.” That’s why Solomon wrote, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning” Ecc. 7:8

Samson was a man who lived a life dominated by two things – The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Selfishness. God did use Samson to a greater purpose but Samson’s greatest purpose was the satisfaction of his fleshly desires. He lived for self gratification. Just a few scenes from his life will reveal how deeply his character was flawed.

14:1-3 – ¹Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.

²So he came back and told his father and mother, "I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife."

³Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she looks good to me."

He wants what he wants without taking into account his parents wishes or his vow. His words in verse 3 demonstrate his chasing after the desires of his flesh “She looks good to me.” The phrase in Hebrew is literally “She fits my purpose.” Some commentators have suggested that these words reflect the woman being part of God’s purpose which is stated in verse 4 that the Lord was looking for an “occasion against the Philistines”. So whether Samson believed it or even realized he was still participating in God’s plan however unwittingly.

14: 5-9 –⁵Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him.

⁶The Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

⁷So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked good to Samson.

⁸When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion.

⁹So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.

Again we see Samson’s weakness is his flesh. This time it is not about a sexual desire but another physical one, his taste buds. Here he violated his Nazirite vow possibly in two ways. First He ventured into this vineyard, which is not a place for a young man who isn’t supposed to eat grapes. Then he kills the lion, which did not violate his vow. Perhaps God was trying to steer him back onto the right path by sending the lion.

Second, He goes back sometime later and scrapes the Honey out of the inside of the Lion. That’s where I usually go to look for honey. Don’t you? By the way if your children bring you honey of unknown origin you might ought to ask where it came from. But remember he isn’t supposed to touch a dead body and a dead animal does qualify to make one unclean.

The remainder of Chapter 14 recounts his attempt to dupe some Philistines in a wager regarding a riddle. Unfortunately for him it was a double cross and they dupe him by getting his new wife to cajole him into giving the answer.

Chapter 15 begins with Samson, more than a little upset, going on a tear and burning up their crops. Violence begets violence so they respond by burning his wife and Father in law. His desire for revenge yet strengthened even more, he slays many Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.

Chapter 16 is the part of the story you are probably most familiar with. The torrid affair with the little she-devil known as Delilah – which means “devotee” takes place in chapter 16. Not only is she a prostitute but more than likely a temple prostitute.

Ruthlessly and tenaciously she drags the true “secret” of his strength out of him. After three failed attempts which end in Samson essentially throwing his trickery in her face here is what happens.

16: 15-31--¹⁵Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is."

¹⁶It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.

¹⁷So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, "A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man."

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.

¹⁹She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

²⁰She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

²¹Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.

²²However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

²³Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice, for they said,
"Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands."

²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said,
"Our god has given our enemy into our hands,
Even the destroyer of our country,
Who has slain many of us."

²⁵It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may amuse us." So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars.

²⁶Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, "Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them."

²⁷Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And about 3,000 men and women were on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

²⁸Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."

²⁹Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

³⁰And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.

³¹Then his brothers and all his father's household came down, took him, brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. Thus he had judged Israel twenty years.

How tragic the ending of a man in whom God had put so much potential for greatness. Sure God did do great things through and in spite of Samson but how much more could God have done if Samson had been willing to walk daily with God instead of serving himself? The question that remains for us to answer is: What sort of great things can God do through us if we are willing to walk with Him?

God put great potential in you.

Samson represents all those in whom God has placed His spirit that would choose to rebel against Him.

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. I Peter 2:9-10

The problem is that potential isn’t enough. There are plenty of Christians who no longer walk with God even though they started out with great potential

Don’t be driven by your flesh.

Peter goes on to say “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. I Peter 2:11-1

Samson shows us that God can even use our rebellion to accomplish His will.

You can be sure of one more thing. God’s will, will get done. Whether we follow Him or not and whether we want Him to or not, God will do what he set out to do.

You need to know that you have the potential to do great things for God. You have the potential to lead others to Christ. You have the potential to be a great example of the power of God in this world.

But you also have the potential to miss the mark, to not live up to expectations, to walk away from God.

Where are you in response to what God has done? Are you, like Samson, shackled down and blinded with the burden of living for yourself or are you going to live for God, no matter the cost.

Listen, when the end of your life comes someone will stand up and say words about you, what will they say. Will they be talking about what could have been, about the potential you missed out on, or will they be talking about what was, about how you allowed God to have all of you and about the great things God did with your life? Will you choose to live for what can be or will you settle for what is?

I am still alive

2005-11-24T00:07:00.000-05:00

I know I have been quiet lately. I guess the holidays plus my normal busyness plus my absolute lack of anything that I would deem blogworthy to say have all added up to my silence. But I was feeling a twinge of shame as I looked at my neglected blog as well as my dwindling visit counter and felt compelled to write a few words.

All that aside I look at this blog as my little "bully pulpit" and I am glad that at least a few readers out there consider stuff that rolls of my lips or fingertips, as it were, worth reading. So hang in there loyal readers, all 3-4 of you. I will surface again soon, maybe sooner than you think. Maybe some of you have some ideas on how I might get a few more loyal readers directed my way.

In the meantime does anybody have any ideas on what I should do for my wife's 30th birthday "surprise" party. She knows that it is coming , so I guess it is not really much of a surprise. She just doesn't know when or where. I want to make it really special or really humiliating (in a humorous way of course) or maybe a little of both.

Ciao for now!

Gideon: A little guy serving a big God

2005-11-08T12:17:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wanted God to just give you a sign? Maybe you have found yourself at some crossroads in your life. You were trying to decide where you would live, what you would do, what job you should take, what God’s will was for your life, and you just thought: “If God could just show up and tell me what to do everything would be great!”

“All the options are on the table, now God you just tell me which one to pick.” That’s a feeling we all get sometimes. I know that I feel like this guy sometimes

If only it were that simple. What would happen if God really did show up and tell you what to do? Would it make it any easier? What if God had a completely different direction he wanted you to go that you didn’t even have on your list? We all have a list. “I will do this, but I won’t do that and there is no way I’d even consider doing that.”

The story of Gideon is about man who needed a sign from God. He just needed a little proof that God was serious about what he asked him to do. But that isn’t where the story begins.

It begins just after Deborah had led the Israelites out of oppression. Things were great again. The people of God were no longer in bondage; they were no longer under the thumb of an oppressive ruler. They were free. For forty years they were free.

But as we well know, with great freedom comes great responsibility and when there is a lack of accountability it usually isn’t very long till we forget our responsibility. So, that is what happened. Deborah was gone. Forty years had gone by and the people forgot about what God had done through Deborah. They forgot that God had used her to bring them into this time of abundant freedom. They forgot. Scripture says “Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” (Judges 6:1)

So now God is Himself at a crossroads. What should he do? Does he continue to let them wander further and further from Him just so that He doesn’t have to do anything that hurts them? Or does He do, as He has done before, and let them again fall under oppression so that they will turn back to Him?

Funny how pain reminds us to rely on God isn’t it. Funny how we so easily forget about the pain when things are going well. When everything was A-OK they forgot about the painfulness that was associated with their previous rebellion against God.

Well they didn’t really leave God much of a choice. So he again let them fall into the hands of an enemy people. Again they faced the torment and oppression that they had faced frequently before.

Once again they knew the pain associated with rebellion. Once again they lived in fear, and once again what God had intended for them was nowhere on the horizon. Instead God’s people, God’s chosen people, who were supposed to be dwelling in His promised land – were on the run. They ended up living in caves and carved out holes in the ground. They could not dwell in the land that God had given them. To make matters worse they also could not even provide for their needs.

The Midianites who ganged up with the Amalekites and some other folks from the east had this nasty habit of coming in just after planting season and destroying the crops of the Israelites, as well as killing all their livestock.

So Israel had nothing. It doesn’t take long when you have nothing to begin crying out to God. Here is what is ironic. They did not cry out as soon as this started happening. They actually put up with it for seven years. They were like children on the playground getting bullied around and they just took it.

God made them to be conquerors but they looked like cowards. God meant for them to be dwelling in the land but they were sleeping in caves. God wanted them to be Rulers but they looked more like Refugees.

I can relate. Sometimes even though I know that God wants me to live in peace and security in Him, I find myself living with conflict and fear. Now I know deep down inside that God meant for me to live with courage because as Jesus said, He has “overcome the world”. (John 16:33)

But I can’t help the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach. Somehow, even though I know I am supposed to trust God—and even though he has said “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”—I still get this feeling sometimes that I am on my own—That I have to go it alone. That God has left me to fend for myself.

That kind of thinking, you well know leads to bitterness toward God – and that bitterness can only lead one place. That place is away from Him and away from what He created me to be. So where does that leave me?

In a word – Despair. That utterly helpless feeling, that God-ordained impulse, which has but one purpose: to remind me to lean on God. It points me back in the right direction like a big flashing traffic arrow that you just cannot miss. WRONG WAY! Get back on the road. That is the wrong direction.

Israel knows about despair. Because of her own failings and fears, she wallows in her misery and despair for seven long years and then she begins to cry out to God. She remembers to lean on Him. She recalls that she alone is powerless, that she IS NOT, but I AM. So in Verse 6 of chapter 6 scripture says: “Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of Midian.

So, God heard their cries and responded by sending a prophet to remind them of how he had rescued them in the past and about how much care he had shown them and of course to remind them of their disobedience. God did however have a bigger plan at work to deliver them and He had a man in mind to carry it out.

The name Gideon means warrior, even though to look at him you would think that whoever named him must have been half asleep, or just maybe saw in him the same potential that God saw in him.

By his own admission he is the youngest member of his family which is the smallest family of the whole tribe of Mannaseh, which by the way is the smallest tribe of Israel.

So we find Gideon “the warrior” hard at work threshing out wheat in a wine press. This is not what wine presses were generally used for (hence the name wine press), but because of the situation Israel was in he had to make do the best he could.

The Angel of the Lord shows up with a message for Gideon – “God be with you, Valiant warrior”. Gideon who is apparently in no mood for pleasantries fires back – “If God is with us why has all this bad stuff happened to us? Where are all the miracles that we have heard stories about all our lives?” (This doesn’t sound that different from people these days.) So I guess Gideon knew the meaning of Despair too.

The Messenger – who by the way speaks with direct authority from God, has such authority that when one of God’s people (like Gideon here) sees and hears the angel it is as if they had seen and heard the Almighty in person.

So it is God that says to Gideon: “You are going to deliver Israel from the hand of Midian, and you are going to do it by the strength that I give you”

So Gideon says: “Sure, where do I sign!” No, you know better than that. As usual, when God decides on someone and tells them what he wants them to do there is some resistance. Gideon says: “Now why on earth out of all people would you have picked me, other than my name – I know it means warrior – but that is really a mistake – I had nothing to do with that name—somebody else picked that out—but I am the youngest son of my father, my family is the smallest in the tribe, and you know that my tribe is the smallest. So why’d you pick me?

God ever so patiently says: “Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time – I AM going to be with you – you know quite well that I could defeat Midian with you by yourself”

So Gideon, who still has some apprehension, says: “Okay, if you are going to do as you say and use me to deliver the people then stay here till I get back I want to make an offering and if you will just give me a sign I will do what you say.” Gideon’s humanity is revealed even more profoundly in his request. “God give me a sign”.

I think I understand the uneasiness he was dealing with. I mean, here God is telling him, “I am going to deliver the people and you the youngest son of the smallest family of the smallest tribe in all of Israel are the man I want to use.”

“Okay God. I hear what you are telling me, and I trust your judgment, but I just need a little proof before I commit.”

Imagine if I were to go to the bank tomorrow and I were to go into the loan officer’s office and I were to tell her: “I need 4.5 million dollars.” Do you think she’d want a little collateral to show that I really could pay it back? She’d be foolish not to get something to prove my ability to repay.

I think that is what is happening here. Gideon has heard all his life that God is the God of miracles. He has heard that He is the God that brought His people out of Egypt, but Gideon has never seen these tremendous displays of God’s amazing power. He has heard the stories but he has never had the experience.

I believe that we have a lot in common with Gideon. We have heard the stories about God’s awesome power but we wonder what it looks like. We believe God but sometimes we want to see.

I’m reminded however of Jesus words to Thomas in John Chapter 20: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

God heeds Gideon’s request for a sign. Gideon placed his offering of meat and unleavened bread on a rock. The angel touched the offering with his staff and it burst into flames and was consumed. Then the angel disappears.

I love the way scripture records Gideon’s reaction. 6:22 “When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”

God eases his new tension and fear with these words: “Peace to you, do not fear, you will not die.” Then God tells Gideon that very night to go and tear down the altar that had been built to honor Baal. So he does. In the morning the people get angry at him and they want to kill him.

His father consoles them by telling them: “If Baal is really a god he can defend himself”. So Gideon gets a new name “Jerub-Baal” which means “let Baal contend with him”. So begins God’s deliverance of His people.

So you think this might be all he needs but Gideon still doesn’t have a handle on his doubt. It’s still nagging. Not once, but two more times he asks God for another sign of his power.

Gideon says: “If you are really going to do what you said and deliver Israel through me, then let me make another request. I will lay out a fleece on the threshing floor and in the morning if the ground is dry and the fleece is wet I will know that you are really with me.”

So God again bears with Gideon and in the morning he goes to check the fleece and it was soaked through. He wrings a whole bowl of water out of the fleece. This makes me think of that song, “Ring it out”. Ring out… the fleece…that proves…I AM Me.

Still this isn’t enough for Gideon. “Please don’t get angry with me, let me just ask one more thing of you, I’ll place the fleece out again and this time let the fleece be dry and make the ground wet.” Now, if I were God I’d be getting a little irritated at this point. “Gideon I have showed you twice already that I am with you, what more can I do? Are you just stalling for time?”

Praise God that He is infinitely more patient than I am. He follows through again with what Gideon asks and this time the fleece was dry and the ground was wet.

Gideon finally lets go of his doubt. He does what God asks. He gathers the whole army, all 32,000 of them. God then drops another bomb on Gideon. “That’s too many. If I lead you to victory you and the people might think that you accomplished this on your own. Send some of them home, anybody who is afraid can return home.”

So 22,000 men left. So for those of you who aren’t math people that leaves 10,000 men. God says: “That’s still too many, take them down to the river and divide them into two groups based on this criteria: whoever laps the water like a dog from his hand and whoever gets on his knees and drinks directly from the river; those are the two groupings I want.”

So he does as God says and 300 men drank from their hands while the rest drank directly from the river. You can see where this is going. The group of 300 was the army that Gideon was to field. The other 9,700 were sent home.

That night God woke Gideon in the middle of the night and told him: “I want you to go down to the camp of the Midianites and you can take your servant with you if you are scared and I will again give you confidence that I am with you. Listen to what they are saying in the camp about you. You will be strengthened by what you hear.”

So he goes down to the camp and hears a man recounting a dream that he had to a friend. “I had a dream that a giant loaf of bread tumbled into our camp and it fell into the tent and knocked it down and even flipped it upside down and it ended up flattened.”

My thinking is, what could be more harmless than a loaf of bread? It’s soft, its warm, and it tastes good with butter. Maybe the “Stay-puft” marshmallow man might be more harmless, if you remember the movie Ghostbusters.

But the man’s friend says: “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand” 6:14

So Gideon goes back to his men with renewed confidence that God had done and was going to do what he said he would.

He gathers them and divides them into three companies and then he issues their weapons. He gives them clay pitchers and trumpets, oh and torches. If I am one of Gideon’s men I am beginning to wonder if Gideon has lost it. “What am I supposed to do with this? I might be able to hit one Midianite in the head with the pitcher but I am betting it will be pretty useless after that. And what’s with the trumpet? Are we going to play them some Herb Alpert maybe a Louis Armstrong tune?”

He told them to follow his lead. This youngest son of the smallest family in the miniature tribe of Mannaseh is leading God’s people. Isn’t God cool?

At the right moment they blew their trumpets and smashed their pitchers and chaos broke loose in the camp below. The Midianites were terrified and the whole army fled. You’d flee too if you thought there were 300 companies of troops at your doorstep. That’s a lot of trumpets.

The rest of chapter 8 recounts the continued pursuit and capture and execution of the army of Midian. God used this one 90 pound weakling to deliver an entire nation.

What’s the lesson we can learn from Gideon? What kind of thought can we take away from his story?

Gideon thought, “I am a little guy from a little family and a little tribe. God can’t do much with me.” His mistake was not that he thought he was big enough to handle this task on his own. His mistake was that he thought God was too small. He underestimated God’s power to do big things with little people.

The lesson for us is, never underestimate the power of Christ in you.

God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. Colossians 1:27-29 (Emphasis Mine)

Can you say: “His Power works mightily within me!” I believe that the God of Gideon and the God of Paul is the same God that we serve. You may think: “I’m not much.” But I am telling you. It does not matter. God can do huge things with you and me. You might think: “Well our church is small, how will we ever impact our community for Christ.” I’m telling you God CAN. Never, ever, ever underestimate what God can do through you.

Ooh Ooh Pick Meme!

2005-11-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

Brian tagged me. It is nice to know I have friends in the blogosphere. Although I don't know who I will tag. (I don't have THAT many friends.)

Here are the rules:
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to if you don't have 23 posts).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas
5. Tag five people to do the same. "

After some headaches with blogger I figured out that this is the fifth sentence of my 23rd post.

"To be honest I think if they were going to call a town by that name they would have had better luck about 25 miles to the southeast."

I was talking about a place called Hell. That is Hell, Michigan which is located 25 miles NW of Detroit. So 25 miles southeast is back in, well Detroit. I don't know if you have been to Detroit or not, but I have made several excursions there. I have a lot of friends there, but I don't think I'd want to live there. It is just a dreary place. There is a lot of poverty there and just an overall run-down feeling to the place. Which to me is pretty depressing, and that is what I think Hell is like, only MUCH worse.

Sermon title blues.

2005-11-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

I had been trying to figure out a title for my sermon this week. I am preaching on Judges 6-8 (the story of Gideon). I did a google search for Gideon and sermons about him. In the process I found a page that had the following list of funny sermon titles. You may have seen them before but I hadn't and I thought a few of them were worth a good chuckle and I think I am actually going to use the one that is listed for Gideon. "A Few Good Men". Some of these are funny others are just ... well, cheesy. Anyway here they are:

A Fat Servant is Better than a Skinny Corpse (Luke 15:17)

A Few Good Men: Gideon's Army (J.F. Higgins)

A Good God On A Bad Day

A Lot to Learn from Lot (Genesis 14)

A Major Message From A Minor Prophet (Zephaniah 3:14-20)

A Nude Dude in a Rude Mood: A sermon on the Gadarene Demoniac

A Serious birth Defect (Psalm 51) (PLG)

A sermon on the Prodigal: Giving the Pigs a Permanent Wave (Paul Frerking, Meridian, Tx)

All stressed up and nowhere to go

American Culture-Polytheisism at its Best (A.S.)

An address to Submarine Christians--those who surface Christmas and Easter!

An Attitude of Gratitude (Luke 17:11-19) (J. Bryant)

Antidote for Anxiety (Philippians 4:6-8)

Are You a Low-Sodium Christian? Then Add a Little Spiritual Spice to Your Life! (Matthew 6)

Are You a Wet Water Walker or A Dry Boat Rider (Matthew 14:28)? (Aldren Sadler Sr.)

Are you in the Way, or are you in the way? (John 14:6) (JLN)

Are You Suffering from Malnutrition? (Matthew 4:1-4)

Bay of Pigs (casting demons into swine)

Be Careful With What You Think You Know (John 3:1-17)

Born to RAZE Hell. (raze-destroy,break down, demolish) (Tom Foster)

Bringing in the sheep (Looking for the one lamb)

But GOD Romans 5-8

Christians Stink - We are called to be the odorant to the world. Relating to the odorant added to LP gas. (R.P.)

Countdown To The Showdown (Armaggedon)

Crummy Faith (Matthew 15:21-28)

Deviled Ham (Luke 8:26-39) (Jim Robinson) (or: How about When Pigs Fly)

Do you have any NIKE's (Gr. for victories)

Does God have a Plan B for us?

Don't Panic It's Just A Test

Don't park in the handicap zone (be active in church) Steve Dixon

Don't Set the Stage for Rage (on anger)

Don't wait till the battle is over--shout now!

Driven to Distraction (Luke 10:38-42, Martha distracted by many things)

Free: Eternal Life Insurance! (L. Parman)

Get Off Your Donkey (or the other KJV word) - Parable of Good Samaritan. (W. Vendt)

God wants to deal with your BUT (II Kings 5:1 Naaman was a mighty man of valour, but he was... - S. Green)

Gone With The Wind: (house on a rock) (RWJ)

Heaven can't wait! (Revelation 21)

He's Making A List And Checking It Twice (R. Wright)

Hind-sight, Blind-sight -Jesus heals the man born blind, and the Pharisees remain sightless. (C. Jennings)

Honey, We Need to Shrink the Camel (Matthew 19:23-26) (Jim Robinson)

How Are You Going To Get Along In Heaven With People You Can't Get Along With Here?

How Big is Your Barn? (storing up treasures on earth)

How Does Your Garden Grow? (Parable of the Sower)

Human Sacrifice - Live at Eleven - (Communion)

If You Can't Keep Up, Keep Going

I'm gonna be in heaven with him?

Is God your steering wheel or your spare tire.

Is Time your enemy or is time your friend? (Rev. G. Gregory)

Lamb Chops Anyone? (John 10:11-18)

Lost in His Own Back Yard (the older Brother)

Love 'Em All, and Let God Sort 'Em Out (loving your enemies)

Milk does the body Good (I Peter 2:2) (Rev Gino Dennis)

More Zip for the Trip - Elijah out running the chariots

Not Your Typical Baptist (Luke 3:1-6)

Nothing but Net (John 21) (Bobby Holland)

On Naaman - Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Prayer Meeting in Hell (Lazarus and the Rich Man)

Remember Lot's wife. She was halted, she was exhalted, she was salted.

Seven Ducks In A Puddle (Namaan) (II Kings 5)

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, They didn't bend they didn't bow, they didn't BURN. Casual Christianity

Shared Any Good 'Yokes' Lately? (message on servanthood) (David A. Hall)

Solve our Problems, but Save our Pigs (J. M.)

Some Will Wear Crowns...Others Will Wear Frowns (JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST) (C. Spurlock)

Standing On The Promises or Sitting On The Premises (sermon on service) (David A. Hall)

Survival of the Fittest or Cross training

Table Manners (On Communion)

The Buts of the Believer (II Corinthians 4:7-9) (JLN)

The Church - Some assembly required (Mike Petzer)

The company you keep! (I Samuel 10:5-11) (Eld. Harvin)

The Great Ommission

The little red devil behind the Pearly White Gates (sermon on the power of the tongue)

The Man in the Middle

The Mighty Mite-The Widow's Mite

The rude, crude, dude in the nude (Luke 8:26)

The Saline Solution (Salt of the earth)

Three (Wise) Men and a Baby Christmas Sermon (Pastor Manuel Cruz Jr.)

Turn or Burn! (Revelation 20:15)

Unthawing the Frozen Chosen

Wait Watchers (Advent Sermon)

Wake Up - and Sell The Coffin (The widow of Nain's son) (Mark Winters)

WANTED: SAINTS - DEAD OR ALIVE! (John 11:32-44 -- M. Stone)

What on earth are you doing for Heavens’ sake?

What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do (Rev. Larry Moore)

What's Up Doc? (Luke's account of the Ascension)

When Lefty Killed Fatty! (Ehud)

When the load gets heavy (Matthew 11: 28-30)

You are what you eat - Communion sermon on Jesus as the Bread of Life (John 6)

You Better Be Humble...Or You Will Stumble (PRIDE) (I Peter 5:5-6) (C. Spurlock)

You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith too (sermon on Adultery) (David A. Hall)

You Can't Win If You Don't Begin (David A. Hall)

A Song In My Head

2005-10-27T23:43:00.000-04:00

I was driving home tonight and popped in an old Chris Rice CD that I haven't listened to in a while. I resonated deeply with this song. Chris' lyrics are some of my favorite. He is deep. I especially appreciate the image of God being both tender and fierce. Wow. Anyway here it is.

Wind and Spirit--Chris Rice

I hear a sound and turn to see a new direction on that rusty weathervane
Suddenly the dead brown leaves are stirred to scratch their circle dances down the lane
And now the sturdy oaks start clappin’ with the last few stubborn leaves that won’t let go
I can hear Old Glory snappin’ and her tattered rope now clangin’ against the pole
And my breath is snatched away
And a tear comes to my eye
Feels like somethin’s on the way so I look up to the sky, I look up to the sky and...
From the corners of creation
Comes the Father’s holy breath
Ridin’ on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness
Stirring my soul to holiness

I see the lifeless dust now resurrected, swirling up against my window pane
And carried ‘cross the distance comes the long awaited fragrances of earth and rain
And out across the amber field the slender grasses bend and bow and kiss the ground
And in them I see the beauty of the soul’s who let the Spirit lay them down
And it takes my breath away
And a tear comes to my eye
Feels like somethin’s on the way, so I look up to the sky, I look up to the sky and...
From the corners of creation
Comes the Father’s holy breath
Ridin’ on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness
Stirring my soul to holiness

And like a mighty wind blows with a force I cannot see
I will open wide my wings, I will open wide my wings
I will open wide my wings and let the Spirit carry me
From the corners of creation
Comes the Father’s holy breath
Ridin’ on a storm with tender fierceness
Stirring my soul to holiness
Stirring my soul to holiness

Copyright Clumsy Fly Music (ASCAP)

To "Emerge" or not to "Emerge" that is the question.

2005-10-26T12:12:00.000-04:00

James MacDonald on why he is not "emerging" Part 1 and Part 2.

It won't be long now.

2005-10-25T12:30:00.000-04:00

I am patiently waiting for this upcoming release. Do yourself a favor and pre-order it now. You won't regret it. When it arrives get out the blender and some pina-colada mix make yourself a boat drink and throw Bubba in the CD player, and then kick back and enjoy.

Keeping It All In Perspective

2005-10-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

Jeff Samardzija may be Notre Dame Football’s shining star but his life has not been all roses. At age 16 his mother Deborah died of a respiratory illness. The Valparaiso (Indiana) high school student “had to grow up a little quicker than his friends did because of the circumstances”. Jeff has been able to keep a positive outlook on life despite the difficulties he has faced over the past few years due in part to a family tradition that started soon after his mother died.

While Jeff’s older brother Sam was at college, Jeff and his father Sam Samardzija Sr. would take Tuesday evenings to go out to eat together and talk about “whatever needed to be said”. “That was our special time,” Sam Sr. says. All of the things that he has faced have given him a unique ability to deal with the sudden national attention he has received with Notre Dame’s 4-1 start. “A wry sense of humor, frequent smiles, and an understanding of how suddenly everything can change” are all factors that play a major role in his capacity to maintain his positive perspective. “My family is real big on just making positives out of negatives,” says Samardzija. (Source: USA Today Thursday October 13, 2005 Section 1-2C)

While we may not face a situation as tragic as the loss of a parent at a young age, there is a one hundred percent chance that at some point in our life we are going to have to face the trauma of something at least as difficult and discouraging. Someday we will have the wind knocked out of us. Somebody will come along and let the air out of our tires. The wind will no longer blow in the direction we want to go and our sails will lie silent.

So how do we respond? What do we do when we get that late night phone call we have been dreading for so long? How do we face the pain of changing careers late in life because of “downsizing”? Who do we turn to when our child no longer wants to have anything to do with us?

The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that when things seem the worst there is only one thing we can do; there is only one place we can turn: “Waters flowed over my head; I said ‘I am cut off!’ I called on your name, O Lord, out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice, ‘Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, from my cry for help.’ You drew near when I called on you; You said, ‘Do not fear!’ O, Lord You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life.” Lamentations 3:54-58

Thank God that as Christians we can keep everything in the perspective of redemption. God redeemed us from the the pit of our sin and He can certainly rescue us from any fear and despair that life can throw our direction. God too is “big on making positives out of negatives”.

Subtle Persecution or Self Protection

2005-10-17T23:20:00.000-04:00

I just witnessed something that I am not sure how to categorize. I don't normally watch that much TV, but I was sitting in our living room surfing on the internet and surfing on the TV at the same time. What I saw was this: "The following CBN broadcast DOES NOT reflect the views of ABC family" (Emphasis mine). It was the 700 club. Now I am no fan of the 700 club/Pat Robertson and their views are probably significantly different than mine, but it was just that I remember when there was one additional word in that disclaimer before certain controversial programs. The word was neccessarily -- as in "does not neccessarily reflect". I realize it is just one word, but it is an important word. Also by the same premise, are we to assume that any program that is not preceded by the disclaimer DOES reflect the views of ABC family?

Maybe I am just overly sensitive, but to me it seemed like an all too subtle jab at Christians. Why would ABC not precede other programs that might be considered controversial with the same disclaimer? Am I just overreacting?

Imagine Conference

2005-10-12T12:59:00.000-04:00

I am leaving this afternoon for the Imagine Conference in Louisville. I am excited about all the good stuff coming up the rest of the week. If my hotel has internet access I will try to blog about some of the exciting ideas and cool happenings. Otherwise I will be back next week.

TTFN -- (Ta Ta For Now) -- Tigger

Blowing Holes in Spiritual Formation

2005-10-04T15:59:00.000-04:00

I got this article via my leadership weekly email. I thought it was really right on target. In case you can't follow the link, here's the entire article. I have also made some comments in various places in the article.

Blowing Holes in Spiritual Formation: The Divine Hours author Phyllis Tickle sees rising interest in pre-Reformation spirituality. "A movement?" she says, "You better believe it."

A Leadership Interview

"There is a movement not only back to the disciplines, but a kind of instinctive, if not fully articulated desire to know the whole heritage of Christianity," says Phyllis Tickle, an expert on religious publishing and author of a best-selling series of books on fixed-hour prayer, The Divine Hours. According to Tickle, this movement back to such ancient disciplines signals a radical shift in the direction of postmodern Christianity, a possible new Reformation. Leadership recently caught up with Tickle (over a shaky cell phone connection in Tennessee as she was traveling to another of her many lectures) to discuss the growing interest in spiritual formation.

Leadership: It seems that more pastors these days are attempting to incorporate ancient disciplines into the spiritual life of their churches. How widespread has this practice become?

Tickle: I don't think there are any actual statistics on this, yet. However, as I have traveled across the country to various gatherings and conferences, pastors and laity across the country increasingly want me to speak on the ancient disciplines. There's a huge interest. In addition, publishers are increasingly aware that this is happening—and it think that might be the strongest evidence. In the publishing community, we have always said that eventually Christians are going to give up on "ooey-gooey God" and begin to ask "What is our spiritual birthright as Christians?"

There has been a movement, I think, not only back to the ancient disciplines, but also a kind of instinctive and not yet fully articulated attempt to know what the whole heritage is for Christianity. A movement? You better believe it.

Rather than being a reformation this sounds more like restoration to me. I believe this is more in line with what men like Campbell and Stone had in mind than the sectarian divisiveness that the restoration movement is so often known for.

Is there any one or two of these ancient spiritual disciplines that you feel connect well with people today, especially younger people?

Yes. If you take them into the spiritual disciplines, the first one that I think connects very well is tithing, based on Abraham's giving of a tenth of all he had won in battle to Melchizedek. When I speak about the disciplines, that's where I begin. And I find that it connects with younger people. They want spiritual disciplines that cost them something.

The second is every time you have communion or Eucharist or mass, it is the sacred meal, and that's something that's easy for most Christians connect with. Melchizedek turns after he blesses Abraham and takes the bread and wine, and that's where the center meal comes from, that's where the Passover comes from. I suspect we are going to find that twenty-five or thirty years from now, communion will be offered every time Christians worship.

Hello, we are widely known for the fact that we participate in the eucharist each and every Sunday that we are together. Should it be surprising that people can connect with that. It is something that we identify with and that identifies us as Christians. We would do well to capitalize on this 'movement' back toward communion.

After that, a string of disciplines: there is the sacred city and the notion of pilgrimage to it. It seems to me that in terms of popularity, fixed-hour prayer was the one that came out first, largely due to some of these bad movies where we see monks chanting and so forth, so there was already a mindset toward fixed-hour prayer. There is the observation of the Sabbath, and that one is clearly operative now, not mere church attendance, but actually cessation of work and all activity except prayer. Now we see fasting increasing a little bit, as well.

Given that reclaiming some ancient spiritual practices is big with people under 40, could some of it be attributed to dissatisfaction with their parents' ways?

Always, of course, one generation acts against another. But I think it's unfair to these young people to say that's what's happening here. There is interest among the age group a little older than them, which makes it fair to say that this is not a generational reaction. When we say that we're post-denominational, and post-enlightenment, and post-Reformation, we are not yet identifying what we are, but we're sure saying what we aren't. What we're acknowledging in that is that the whole ground has shifted, and that we are in an entirely new age, and that a new Christianity is at work to be an expression of that age.

The Reformation as we knew it, is over. I suspect that 9/11 will be recorded two hundred years from now as the end marking of it. Timothy George recently said that Pope John Paul II will probably be remembered as the most powerful Pope since the Reformation, but that Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) will be remembered as the harbinger of a new Reformation.

If you look at it historically, about every 500 years, there's a time when our common understanding is subject to reconfiguration. When Gutenberg made the Nazarene bible, he blew a hole in the consensual illusion of the time. Likewise, when Columbus didn't fall off the face of the Earth, he blew a hole in the consensual illusion of his time. Darwin blew a hole as well. These young people are not reacting; they are creating, creating out of the material that has withstood the test of history.

So where are we in this cycle now? Are we still blowing holes?

No, the hole blowing is over. I think that had it not been for 9/11, we might have blown some more holes. Obviously, we've put spirituality back in its place. We spent forty years of being spiritual and not religious, and you just don't hear that from young people anymore. Those five things that fundamentalists used to argue about—the five things you used to have to believe in to be a Christian—mean absolutely nothing to those kids who are 40 and under, for the most part.

For example, I was talking to a 17 or 18-year-old young man two or three years ago, and he said to me "I don't understand all that controversy about the Virgin birth." Keep in mind; this is a devout Christian kid. When I asked what he meant, he exclaimed, "Well of course I believe in it; it's so absolutely beautiful, it has to be true whether it happened or not" [laughter]. That's a post-Reformation comment if I've ever heard one.

Where does Richard Foster fit into all this? Do we have him to thank for bringing the disciplines to the forefront? Or are there others we should credit? Was he a Johnny-come-lately?

No. I think he was Johnny-come-on-time. There is a certain wonderful neutrality to Quakers. They are a happy meeting ground for Protestants, Catholics, and all of us who are in the middle of the road. It's really hard to argue with a Quake; they live a highly disciplined maturity that even if you don't agree with their concept of the Trinity, you can't deny the validity of the life. Foster's work and Quaker work in general has allowed Christians who might otherwise have been hung up on doctrinal specifics to begin to talk about the Christian life somewhat free of dogmatism and denominationalism. So Foster's work has been vital in this whole idea.

What do you see as incumbent on pastors as a result of this new movement? What do pastors need to know and do differently today based on this?

I met a young pastor recently who said, "When I stand in my pulpit and look out across my congregation and see someone who might be under 35, I make it imperative to catch up with them before they get out of my sight and make an appointment to take them to breakfast or lunch. If I don't make this kind of personal contact with them to find out where they're coming from, I know I'm going to lose them, because I also know that they're not coming from what I am preaching to my older constituency."

This is not the usual problem. This is such a vast difference in worldview between young people and old people. It's a crevasse. An abyss. I suspect that for those pastors who are shepherding a very sizable congregation that has its bulwark in folks 50 and older, this presents a huge problem. It's a two-program thing; you're not going to meld these two worldviews. Most of these pastors are going to end up riding two horses, so to speak. A pastor has to learn to ride these two horses, or he's going to have to go into the new Christianity—the emerging Christianity—and hope that his older congregants will follow him, because he's going to disturb what they've got worked out.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.

I think that the simple Christianity and being simply Christians of the early Ston-Campbell days may be on its way back. It just may not fall under our -- jurisdiction, as it were. We'd better begin to think about what is happening and to see ourselves in the context of something bigger than us and not be depending on what we've "got worked out".

I need your help.

2005-10-04T12:22:00.000-04:00

(I also posted this over at this road, but thought I would also post it here in case you didn't see it there.)

Okay, so it isn't that dramatic.

One of my elders asked me to kind of do an informal poll of other ministers that I knew just to get an idea about some things. He is over the area of evangelism which would include most of what I do since I am the evangelist/preacher/teaching minister or whatever you might call it. He is trying to understand my role and what I do.

What he asked me to poll about was this. How do those of you who are ministers spend your time each week? He wants to understand how we break down our time.

For example: What percentage (or how many work hours) of your time each week is spent on lesson preparation, on visitation, on study not directly related to lesson preparation, on administrative tasks, on outreach and /or evangelistic/discipleship bible study?

It would be helpful for me if you could break it down in a form similar to the following:
This is not necessarily the way I break down my time just an example.

Lesson prep: 40% -- 20 hours (I prepare two sermons and 1 bible class each week)

Visitation: 25% -- 12.5 hours (Obviously this area might go up or down based on needs so this is generally how much time I spend)

Administrative: 5% -- 2.5 hours (Define what you might consider administrative tasks)

Outreach: 30% -- 15 Hours (Outreach will also vary based on needs. Some might spend more time providing counseling than others, or may not have any ongoing evangelistic studies)
Total weekly work hours: 50

If you have any other comments, thoughts, ideas, questions please include them as well.

Thanks a lot. All you ministers out there please comment.

An apple a day?

2005-09-30T13:58:00.000-04:00

Mandy has been sick now for over a week. She works at North Atlanta Preschool and comes into contact with all manner of disease. She gets sick a lot. Those children carry viruses and bacteria that could easily kill many adults. I usually get sick about once a year and now seems to be that time. I seem to have gotten the virus portion of what she has. Even though I have gone out of my way to avoid it. She does not like the fact that even though I am sick I am avoiding taking medicine, other than a little cough syrup to keep me from losing my voice (I have to preach Sunday whether I am sick or not).

We often have conflict over what we ought to do when we get sick. She is of the traditional medical mindset. (i.e. when you get sick go to a doctor and get antibiotics and get better). I on the other hand follow the natural/homeopathic route. I am already exposed to more chemicals than I would like to be and I'd rather not degrade my body's ability to heal itself.

I agree with many of the physicians of the whole health mindset, such as Dr. Robbins, and Dr Colbert. God made our bodies with an amazing natural ability to heal themselves. For example: they think as do I that a fever is a good thing. A fever is your bodies way of trying to kill off viruses and bacteria by making the blood uninhabitable. So why on earth would I take Tylenol to bring my fever down before it has had a chance to kill what needs to be killed?

I know modern medicine has made some great technological advances, but they have also convinced a large percentage of the public that they can have better health by taking medicine. I get so sick of the TV spots touting all the latest and greatest meds on the market.

I have no beef with medicine of itself, just with an industry that presents itself as serving the best interests of the individual and his/her health, when in actuality the medical/pharmaceutical industry (just like any other industry) serves first and foremost its shareholders. Which is fine--that is the way the free market works. I wish that they would just stop kidding themselves and trying to convince people that "we're looking out for you." That is your responsibility not the Phamaceutical industry's

unfortunately, most Americans are not going to arm themselves with knowledge and be willing to spend time researching the chemicals and compounds that the M.D. tells them they need to put in their body. They will just relinquish their own intelligence and say "well you're the doctor, you tell me what I should do."

But as has often been pointed out, a medical student that graduates with a C average you still call a doctor. We as Americans are never very willing to take responsibility for our own health. We just eat garbage, not exercise, and drink & smoke all our lives and then when things start looking bleak or we just don't "feel good", we visit the "all knowing - OZ" we call doctor and ask him to fix it.

What is even more amazing to me is that when you reject the prevailing opinion (i.e. that other people know better what you should do to maintain your health than you do yourself) people think you are crazy. "Are you some kind of health nut?" Maybe, but I am a healthy nut. This became clear to me recently when I, at the behest of my wife, visited our family physician to talk about some minor problems. She evaluated me and then prescribed some medicine. I asked her if there were some "non-medicinal" ways to treat these symptoms. She just kind of looked stunned and gave me some vague diet-exercise comments, but very non-specific.

What I was looking for was a nutritional plan she gave me the "diet-and-exercise" routine. I wanted specifics and she spoke in generalities. It is like the doctors and medical professionals are so brain washed into the "better living through chemicals" mindset that they can't even fathom a world outside of that. At the same time there are others who would claim to be of the natural mindset that are also always promoting the next great "all-in-one" nutritional product who in my opinion are just as brain washed.

My point to all of this is simple. You and I are 100 percent responsible for our health. Healthy living is pretty common sense. Eat right -- Stay away from just about everything that is processed. Exercise -- A sensible exercise plan, not "body building". Read and study -- There is a lot of terrible information about health out there as well as a lot of good information -- realize that you are intelligent enough to weed out the good from the bad. Rule of thumb -- if it sounds like snake oil and looks like snake oil it is probably snake oil.

The one health component that is almost always forgotten is the spiritual one. "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers." (3 John 1:2). Good health, I believe is about 1/3 physical, 1/3 mental/emotional, and 1/3 spiritual. If our hearts are far from God our creator then how can our bodies work like they should? God's design of our human bodies is His ultimate creation. Created in his image, we are complex, yet we are simple, just water and cells.

My prayer is that we could return to a deeper understanding of how God made us and how we can be more like Christ even in the area of physical health.

GRRRR!!! I HATE STUPID AND FALSE FORWARDS!!!!

2005-09-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

I frequently recieve in my inbox emails and stories that are KNOWN to be false that are being purported as true. And I get them from reputable people. For example the image and story below I got today from a well-known minister in the area. He has sent numerous mass emails that were false. Additionally it was very simple in every case to verify the veracity or lack thereof of each of them. PLEASE people, check out this garbage before you even think about forwarding it on. Did anybody get the one about the crocodile in New Orleans? Yep, It wasn't true. I actually have started doing something drastic. At one time I would just delete these false stories and go on with my life. But I can't do it anymore. From now on, if you send me a verifiably false story in a mass email, I will reply to everyone that you sent it too with the link showing where the hoax can be "verified" as well as my little statement. Which will go something like this. "Please do not send forwards without AT LEAST casually verifying their veracity. This damages the truth and makes you look foolish."

Does anyone think I am being too harsh?

PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE AND FORWARD!

You never can tell. It might work. W.

If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact the original screen name that sent this, which is CMINEO0295@aol.com

LOOK AT THIS PICTURE AND THEN FORWARD -- PLEASE DON'T DELETE PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD I am asking you all, begging you to please, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. I have a 5 year old son named Christopher John Mineo Jr, nickname C.J. I am from Brooklyn N.Y. He has been missing since May 11 I am including a picture of him. All prayers are appreciated!!

It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get. Please.

Christopher John Mineo Sr
Stephanie M. Lawton, Office Manager
New York State Independent Living Council, Inc.
111 Washington Avenue, Suite 101
Albany, New York 12210
All prayers are appreciated!!

YOURS ALWAYS IN HEART AND MIND

GWENDOLYN DANIELS KENNEDY

Oh and if you are wondering about this particular story Snopes has shown this one to be untrue.

It's Not You, It's Me.

2005-09-23T12:22:00.000-04:00

I have been reading Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz. (I know I am behind the power curve on that one. ) I am usually pretty skeptical about books that "everyone" is reading. I also picked up Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies -- which follows a similar vein as Miller. I find the honesty refreshing even though I could do without the smattering of profanity.

One thing that Miller commented on that really resonated with me was the idea that the problems of the world--poverty, terrorism, immorality, etc. begin with me. I will never be able to posit anything of value until I address the man in the mirror. Like Dave Ramsey says: "My problem is the idiot I shave with." I don't believe that this is a one time event. I believe this is an ongoing process. When I am no longer willing to deal with myself and I attempt to deal with others I am practicing a very dangerous kind of judgment.

Another book I have been reading has changed my perspective on the whole idea of judging others. I always thought that when we judged others, God judged us, but the reality is that when we judge others THEY judge us in the same way. Whatever arbitrary standard we hold others to is what they will hold us to.

Jesus gave some instruction along these lines. "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, `Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye."

Until I am willing to be real with myself I can't be real with anyone else and neither can they be real with me. They can't be real with me because they can't even see me. They only see me in the way I want them to see. I think we all need to learn to be brutally and relentlessly honest with each other. This may injure our popularity and approval rating but none of that matters anyway. More likely I think though that if most people, especially Christians, began to do this the current cultural concepts of popularity and approval would begin to dissipate and we could actually begin to see each other as God sees us. We could put away the facade of "righteousness" and learn what it really means to be righteous, to live with clean hands and a clean heart.

I realize that this is really a fundamental concept and that the sinfulness that exists within me doesn't want to be exposed to the light of Christ, but that is exactly the reason I NEED to be honest. C.S. Lewis understood the need to take an honest look at himself and Miller quotes a portion of the poem below:

As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you
I've never had a selfless thought since I was born
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through
I want God, you, all friends merely to serve my turn

Peace, reassurance, pleasure are the goals I seek
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin
I talk of love, a scholar's parrot may talk Greek
but, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin

Only that now you have taught me,
but how late my lack, I see the chasm
and everything you are was making my heart
into a bridge, by which I might get back from
exile and grow man...
and now the bridge is breaking

For this I bless you as the ruin falls
the pains you give me are more precious than
all other gains.

I identify with Lewis, but I think even moreso I relate to Johnny Cash in this song written by Nick Lowe:

The beast in me
Is caged by frail and fragile bars
Restless by day
And by night rants and rages at the stars
God help the beast in me

The beast in me
Has had to learn to live with pain
And how to shelter from the rain
And in the twinkling of an eye
Might have to be restrained
God help the beast in me

Sometimes it tries to kid me
That it's just a teddy bear
And even somehow managed to vanish in the air
And that is when I must beware
Of the beast in me that everybody knows
They've seen him out dressed in my clothes
Patently unclear If it's New York or New Year
God help the beast in me

The beast in me

The Boredom Battle

2005-09-21T10:49:00.000-04:00

After just a few years of ministry I realize that there is a certain amount of monotony to local church work. Like several older, wiser, and perhaps even more jaded minister's have warned me: "Sunday comes around every week!". Yes, I know. Trust me. I know. There is a tendency (for me at least) to get bored with the sometimes laborious, mundane, and otherwise tedious task of preparing two sermons and a wednesday night class every week. Sometimes I go to the well and find it as dry as a feature film about british cuisine. I also know that I am not alone in this battle. As John Eldredge might say, the warrior inside me longs for excitement.

I found this article over at Leadership Journal that intrigued me. Boredom may not be the issue maybe there is something deeper going on.

Wholly discontent or Holy discontent?

2005-09-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

There are some people I know that are not happy unless they are unhappy. It sounds ridiculous, but it is true. Some people don't ever seem to be content with anything. They seem to get their "joy" as it were, from complaining. It seems to me that the issue for them is not really one of happiness or sadness but simply one of contentment.

They are jealous of people who are happy and/or content and therefore they attempt to steal joy away from these people. Sometimes they suceed. Sometimes in their misery they make everyone else miserable. I for one have determined that I will no longer stand for it. I have grown weary of the attempts by others to take away the joy and contentment that God has given me. Yet, I find within myself a...

" 'holy' discontent--that blessed hunger that leaves us dissatisfied with things as they are. Our dreams should always exceed our grasp in what is holy. When we're healthy, there will be that pleasure in the good that already is, in the progress we've already made; but there will always be the delicious vision of what is purer, what is better and more holy." -- Jim McGuiggan

I consider myself a happy person. I am content with God's blessings in this life as well as the trials that I face. But there is a hunger inside me a "delicious vision" for something more. I struggle with having patience with those who are "wholly discontent", who build up themselves by tearing down others. It appears to me that their complaints are completely, utterly rooted in this life and that they cannot see beyond their mortal existence.

In my opinion, if there were nothing coming after this life certainly I would have much to be unhappy about. However, I cannot...no, I will not be satisfied with what this physical world has to offer. Like C.S. Lewis says: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” I desire a "better country" the one I was made for. I will trust God to meet my needs and that is where I believe contentment is found.

"But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." -- Paul - from the letter to the church at Phillipi

So, for those who are "wholly discontent" I ask, are you trusting God to meet your needs or is the reason you are so unhappy because you are trying to meet your own needs and coming up short? I know for a fact that every time I try to meet my needs or I expect someone else (other than God) to meet my needs I find plenty to complain about and I generally try to make as many other people miserable as I can.

We would do well to think about the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with firebrands, Walk in the light of your fire and among the brands you have set ablaze This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment. Isaiah 50:10-11 emphasis mine

Lord, I pray that we learn to quit trying to light our own fires, for this brings nothing but torment. But that you would lead us through the darkness of this world and there we could find peace, contentment, and happiness. Lord, let us learn to trust you for fulfillment of our "holy" discontent, our "holy" hunger.

Sorry that I have been so quiet.

2005-09-15T12:53:00.000-04:00

I have been busier than a one legged...well, let's just say I have been busy. We have a lot of great things happening here at church and in our own lives as well as some difficult things at the same time, c'est la vie I guess. I will try to be more regular about posting. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts buzzing around inside my head right now. We'll see how it comes out.

For now enjoy this brief quote from Reinhold Niebuhr:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness

Hard to imagine

2005-08-31T13:46:00.000-04:00

The depth of devastation from Katrina is becoming more and more apparent. My heart goes out to the victims and the families affected by this monumental disaster. This video breaks my heart. I know that some of us struggle in times like these to understand. We grapple with big questions about God and Satan and the natural world. I concede that I don't think that I ever will understand, at least not in this life, why suffering occurs. I only know that when it does there is but one place I can go for strength and guidance.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns. Psalm 46:1-5

I know that passage is almost a cliche' for natural disasters, but it gives me hope. I also heard John Piper talk about this next passage years ago and I thought it was profound.

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord GOD is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds' feet,
And makes me walk on my high places. Habakkuk 3:17-19

The truth is, I don't have to know why Katrina wrecked the Gulf Coast and killed so many people and I am okay with the fact that I don't understand. It is so very human of us to place unreasonable emphasis on this utterly temporal life. Yet!!.., our God exists outside of and beyond all this and in that we can find our joy in God even in the face of enormous suffering. His strength is not circumstantial. Whether it is Katrina or September 11th or cancer or some personal failure or any other "circumstantial" thing God is a refuge of strength, ever present, and always faithful.

As for Katrina, if you are considering giving to help with relief efforts this organization (Disaster Relief Effort) is trustworthy and very good at what they do. As an added bonus for every $1 that is given they have around $3 worth of buying power because of their connections.

Give me the bible, holy message shining

2005-08-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

Mandy is looking for a good "women's" study bible. She likes this one but we can't seem to find it in genuine leather. I guess I could get her a hardcover or a paper back and then recover it myself. But then I dont know if her name could be stamped on it.

I don't even know if that is the right one for her. Does anyone (especially ladies) have any suggestions?

Dear Abby

2005-08-25T14:04:00.000-04:00

Letters to Dear Abby that She Admitted She Was at a Loss to Answer .

Dear Abby,
A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher and the other is a social worker in her mid- twenties. These two women go everywhere together and I've never seen a man go into or leave their apartment. Do you think they could be Lebanese?

---

Dear Abby,
What can I do about all the Sex, Nudity, Fowl (sic) Language and Violence on my VCR?

---

Dear Abby,
I have a man I can't trust. He cheats so much, I'm not even sure the baby I'm carrying is his.

---

Dear Abby,
I am a twenty-three year old liberated woman who has been on the pill for two years. It's getting expensive and I think my boy friend should share half the cost, but I don't know him well enough to discuss money with him.

---

Dear Abby,
I've suspected that my husband has been fooling around, and when confronted with the evidence, he denied everything and said it would never happen again.

---

Dear Abby,
Our son writes that he is taking Judo. Why would a boy who was raised in a good Christian home turn against his own?

---

Dear Abby,
I joined the Navy to see the world. I've seen it. Now how do I get out ???

---

Dear Abby,
My forty year old son has been paying a psychiatrist $50.00 an hour every week for two and a half years. He must be crazy.

---

Dear Abby,
I was married to Bill for three months and I didn't know he drank until one night he came home sober.

---

Dear Abby,
My mother is mean and short tempered. I think she is going through mental pause.

---

Dear Abby,
You told some woman whose husband had lost all interest in sex to send him to a doctor. Well, my husband lost all interest in sex and he is a doctor. Now what do I do?

What in the world?

2005-08-20T00:02:00.000-04:00

This event was less than a quarter of a mile from my office today.

Spiritual Wake Up Call

2005-08-19T23:04:00.000-04:00

I know I promised over at This Road to post my sermon from last week. This is the raw copy of my notes for my sermon from last Sunday morning. If you don't understand it, it is because much of this is just a reminder for me of certain illustrations, thoughts, etc. I think that you will get the idea. I might flesh this out a little more later, but I am at my in-laws tonight in Knoxville and getting pretty tired. So here you go:

Be Strong and Courageous Part 11

Text: Joshua 23-24

Intro- Are you a morning person? In Honduras – Our Wake up alarm was Goats and chickens, A kid named Brett-- Woke to the sound of goats that he thought we bleeting "bre-e-ett, bre-e-ett" Target offers wake up call service– Ice T, Cheech Marin, Heidi Klum, or for the adventurous Darth Vader, a rooster named dennis and a host of other sound effects and voices.

Joshua’s reminder was a wake up call!!!!

Romans 13:11-12 Read: Joshua 24:1-28;

God is calling US to:

A renewal of covenant faithfulness- Vow renewal popular – Recently I performed a vow renewal ceremony for some friends.

A. 24:14-15; 25-28: “sincerity and truth” – NIV “all faithfulness” Vs 26 – Large stone to be a reminder of the covenant.

B. Covenant – is a binding agreement – a commitment to God and his will above everything else. Covenant is more than a promise – it is signed, sealed, delivered. An Oath/Vow

Ex: A mortgage is a covenant – Latin – Mortuus “death” gage “grip”

C. Our Covenant with God is much the same way – he has as Paul says “taken hold” of us. God has a death grip on us. So we have an obligation to live up to our covenant – not just “I’ll try to be more faithful” Not just doing something because it is “right” but because it is Good.

D. God’s covenant—He does much more for us than we could ever do for him. Psalm 103 Which leaves the question: Look what God has done for you, now what will you do for Him?

A renewal of sacrificial service-

A. Romans 12:1— service of worship – if we worship the Lord only through the assembly we aren’t really living sacrifices. We aren’t really placing our lives on the altar. We might be putting ourselves on another altar. Altar of success (corporate ladder – “gonna have to make sacrifices”), altar of pleasure, Altar of self-pity, Altar of appearance, altar of approval.

B. Sacrificial living involves truly pouring our lives into others—Sacrifice doesn’t just mean financial things, it might start there, but it requires our time, our energy, our love, our service.

C. Service IS worship to God. If you are only here for what you get out of church, you are in God’s way and you are in the way of the body doing what it should do. Romans 12: 3-5 “OF one another” 13:8 “Continuing debt”

D. Sacrificial living also involves letting go of our desires and submitting them to the desires of others. 14:1-8

A renewal of biblical fellowship-

A. We need to return to true biblical fellowship—Bible word is Koinonia – Implies real intimacy. Real friendship. Real participation. Real Confession. Not the shallow, weak kneed, “Sure is good to see you today brother, I’ll see you next Sunday brother” kind of fellowship.

B. In other words we need to get real with each other. MTV Real World – What happens when people stop being nice and start being real. We can’t expect to be like the 1^st century church if we aren’t interested in the 1^st century kind of fellowship. Church sign – “Seven days without prayer makes one weak” Same is true of fellowship.

C. God intended for His church to be a family not a bunch of acquaintances. Jesus own words: Matthew 12:46-50 If we are disciples of Christ then we are family. We might sing “Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken” but we sometimes aren’t sure we want to be that tied down.

D. How will we ever known of needs if we are not in sincere fellowship. We can’t really know what is going on with people until we get involved with them. But in a church our size there is no excuse for someone slipping through the cracks.

A renewal of personal holiness-

A. Luke 9:23- How are you taking up your cross daily? How are you denying yourself? If a day goes by that we don’t think “What can I give up today so that I can be closer to God?”, then something is wrong.

B. How are you being spiritually fed? Is the only spiritual food that you get from you church attendance then Christian you are starving to death.

C. Are you committed to personal spiritual growth. Are you making time for a quiet time with God each day.

D. When we renew our commitment to personal holiness we find renewal for ourselves. Lamentations 3:19-26

Invitation –

What we find when we really begin to get serious about our covenant faithfulness and sacrificial service and biblical fellowship and personal holiness is not more guilt and obligation, but strength and renewal, peace and freedom, and of course courage.

If we will heed God's wake up call then the church can truly be what God intended the church to be.

Pardon my French.

2005-08-09T14:03:00.000-04:00

More proof that the French take themselves way too seriously:

A French bus line filed an unfair-competition lawsuit against a group of cleaning ladies in Moselle, who used to be customers but who recently began car-pooling to their jobs across the border at European Union offices in Luxembourg. Transports Schiocchet Excursions wants the ladies fined and their cars confiscated. [The Guardian (London), 7-11-05]

And in Tokyo in July, a group of French-language schoolteachers filed a lawsuit against the city's governor (asking the equivalent of almost $100,000) for his having denigrated the French language, calling it a "failed international language." Said Malik Berkane, head of a French school in Tokyo, "(I)t's unacceptable for him to insult French in this way." [Chicago Sun-Times-AP, 7-14-05]

A hodge podge of unconnected thoughts

2005-08-06T00:08:00.000-04:00

I read this article by Chris Seay this week. I found it quite compelling. I also came across this article by a guy named Mike Bishop. I have it linked but I will also quote it below.

I am preaching this sunday about Joshua 20 (The cities of refuge) and what it has to do with God's view of justice. Sadly, I think that the church has left the concept of social justice heaving in the dust beside the road that runs from Jerusalem to Jericho.

On the topic of social justice, I rented Hotel Rwanda tonight and I plan to watch it tommorow. I am almost dreading it. I know that it is a good movie, but I am sure that it will make me sad,...and angry. Sad that so many really died in that brutal conflict. Angry that the rest of the world apparently sat around wringing their hands and doing nothing, or worse not even paying attention. I intend to write more about this topic later.

For now here's this insightful piece from Mike Bishop:

The Church as Subversive Community

by Mike Bishop

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

For the past generation, one of the hottest topics among pastors and church leaders has been church growth. “Pastor, Pastor, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?” Theories abound and models for 'doing church' come and go like teenage fashion fads. But in the middle of all this discussion and strategy a few very practical questions remain: "How does God intend his church to grow? What are the means by which the gospel of Jesus is spread? What is the job of the average Christian? How should pastors lead in this endeavor?" One attempt to answer these questions should be very familiar. For lack of a better name, I will call it the 'Church Growth' paradigm. Here are a few of this paradigm's basic assumptions:

- A simple vision - bring the gospel of salvation in Jesus to the entire world by any means necessary.

- Ethnic groups, generational groups, special needs groups, etc. are identified, studied, targeted, and advanced upon with this gospel in hopes that they will be assimilated into the Kingdom and a church.

- Massive amounts of funding, personnel, strategy, planning, and leadership are necessary to pull off this enormous undertaking.

One of Church Growth's primary tools is to coax people into a special place once a week where God is the focus of the entire event (traditionally, a service on Sunday morning). The idea is that if people will think about God for a few hours on Sunday, maybe they'll also consider him the other 166 hours during the week. All manner of resources are expended to make those few precious hours as efficient and relevant as possible. Countless programs are concocted to try and connect people with God at other times. The amount of blood, sweat, prayer, and tears expended in this paradigm is extraordinary.

As a reward for all that effort, Church Growth has been extremely successful. The gospel has reached more corners of the world than ever thought possible in the last 100 years. But without going into the problems associated with Church Growth, let me propose another way to answer those fundamental questions. Let’s assume that you’ve tried Church Growth and found it wanting. Or, you’ve simply run out of silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. This next paradigm I would like to describe is much less popular and remains largely untried in North America. Again, for lack of a better name, I will call it the 'Subversive Community'.

'Subversive' is an odd word to associate with Christian ministry, but that is only because of its uses in recent world history. Webster's defines 'subvert', "to overturn or overthrow from the foundation." It's origin is Latin, "subvertere, literally, to turn from beneath." Eugene Peterson has a great description of this paradigm's assumptions:

"Three things are implicit in subversion. One, the status quo is wrong and must be overthrown if the world is going to be livable. It is so deeply wrong that repair work is futile. The world is, in the word insurance agents use to designate our wrecked cars, totaled.

Two, there is another world aborning that is livable. Its reality is no chimera (illusion). It is in existence, though not visible. Its character is known. The subversive does not operate out of a utopian dream but out of a conviction of the nature of the real world.

Three, the usual means by which one kingdom is thrown out and another put in its place - military force or democratic elections - are not available. If we have neither a preponderance of power nor a majority of votes, we begin searching for other ways to effect change. We discover the methods of subversion. We find and welcome allies."

The Subversive Community's mission is not to bring the kingdom of God from without; it is to release the kingdom of God from within. Subversives do not "reach outside people and encourage them to come in." Subversives live and do their work ‘undercover’ where the world lives and breathes. Their goal is not escapism (trying to build a Christian utopia), but to show people how they can lay hold of life as God intended, in his Kingdom.

The Subversive Community understands that the world and its ways are false. It is constantly interacting with people at work, in the grocery store, or at home who are all in the prison of this world's system. These prisoners are quite happy in their assumed reality (especially the ones who have amassed quite a kingdom of wealth). But some secretly ask the question, "Is this really all there is to life?" The Subversive Community’s answer is not merely to inform them about the Kingdom, but to invite them to become participants in a whole new reality. The training program will be unique and cannot be rushed or broken down into a few 'principles' that are easy to swallow. Remember, the kingdom of God deals with every aspect of our lives. This training might just take a lifetime.

The chief aim of the Subversive Community is to train other subversives, which is really what the Great Commission was all about. So what are our tools? Where do we begin in this training? How do we train others? Again I'll reference Peterson from "The Contemplative Pastor":

"Prayer and parable are the stock-in-trade tools of the subversive pastor. The quiet (or noisy) closet life of prayer enters into partnership with the Spirit that strives still with every human heart, a wrestling match in holiness. And parables are the consciousness-altering words that slip past falsifying platitude and invade the human spirit with Christ-truth.”

Andrew Jones used to have on his website this tag line: “One who tells stories and throws parties.” Combine that statement with Peterson’s and you get the closest thing to a strategy for church planting available. I call it the “Three-P’s of Church Planting” – Prayer, Parables, and Parties.

Prayer

In the absence of building programs, 45-minute sermons three times a week, and an “outreach ministry,” there is prayer. The “wrestling match” to which Peterson refers is not the hand-wringing sessions most prayer meetings resemble. “Oh God, our culture is so bad. Why are people not coming to our church service anymore? Please bless our next outreach program so we can advance your kingdom.” Instead of asking God to bless our programs, we should be trying to bless His. This takes a willingness to do two things: ask and wait. Our community has grown through having times of prayer that include more silence than prayer. We are trying to learn corporately the ancient (and anti-Western) discipline of solitude and silence. As we’ve grown in our ability to hear God’s voice, we’ve found a few simple prayers that have been helpful:

“God, what have you created us to be in our community?”“How can we represent your Kingdom in our jobs, families, circles of friends, and neighborhoods?”

“Make us aware of your rule and reign today in every situation.”

“Lead us to men and women of peace that will provide contact with the world in places where your Spirit is working.” (See Luke 10)

Parables

The Subversive Community is a living story. It sees itself as a footnote to Chapter Three in the Story of God and His People. Simultaneously we are living within the Larger Story, the story of our faith community, and our individual stories. This has always been so, but the church has kept these stories stored away on a dusty shelf and tried to give the world the Cliff Notes instead. It’s time to take the musty books down and learn the art of storytelling again.

Jesus understood the deeply subversive nature of stories. He used parables like ticking time bombs of truth implanted in his hearer’s minds. They would sit there unprotected, challenging assumptions and coaxing the soul to establish a new foundation for life. N.T. Wright explains:

“When Jesus announced the kingdom, the stories he told functioned like dramatic plays in search of actors. His hearers were invited to audition for parts in the kingdom. They had been eager for God’s drama to be staged and were waiting to find out what they would have to do when he did so. Now they were to discover. They were to become kingdom-people themselves.”

The Subversive Community can use parable in many different ways. Our community has utilized the Web to tell our story on a global and local stage. The recent web-logging craze (www.blogger.com) has enabled us to keep our story documented real-time and from the point of view of each participant. Music, art, and poetry allow the community to present the story in fresh, creative ways. Even something benign like how you design your house can communicate truth about the Kingdom. Parable is in its nature a creative act so it is most effective when you decide to be original and invite the Holy Spirit to tell God’s story through your life. Don’t just use someone else’s stories; come up with your own!

Parties

"People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29) Jesus often used the party or feast to represent the kingdom of God. His first miracle was performed at a wedding reception, he feasted with his brand new followers Levi and Zacchaeus, and his most famous parable ended with a huge party for a prodigal son. Often, Christians think true spirituality looks more like fasting than it does feasting. But Jesus responds, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom?” (Luke 5:34) The Subversive Community knows how to party.

Our community has organized a few parties, which we call Kingdom Feasts. We invite friends, family, co-workers, people from other churches, and anyone else who wants to come. The last one was held at the beach where we cooked a ton of burgers and played volleyball in perfect South Florida weather. Another time we fried up a bunch of shrimp and worshipped into the night. But each time, our focus as participants is to demonstrate to ourselves and our guests that the kingdom of God is here.

The Subversive Community would never be caught trying to coax the world into a church building. It believes the church (which is you and me) exists primarily out in the world just being itself. But we are not passive observers of a world going to hell. We are here to overthrow the world’s assumptions about life and our hope for the future. Peterson now completes our job description:

“This is our primary work in the real world. But we need continual convincing. The people whom we are praying and among whom we are telling parables are seduced into supposing that their money and ambition are making the world turn on its axis. There are so many of them and so few of us, making it difficult to maintain our convictions. It is easy to be seduced along with them.

Words are the real work of the world - prayer words with God, parable words with men and women. The behind-the-scenes work of creativity by word and sacrament, by parable and prayer, subverts the seduced world. The pastor's real work is what Ivan Illich calls "shadow work" - the work nobody gets paid for and few notice but that makes a world of salvation: meaning and value and purpose, a world of love and hope and faith - in short, the kingdom of God.”

Dinner and a murder

2005-07-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Last night Mandy and I went to a dinner theatre here in Atlanta called Agatha's. It was great. We sat across the table from another young couple who also happened to be Christians. We all had a great time and are planning to get together soon with them. The show is humorous and highly interactive. Yours truly even had a speaking part. I was "gunman #2". My partner and I (gunman #1, obviously) kidnapped the tennis megastar -- "Andre Odyssey" The entire show takes place, not on a stage, but in and around the audience. (Good imagination required) but what a cool experience. If you ever get the chance to go to something like this, GO! It is worth every penny of the ticket price.

Happy Birthday to me.

2005-07-27T15:45:00.000-04:00

I am 29 today. yay... yipee...I just can't get over my excitement.

In other news, has anyone else seen this commercial. I think it is hilarious and absolutely brilliant. What really gets me is that serious look at the camera at the end. How does that guy do that without cracking up.

Sad News

2005-07-15T11:01:00.000-04:00

I was sad to hear about the recent upheaval at Apologetics Press. In the July edition of the Christian Chronicle there is a front page article with the title: "Longtime Director of Apologetics Press Fired". Needless to say this was the first I had heard about it, but it happened at the end of May.

I have not always felt good about the dogmatism and sometimes negative rhetoric that I have heard from Apologetics Press and Bert Thompson but this truly hurts me. I am sad that Dr. Thompson has allowed this sin to enslave him and I hurt even more for the victims of his "misconduct".

I for one think that we are far too quiet about the power of sexual sin and sexual addiction. We live in a world so saturated with sex yet the church never deals with the issue, and men and women are becoming absolutely enslaved to its power. God intended for sex to be beautiful and wondrous even worshipful, but Satan has stolen what God intended and turned it into the ugliness and perversion now before us.

Pornography at arms length, overt sexual innuendo in advertising, sex saturated sitcoms, all at our disposal. Is that really a surprise. The definition of hypocrisy is someone who complains about all the sex and violence on their VCR ... or DVD player or even their TV as the case may be. Purity is only a power button away. Look, I know people are struggling, maybe even some of you, because I have struggled. I am still dealing with foolish choices I have made in the past. I have hurt myself and others because of the impurity and ungodliness I have allowed to be in my life. I know that there are others out there. Is it you?

When are we going to wake up and take notice? When are we going to say enough is enough? When are we going to mourn over the wickedness that has been part of our lives for so long? When are we going to confront the issues in our own house and stop talking about how bad society is? When are we going to repent? When are we going to follow God's directive and repent and turn to him and seek his face and allow him to heal our land? WHEN?

Early retirement?

2005-06-23T00:41:00.000-04:00

....After typing this I realized I sound awfully bitter and fiesty, I suppose it was a little late and I was perhaps a little too passionate, so forgive me ahead of time...

So Paris Hilton says that she is going to retire in 2 years. Which begs the question,... From what? How exactly does one retire from doing nothing. She doesn't act. She doesn't write. She doesn't sing. Does she even have a job? Sure, every so often she shows up on the news or in some shameful private video that some ex-boyfriend puts on the internet. Her parents must be proud. I am sorry, I know that I should really care, but I don't. All I see is a pitiful 24 year old adolescent. Will anyone even know her name in 5-10 years?

Oh and Mike Tyson is retiring too. Who knew he was even still biting,... uh I mean fighting? What a disgrace.

Henry Rollins of punk-rock fame once said that we live in a disposable culture. Unfortunatley I think that he hit the nail on the head. We do live in a disposable culture full of disposable "celebrities" and all sorts of passing crazes and phases. Everybody is always looking for the next big thing. The latest story. The hottest fashion. And it is all tossed away into the refuse heap a short time later.

Christianity is not exempt. As a matter of fact I know far too many Christians that latch on to this or that looking looking looking and the whole time coming up empty. To which I reply

Why!!!

Why in God's name (and I mean that literally) would we ever want to attach ourselves to a culture and a world that is so disposable?

This world is passing away and evertything in it. I for one have no lasting city here, but I seek the city which is to come. For which I would trade every morsel of food, every stitch of clothing, every breath of fresh air, every wondrous bit of "life" on earth.

I will not be satisfied with what this world offers, even though I can be content.

Does your church look like this?

2005-06-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

Check out one of my favorite funny sites

Rahab: A bad girl with a courageous faith. Part 1

2005-06-03T17:18:00.000-04:00

I just began a new series last Sunday on the book of Joshua. It won't be a "expository" study in the sense that I am not going to go through the book verse by verse. This week I am in chapter 2 which (in case you didn't read the title of this post and you don't remember) is about Rahab and her involvement in harboring two Israelite spies who had come to the city of Jericho. I thought it might make it interesting if we tried to look at the story from her perspective. So I sat down and penned this short narrative piece about her thoughts. I might try to extend the story so that is why I am calling this "part 1". Let me know what you think. I am planning on using this as an introduction to my sermon on Sunday.

When I heard the knock at my door I knew that it could only mean one thing. Someone wanted to “visit” with me a while. I have never really gotten used to that. I mean,...I did what I had to do ya know. It was either allow my family, my precious children, to go hungry or I could swallow my pride and relinquish what was left of my self respect and sell my body to feed them.

I am still shocked sometimes at the faces I see at my door. Leaders, businessmen, politicians; all of them come looking for something. I do my best to provide them what they want, but nevertheless it never enough. They keep coming back. I wish there were another way. I really do. Do you think that I enjoy this? Dressing up all pretty, bathing myself in perfume and oil, and for what. So that some drunken, libido driven adulterer can put his hands all over me.

I really hate the way they pretend to really know me, the way they want me to feign intimacy. It’s not intimacy, just a cheap imitation, kind of like me. Oh! And they always let me know where I stand, as if I could forget. Thanks Rahab here's your cash. I guess I'll see ya later. Then when I see them at the market or at the temple they look at me with such blistering scorn I can feel their stares on me without even turning around.

That night when I opened the door I saw two faces that I had never seen before. They were younger than most of my visitors, and ruggedly handsome too. Of course, I invited them in, but right away I knew something was different about these two. I could see it in their eyes, they didn’t look at me the way most of them do. It had been so long since I had seen it and I almost didn’t recognize it. It was purity. It quickly became clear after a few minutes and a few words that they were here for something. It just wasn’t what I thought.

Oh the Humanity!!

2005-05-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

It seems that all good things must come to an end. Such is the case with my favorite piece of personal electronic equipment. My laptop has bitten the dust. (sniff) I tried to turn it on yesterday and I was greeted by this cryptic and terrifying message. "Operating system not found." Operating system not found!? I exclaimed. That can't be good, I thought. Then another message appeared: "Error detected on hard disk, please back up your data immediately a failure is imminent". Then nothing...waited...nothing. So I talked to my computer guy on the phone and he said what I expected to hear. "Sounds like the hard drive is toast." I would not care about the failure except that my sincerely lackadaisical self has not back up my documents in a while, at least six months. So that means that six months worth of work is in the toilet. Sermons, articles, bible classes, all gone. Needless to say I am less than happy about the situation.

So it is back to the PC. I brought my PC from home and I guess I will have to use it for a while. No big deal though it has a stronger processor and bigger hard drive than my laptop anyway.

In other news, did anyone watch the season finale of 24 last night? And if so what are your thoughts? What else can happen to Jack Bauer? I must say that 24 is my one guilty pleasure show. It is clean for the most part. The language is not nearly as rough as most of the other shows in the same time slot.

Well kiddies that's all for now. I've got to get out of here.

You might have seen this before.

2005-05-18T12:03:00.000-04:00

I got this email yesterday. Ironically it was from someone who sends me A LOT of forwards, many of which are chock full of urban legend and otherwise false or insufficent information. If you are like me you most likely hate forwards and probably delete them on sight. However if you are one of those people who believes and forwards everything that you get you might ought to read this and take it in.

THE "FORWARDER'S" 12 STEP PROGRAM

Sometimes friends have to tell you things you might not like
to hear, but need to. GCFL is that kind of friend. Everyone
say it with me...

1) I will NOT get bad luck, lose my friends, or lose my
mailing lists if I DON'T forward an e-mail!

2) I will NOT hear any music or see a taco dog, if I do
forward an e-mail.

3) Bill Gates is NOT going to send me money. Victoria Secret
doesn't know anything about a gift certificate they're
supposed to send me.

4) Ford will NOT give me a 50% discount even if I forward my
e-mail to more than 50 people!

5) I will NEVER receive gift certificates, coupons, or
freebies from Coca Cola, Cracker Barrel, Old Navy, or anyone
else if I send an e-mail to 10 people.

6) I will NEVER see a pop-up window if I forward an e-mail!
(If you do, you have a virus or trojan.)

7) There is NO SUCH THING as an e-mail tracking program and
I am not STUPID enough to think that someone will send me
$100 for forwarding an e-mail to 10 or more people!

8) There is NO kid with cancer through the Make-a-Wish
program in England collecting anything! He did when he was 7
years old. He is now cancer free and 35 years old and
DOESN'T WANT ANY MORE POST CARDS, or GET-WELL CARDS!

9) The government does not have a bill in Congress called
901B (or whatever they named it this week) that, if passed,
will enable them to charge us 5 cents for every e-mail we
send.

10) There will be NO cool dancing, singing, waving, colorful
flowers, characters, or program that I will receive
immediately after I forward an e-mail. NONE, ZIP, ZERO,
NADA!!

11) The American Red Cross will NOT donate 50 cents to
certain individuals dying of some never-heard-of disease for
every e-mail address I send this to. The American Red Cross
RECEIVES donations.

12) And finally, I WILL NOT let others guilt me into
forwarding at email by telling me if I don't I am not their
friend or that I'm a bad person.

Now, repeat this to yourself until you have it memorized,
and send it along to at least 5 of your friends before the
next full moon or you will gain twenty pounds in the next
three months! (No, not really! If you believe that last
statement, go back and read this message again!)

The ridiculously arduous process of home buying.

2005-05-11T11:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted much of late. Mandy and I have spent almost every afternoon looking at houses. We are getting serious about trying to buy one. However, if you know anything at all about the Atlanta area you know that housing prices can be a little outrageous.

For example something like this:

Will be somewhere close to the price of this:

I am hoping we can find something in the middle maybe like this:

This is actually the one that we have been looking at. It is not our "dream house" but it is at a price that we can afford and it is just the right size to meet our needs. It needs some very minor work, mostly cosmetic. Now we just have to see if someone will give us the money to buy it.

Who really needs a palatial estate anyway? To me it is simple: Smaller house=bigger life. This world isn't really my home anyway.

Feel free to donate to the Holloway down payment fund c/o Jerrad Holloway
email me for the address. I am only kidding. I would not ask any of my readers for money (but if they wanted to give me some who am I to stop them :) )

A Little leaven is good for the soul...or is it?

2005-04-29T00:23:00.000-04:00

I have been preaching through the parables. Not all of them mind you, but I am taking on a good number of them. Taking ON is a good description, because it is a tremendous challenge for me. At first glance they all sort of appear "self-explanatory" but only at first glance. Then there are the 2,000 plus years of muddy theology that has been attached to them to wade through .

There is plenty of good scholarship and sound interpretation around but it seems to me that there are just as many if not more "junk food" theologians out there who take a parable and allegorize it to the point where it is no longer intelligible.

It was Luther who said (and I happen to agree): "Origen's allegories are not worth so much dirt." He was of course referring to the early church father Origen (185-254 A.D.) who found a symbolic meaning for every detail of the parables which was usually quite spurious. What Origen started Augustine continued. I don't fault these two except that their fallible scholarship is held in almost the same regard as scripture and has therefore shaped much of what is still said and written in reference to the parables.

Which brings me to my point or lack of a point if you will. I have been hanging out in Matthew 13 for several weeks. The whole time I have been consciously avoiding the parable of the leaven. I don't understand it! I don't! I have been gnawing on it for the last several weeks dreading the day when I would have to preach about it.

I am going to try to explain where my conundrum comes from as briefly as I can.

There are basically 2 schools of thought among scholars. One is that leaven even though it is generally regarded as undesirable elsewhere in scripture, here is a reference to the pervasive influence of the "kingdom" of God. Which breaks down even more when we try to say that the word kingdom reflects "church". I don't believe it does refer to the church. I for one think that kingdom really refers to God's "dynamic reign" to borrow from Blomberg. This makes sense to me, but there are still some difficulties.

The other school of thought is that leaven is always undesirable and therefore here also represents something undesirable. It is a negative influence that invades the church and/or God's dynamic reign. This also makes sense to me, because of the balance of agricultural parables in chapter 13. They refer to negative influences tares, weeds, thorns, etc. Jesus even explains those parables. I wish I had been there in the house I would have piped up with the disciples "Explain to us the parable of the wheat and the tares" Jerrad speaks up loudly from the back "And go ahead and get the rest of 'em while you're at it Jesus!"

Here is my conclusion and the outline of my sermon. This is the best I can come up with but I don't know if "that'll preach".

The central idea of the parable seems to be that the yeast/leaven was hidden by the woman in the dough. So what I get is that God doesn't always make himself known. In other words we don't always understand how God is influencing us and sometimes we don't even know that He is. Part of knowing God is accepting this mystery. God often influences the secret parts of us from the secret part of Himself.

Am I way off base? Anybody wanna sell me a clue!?

2005-04-28T14:36:00.000-04:00

Inside my troubled mind
My head is heavy
With all things divine

I am forging ahead
To a place where I am
Less than comfortable
but comforted nonetheless

Most of those embittered souls
around me do not seek
that which I long for

Instead they seek discount salvation
Divine grace and mercy on the cheap (props to D.B.)
A Christianity of convienince
not one of communion or community

But there are those who like me
Are seeking to be free
Free from understood assumptions
Free from charted courses
Free from the theology of black and white
Free to LIVE! in the mystery of God
Free to plunge into the deep and dark and dreadful
Free to explore the bright - the beautiful - the beneficent
Free to be misunderstood
Free to be mistaken
Free to wonder, but not wander
Free to stumble, but not fall
Free to be dead to myself, and alive to God
Free to BE ME, but find my I.D. in J.C.

Oh! how I long to be free.

2005-04-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

This is a new artist that I am really diggin'. Not a Christian artist, but his music is as soulful and strong as any that I have heard in a long time. Check the "Watch and Listen" link on his webpage to get a sample.

The Difference Between a Good Haircut and a Bad One?

2005-04-20T15:09:00.000-04:00

About two weeks. Or so I'm told.

I had been needing a haircut and I have been quite busy and really have not wanted to plop down $15 plus tip. Not that 15 bucks would break me it just irratates me that I have to pay that much, once or twice a month for something I can do at home. As a matter of fact a couple of months ago I did. I cut my hair myself and did a fine job.

Well last night my wife, bless her heart, said: "Do you want me to cut your hair?" Which should have been fair warning, but I caved in and allowed her to cut my hair. I am sure she could have done a great job...if she had the right equipment. Well, below are the results of this little escapade in home cosmetology school. I will let her do it again, but next time we are going to make sure that we have the right clippers and guards.

Martin makes its 1,000,000th guitar

2005-04-15T10:40:00.000-04:00

You have got to look at this BEAUTIFUL guitar. And to think I have been contemplating taking up guitar building as a hobby. I can't compete with this kind of artistry.
http://www.martinguitar.com/history/million.php

Lord you take the wheel...But let me operate the accelerator and the brake.

2005-04-12T11:37:00.000-04:00

I often crack a little self-righteous smile when I see that old bumper sticker "God is my co-pilot". I decided a long time ago that said bumper sticker was heresy of the highest nature. "God is my co-pilot", I don't think so Jack. I am supposed to let Him be the pilot. You know,... Lord take control, take control. Ah, My eyes get misty just thinking about it.

Recently however I began to realize that more often than not, God really isn't in control. Sure I may give him the lip service of "Yeah God, you take the wheel" while at the same time failing to remove my foot from the brake. "Yes Lord I want to follow your lead, but I want to do it on my own timing". "God your going to slow, let me give it some gas." "Wait a minute God I am not ready to go down that road." (As the tires squeal to a stop on the dry asphalt)

The point is simple to understand, but hard to follow. If I am going to relinquish control of my life to God it has to be complete. I have to give Him control of the direction of my life, the timing of my life, and anything else that involves my ownership of my (his) life. Not only that I have to allow Him to choose his method of movement in my life. I comes down to the issue of sovereignty vs. Dominion. God is sovereign over my life there is no question about that and I don't really have another choice. The question is whether I am willing to recognize His sovereignty and therefore cede my dominion.

I recall what my friend Keith said about hard to sing hymns. I am reminded that the song is not: "I surrender some, or I surrender most, or even I surrender almost all", but for many of those who sing it that is the reality. I want to sing with conviction "I surrender all" and then go and do that.

And you thought your car was cool.

2005-04-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got a car. I got a free car. Not only was the car free, it is a nice car. It's a Lincoln Town Car with electric everything, an all cow interior, heck, it even has self dimming lights. It might look a little like a grandpa car, but I feel like I am riding in style. You can keep your V10 Viper that rides like a sled. I am riding on air, did I mention it has air suspension.

All kidding aside. I was tremendously blessed yesterday by one of the members of our church. Her husband passed away last year and in the wake of his death she has been getting rid of a lot of things that she no longer uses or wants, etc. She bought a new Lexus SUV and paid cash. She had a couple of old cars one of which needed transmission work, and this one. She decided that she wanted to give it to Mandy and I since we have been a one car family for a while now.

The blue book value may not be much, but this car has been well maintained and still has a lot of life left in it. I was TRULY humbled when she decided to give us the car. I don't deserve all the nice things that people do.

The Law of the Harvest

2005-04-07T14:45:00.000-04:00

So you reap what you sow. But what about in the kingdom of God? Matthew 13:23 "The good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God's message and produce a huge harvest--thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as has been planted."

Jesus says that we can expect a bountiful harvest when we sow the word of God in our hearts. But it goes further than just being bountiful, it is huge, gigantic, enormous, GINORMOUS!!

Not a 30%, 60%, or 100% return, how about 30 times, 60 times, A HUNDRED TIMES over. That is my kind of investment.

Hebrew Humor

2005-03-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to learn the biblical languages. Yes, I took Greek, but it didn't take. Mainly because the teacher I had was far more interested in 8 am soapboxing than teaching Greek. I want to learn them (both Greek and Hebrew) not just to be "scholarly" but I want to hear and see the text like it was written. I ran across this bit of Hebrew humor and wanted to share.

Fred approached John. "Hello John, I heard you know Hebrew"? "Yes I do." replied John.

Fred: I was wondering what the Hebrew for he is?
John: Hu.
Fred: Not any one in particular, I just wanted to know what is he?
John: Hee is she.
Fred: Who?
John: No, Hu is he.
Fred: I thought you said he is she?
John: Yes, that is correct.
Fred: What is correct?
John: Hee is she.
Fred: I have no idea what you said. Who is she?
John: No, hu is he.
Fred: I dont want to know who he is, now I want to know what she is in Hebrew?
John: Hee.
Fred: He Who?
John: Yes that is correct. But, hee is she.
Fred: Who is she?
John: No, Hu is he.
Fred: Why do you keep asking me "who is he"?
John: I thought you were asking me what he is in Hebrew?
Fred: Me?
John: That is who.
Fred: Who is me?
John: No, Hu is he, mee is who.
Fred: I don't want to know who you are, I want to know who is he?
John: That is correct.
Fred: But, I have no idea what I am saying.
John: But you say it so well.
Fred: Who me?
John: Why are you asking me who he is?
Fred: No, I am asking you what is he.
John: Hee is she.
Fred: Who is she?
John: No, hu is hee.
Fred: I am very lost. Me is who? Who is he? He is She?
John: Very good, you said that very well.
Fred: What did I say?
John: Mee is who, hu is he and hee is she.
Fred: Well if you must know, you are crazy, I don't know who he is and if she is a he, I sure don't want to know her?

Spiritual Alarmists: Addendum

2005-03-23T01:13:00.000-05:00

So Sunday night just before evening service one of my elders comes to me and pulls me into my office. He (very politely, I must say) began to express concern about the course of the Wednesday evening class. No, he didn't think that I had taught anything wrong or anything like that, but he just didn't like the subject matter. Apparently there are others who had voiced concern to him.

Naturally I did get a little defensive. I mean, I was getting ready to preach and that was what was on my mind. The last thing that I wanted to think about was whether or not people were "liking" my Wednesday night class.

Maybe I am not teaching clearly or something. I am not advocating any sort of strange "wind of doctrine" or even being in any way subversive. I am just trying to open a dialogue of sorts about our current culture and how we as the church can reach our culture. I don't think that we have to resort to any "holy entertainment" mentality or anything of that nature. In fact, to me, much of what is being done to reach our postmodern culture is shot through with programatic, canned, hopelessly simplistic, and at the same time ridiculously complex (i.e. when your church gets 80% full you need to make it 25% larger and your church will grow by 15%) elements that will NOT work in the long run.

How do I express the genuine ultimate need for authenticity? I mean, that is really it isn't it? If we can be real with people and with God I think all the other things will fall into place. Jesus calls us to be excruciatingly authentic followers and that is pretty much what he asks of us. To live our WHOLE lives (read: not just the three hours that we are together each week) to glorify God.

Am I being to short sighted or simple minded? Why am I not connecting? I hope my tone doesn't sound like I am angry with anyone, because I am not. I love my congregation dearly. I just want to do the best job I can to lead people to Christ and part of that requires that I get the church serious about the lost.

Spiritual Alarmists

2005-03-17T13:23:00.000-05:00

Some of my brothers are spiritual alaramists. They are very worried about what is going on in the church. They spend a lot of time talking about what is "wrong with the church". To which I ask What is wrong with the church? I thought she was a radiant bride.

They often resort to some sort of "slippery slope" argument, that minor changes that have been made to the way that we operate or even evangelize are somehow going to ultimately lead to our complete denial of the authority of scripture and the virgin birth; Oh!, and that we will eventually re-institute the worship of Mithras. Huh?

I have been teaching a wednesday night bible class using Milton Jones' book "Christ No more, No Less". It really deals a lot with postmodernism and how to reach postmoderns. Never has the generational difference between moderns and postmoderns been so clear to me, than since I have begun to talk to moderns about postmodernism. Sometimes is as if they are not able to hear it at all.

As a postmodern myself I often get confused looks, blank stares, and the occasional vocal objection, to what I am trying to convey. I guess what bothers me the most is when people say in effect "Well we were able to reach people before by simply convincing them (i.e. via a list of "facts") of the truth of the Gospel, and there's no reason we should change that"

What is so hard to convey is that simply giving people a list of facts about Jesus will not convince them of His saving power. Postmoderns need the narrative and pragmatic side of the Gospel first. Why is it so hard to show this to moderns.

Is it in part due to the efforts of the spiritual alarmists? In their effort to hold on to the "truth" are they actually squashing evangelism? Have they convinced my elder brothers and sisters that any change is bad change? If any change is bad change I guess we ought to just continue on the way that we have been until Jesus returns or until the church dies, whichever comes first.

"The Passion" Recut

2005-03-10T14:21:00.001-05:00

So Mel Gibson is re-releasing his movie “The Passion of The Christ” on Friday. About six minutes of the goriest footage has been cut from the epic. He wanted to make the movie a little more accessible to those who might have been unable or unwilling to watch the original version.

Those of you who have seen the movie know how difficult it was to watch. I saw it, and though I can’t say I enjoyed it, I found it very moving and emotional. The main reason for being moved by the movie is that because as a Christian I understand the significance of what was being portrayed in the film.

I don’t know whether I will watch the movie a second time. It was hard enough to view it the first time. However, on the occasion of the re-release I am reminded of what the Hebrew writer said: “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” Hebrews 6:4-6

The horrors of the crucifixion were brutal, and gory. When we see a film with the magnitude of “The Passion” we are acutely reminded of that fact. I think that we also need to be reminded that if we forget ourselves and turn away from God we are essentially revisiting those unspeakable hours of torment and shame that were endured by Christ for our sakes.

If we fall away it is as if we are standing with the crowds in Jerusalem who watched as Jesus was whipped and tortured. It is as if we are shouting with them: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” even though the same crowds cried out only days before "Hail Jesus! He is the King!". He is, according to the Hebrew writer, being put to open shame a second time. That is the harsh reality of what happens when we turn from the Son of God.

While I don’t believe that every individual sin turns us away from God (if we are walking in the light I John 1:7) we should remember that it was sin that put Jesus on the cross and if we allow it sin will again place Him there on the tree. If we allow it, sin will become the rule in our life. I pray that never happens. My prayer is that I/we would never again crucify the Christ and put Him to open shame.

We've been looking for a second vehicle

2005-03-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

Just wish I'd seen this earlier. I hate when the good deals get away.

The Gospel Softens Even the Hardest of Hearts.

2005-03-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

I thought that this was pretty cool.

KORN GUITARIST ACCEPTS CHRIST -- A founding member of the popular hard rock band Korn has announced he accepted Jesus as his Savior and is leaving the band.

Brian "Head" Welch told a California radio station Feb. 20 that the aggressive tone of the music he made with Korn is at odds with his newfound happiness in Christ, according to CNN.com.

"Anger is a good thing, and if kids want to listen to Korn, good, but there's happiness after the anger," he said on KRAB-FM. "I'm going to show it through my actions how much I love my fans."

A statement on Korn's website said the band has "parted ways" with the guitarist, who "has chosen the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior and will be dedicating his musical pursuits to that end."

MTV.com said rumors were circulating in recent weeks that Welch disagreed with Korn's direction. On Feb. 8, he had apparently written a letter of resignation to the band's management, citing a long list of reasons for leaving, MTV said. Among those were increased moral objections to Korn's music and videos, one of which superimposed Welch's face on a dog patrolling a strip club.

"I can go up there and play those songs and those solos, but ... I distanced myself from Korn for probably a year and a half, two years," he said on KRAB, according to MTV. "I just wanted to fade away. It was crazy. I was so gone.

"But I found my way out and I want to help anyone that wants to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to go through the lows to appreciate the highs...." he said.

Welch is expected to give his testimony at his church -- Valley Bible Fellowship in Bakersfield, Calif. -- Feb. 27.

The Fellowship of His Suffering

2005-03-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. -- Thomas Merton

Ultimately, if we do not choose to suffer with Christ we choose to suffer alone; for there will be suffering either way. Have you ever thought about the fact that suffering for Christ and with Christ is a voluntary endeavor? If we desire to follow Christ we must recognize that it will require suffering. Maybe that is why Jesus instructed us that before we decide to follow him we ought to count the cost.

Things that make you go,... Oh my!

2005-03-04T09:59:00.000-05:00

Is this really a neccesary item? I guess I will be really excited when I can get a coffee IV to go with it.

Some really good ideas

2005-03-03T11:22:00.000-05:00

I like this site.

Busy, busy, busy

2005-03-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

I know that I have not blogged for a couple of weeks. I have been busy and I have been out of town. But hopefully things are slowing down enough that I can get back to it. I hope my readers are still there too.

A box of sorrows

2005-02-18T11:44:00.000-05:00

My sermon this week is on grief. We have had quite a few members of our congregation that have recently lost family members and faced a lot of other grief in their lives (i.e. lost jobs, health concerns, etc.). I thought that it was time for such a sermon. I don't know if you have seen Shyamalan's "The Village" or not so I wont give it away, but one of the images from the movie that struck me was the black boxes that all the elders kept in their homes. The inside contained a lot of painful memories of the past. The boxes were locked and never opened. Maybe things might have been different if they had been. I wrote this poem in response while I was thinking about this last night. I kind of played willy nilly with rhyme scheme and rythm just so you know.

I have a little black box
Inside is where I place my sorrows
Every heartache, every pain
I have no need to borrow
Whenever I feel the need
I open this shadowy box
I can look inside at anytime
For it is neither bound with chains
Nor shut up with locks

I have learned that sorrow has both place and purpose
Part of it to make me grow
Part of it to grieve me deeply
But mostly I keep it so that I may know
That in my darkest dungeon of despair
The hand of God clasps tightly around mine
Even there

His strength, it holds me up
When alone I would fall down
His love, it shelters me completely
And teaches me that I am His own

Father thou art Holy far beyond compare
Yet Father I see that you are lowly
As if our sorrows to feel, to share
It was said of you, "Surely He has borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows."
Was that to teach us about your love
Or to let us know that You hold our tommorows?

What personality type are you?

2005-02-17T22:45:00.000-05:00

I didn't think I was that balanced.

You Have A Type A- Personality

A-

You are one of the most balanced people around
Motivated and focused, you are good at getting what you want
You rule at success, but success doesn't rule you.

When it's playtime, you really know how to kick back
Whether it's hanging out with friends or doing something you love!
You live life to the fullest - encorporating the best of both worlds

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

The Grammys Got Religion

2005-02-17T10:10:00.000-05:00

Another fine article from To the Source:

During the 47th annual Grammy Awards Mavis Staples opened a worship vignette with “I’ll Take You There”, setting up acclaimed producer and now rapper Kanye West who emerged from the back pew in a black suit singing “If I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?”

After West’s staged death the Blind Boys of Alabama sang “I’ll Fly Away” a cappella over his casket. Suddenly West ascended from his coffin, coiffed in a white suit and sporting giant angel wings. He then flew over the stunned audience singing his Grammy winning “Jesus Walks”.

Kevin Bacon, the next noncelestial to take the stage, asked the rapper Ludacris,
“Do I look different to you? ‘Cause I think I might have just been saved.”

The ratings for the Grammy Awards have fallen precipitously over the years. This year their audience share was down 28%. The music industry’s financial woes are partially to blame. Kids now steal as much music off the web as they purchase.

But the biggest culprit is self-inflicted by the industry’s negative stance toward America’s cherished institutions of faith and family.

Isn’t that shocking? If you ridicule people for their beliefs and how they live their lives they stop watching your awards shows and stop buying your music.

Amazing.

So maybe the producers of the Grammys decided it was time to tone down the ridicule and tune up some respect for the role of faith in our culture.
If so we’ll take it.

These same producers must have noticed that Christian music is one of the fastest growing segments in contemporary music. Christian concerts are packed. What’s more, Christian kids tend not to pirate music off the net, so Christian labels make money.

But something more than this is going on.

After West won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and for Best Rap Song “Jesus Walks”, he recalled his near-fatal car crash in 2002.

When I had my accident, I found out at that moment, nothing in life is promised except death. If you have the opportunity to play this game of life, you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate their moment, until it’s past.

In an earlier interview:

I have flashbacks of what happened everyday. And anytime I hear about any accident my heart sinks in and I just thank God that I’m still here.

West is now credited with having something to say, not just beats to play. For contemporary music to sustain itself it must be more than "Bling Bling", sex, guns, and rims. Make no mistake about it, West is conversant with these as well. But, as with the rest of our culture, he recognizes we need to commit ourselves to more than just getting what we want.

Getting what you want is the seduction of an emerging radicalized secularism in America and the West. But secularism alone can never sustain us. Why is this?

Because secularism relegates nature, society, and government to the status of instruments dedicated only to the fulfillment of our material desires masquerading as "rights".

Because secularism forces us to pretend we do not have deeply held religious beliefs. It censors discussions of the transcendent, only allowing recognition of the temporal in the public square.

About a hundred years ago William James described this in The Varieties of Religious Experience. He concluded that religion in the modern West was splitting between the public and the private. Because of the conflict inherent in arbitrating deeply held beliefs, conflict that historically has resulted in,“hypocrisy and tyranny and meanness and tenacity of superstition,” James concluded that the proper realm for religious faith was the purely private.

We hear this today, that people have God within them so churches aren’t important any more.

This goes beyond the separation of church and state. It is one thing to limit the influence of the state on religious organizations. It is quite another to limit the influence of religion on the state and culture by relegating religion to only the private sphere.

Our experience of God requires a vocabulary. If churches are no longer important and it is considered impolite or silly or illegal to speak of God and our faith in public, how can an individual come to faith?

This is why radicalized secularism is inherently atheistic.

The danger, therefore, is that a secular culture can easily slide into secularism when it denies the use of religious vocabularies in public.

This is why people of faith in America are working against this trend.

From West’s Jesus Walks:

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes
But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, Huh?

West has won this in-your-face challenge. His record has been played and played and played. And now it’s won a Grammy.

Religion sustains many of us, not just personally, but corporately. This means expressing our faith publicly. And this expression should not be limited to our worship services and religious associations.

That's nobody's business but the Turks!

2005-02-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

Apparently Turkey thinks pretty highly of itself. And by the way, how on earth did Madeline not all that bright get elected. Follow the link to see what on earth I am rambling about. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10746-2005Jan14.html

Seeing is believing

2005-02-11T14:49:00.000-05:00

This is my sermon for Sunday. It is a little rough, but I was looking for suggestions. I am trying to be a little more evangelistic in my sermons of late. I do plan on opening with an introductory story/example. I am just having trouble with that. I thought I might talk about "The Matrix" but that is so played. Or maybe I could open with some stats about how much we retain visually etc. I just hate a lot of the "illustration" book stories, they just seem so contrived. This is also a much more narrative type sermon than I usually preach. Anyway just requesting some feed back. If a phrase doesn't sound all that great it's probably because I haven't really proofed this.

Matthew 20: 29-34
They had a real desire for change—Vs 29-30
A. Who knows how long they had been blind, but they heard that Jesus was coming by and they knew that this might be their only opportunity to do something about it. So they started calling out “have mercy on us, Son of David”. By the statement that they made they were acknowledging that Jesus was the Messiah. They at least knew that he had the power to give them sight.
B. These men had no claim to Jesus. They could not say; “Look here, we deserve to be healed. We have been like this far too long. So just give us our sight and we will be on our way” They knew if they were healed it would be because of the mercy of God. In a way they took a risk by importuning Jesus this way. They were willing to take the risk because they ultimately desired the reward. They wanted their eyes to be opened.
C. Matthew Henry puts it this way “These men had heard about Jesus with the hearing of the ear, but they desired that their eyes might see him” This is more than a story about a miraculous healing. It is an example of the spiritual blindness that we all face, but when we meet Jesus he is the one who can give us our sight if would only ask. The question is what are we willing to risk? Do we have a real desire for change?
D. You and I will never change until the pain of remaining the same outweighs the pain of change. We too must have a REAL desire for change.
They defied the opposition
A. By now there was a great stir about this Jesus. There were literally throngs of people following Him. They believed he was the expected Messiah. They believed that he was headed to Jerusalem to set things right. He was going to turn the tables on the Romans and kick them out. Though he was the messiah they expected they would soon find out He would do the unexpected. Naturally the air was full of electricity because of what they thought was about to come to fruition.
B. So these two blind men speak up, rather they call out to Jesus. The reaction of the crowd is much like you’d expect. “Be quiet, He doesn’t have time for you” “Don’t bother the teacher” “He has more important things to do”. Really you can’t blame them, they thought they were doing the right thing. They saw that Jesus was on a mission, the problem was they missed what His mission was about.
C. But these stubborn blind men didn’t listen to the crowd. I love this. They got louder. Kind of like those TV argument shows where people come to “debate” things and just end up shouting each other down. The crowd said “Shut up!” These guys said, “No way, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY ON US!!”
D. Have you ever had to stand up to opposition? It takes a lot of courage. Sometimes when we ask something of God there will be opposition. Sometimes when someone wants to begin their walk with Christ those around them ridicule them. When we face these things there is internal and external opposition. The external is easy to spot, and more likely easier to defy. It is the internal conflict in our mind that is harder to overcome. The voice in your head that says “Now come on, do you really think that God will help you”. That is our carnal mind speaking out against God. Romans 8:6-7 What kind of opposition do you face today? I would venture a guess that it is more often internal than external. But we have to defy the opposition, and cry out even louder to God.
They made their desire known to Jesus
A. Not only did these guys cry out for mercy, they wanted Jesus to do something specific. “Lord we want our eyes opened”. They weren’t interested in alms, or food. They believed that Jesus could restore their sight. What a remarkable contrast to those in the crowd. Maybe the crowd believed that Jesus could do it, but they didn’t think that he would. These guys understood that he could and they directly asked if he would. For blind men they seemed to have a lot more sight than the crowd that was there.
B. How many times have you believed that God could do something in your life; maybe heal some sickness, maybe give you strength to deal with a fractured relationship, maybe help you overcome a sin struggle in your life, and you said to yourself; “Well I know he could help, but he has more important things than my little problems.” So maybe you just were really general with God. “God, help me be strong, etc” I think we need to be more specific. “What do you want me to do for you?” Requires a specific answer.
C. If you went to the doctor because you were sick and he asked you what was wrong, would you be general or specific? “What seems to be the problem?” “Well, doc I don’t feel good” “Okay, but how?” “I dunno, I just don’t feel well.” Were not going to do that because we know that the doctor wont really be able to treat us. Even though God knows every specific need, He still wants us to ask. I believe that it’s so that we can acknowledge what it is we want/need.
D. “Lord we want our eyes opened.” We could say the same thing. Maybe you and I are not physically blind, but how often do we wander through life in a fog. We wonder what God wants of us, what we should do, how we should experience the abundant life he promises. I think we ought to ask God to open our eyes to the spiritual reality that surrounds us.
They followed him
A. This isn’t the first time in scripture we see someone drop everything and follow Jesus. When he called his disciples they left everything and followed Him. What is remarkable about this situation is that he apparently didn’t tell them to. They just decided to on their own. After He gave them their sight they felt compelled to follow Him.
B. Once their eyes had been opened they knew that Jesus had come from God and they knew that He was the Messiah. What they probably did not know was what they were about to get into. In a short time he would enter Jerusalem being hailed as a king, and then just a short time later he would be put to death as a criminal. These men would now not only hear of this they would see this gruesome display with their own eyes. I would imagine if it were me I would wish at that point never to have regained my sight.
C. Becoming a follower of Jesus means that we will have to face some harsh realities. When we ask for our eyes to be opened we will see beautiful things, amazing things, realities that we never knew existed. We will also see other things, terrible things. We will see the ugliness of sin, the terror of the lost. We should see these things. We need to be aware of how ugly and horrifying are the lies of Satan. When we ask for our eyes to be opened we must be prepared for what we will see.
D. Many, many followers of Jesus are still spiritually blind in many ways. Maybe even we are in a lot of ways. It is easy to go through life sort of playing church. We come here each and every time the doors are opened. We are faithful, we pray, we trust, we believe. But the question is do we see? Can we see the world through Jesus’ eyes. Can we look at the lost with the same compassion? Can we see the beauty of the abundant life in Him? Can we bear the ugly reality of a sin filled- fallen world?
Invitation—
Are you ready to be different? Are you ready to be changed? I mean REALLY ready. If we would follow Christ we must be ready for REAL change. We must be ready to defy those who would oppose us in our quest to follow Christ. We must be willing to get specific with God, to develop intimacy in our relationship with Him. We must be willing to follow Him no matter the cost.
Do you come today ready to take a step in faith? To cry out to God “Have Mercy on Me”. To ask for forgiveness and to place your life into Christ, by obeying the Gospel; the death, burial, and resurrection.
Do you want to have your eyes opened? You might see the world in a new way. It might be scary, even risky, but I promise you will never want to go back.

Kyrie Eleison

2005-02-10T15:17:00.000-05:00

I have been hearing that old Mr. Mister song on the Christian radio station. I never was sure what it was that they were saying. I thought it could possibly be "Carry a laser down the road that I must travel" but since that didn't make much sense I continued to wonder. Then today as I was studying for my lesson it all became clear. In Matthew's gospel there is a scene in chapter 20 where two blind men cry out "Lord have mercy on us, son of david" I looked at the phrase Lord have mercy on us and it can be translated "Kyrie Eleison" . I guess it was just one of those Aha! moments for me. Now I am really going to feel dumb when all of you knew all along what the song was saying. Anyway I just thought that was pretty cool for an old eighties group. The real lyrics are here.

Grace Vs. Pride

2005-02-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

This is an article I wrote that I thought that I would share. Mainly I just needed to post something, preferably something I had written.

During his last hours, John Knox woke from a slumber sighing, and told his friends that he had just been tempted to believe that he had “merited Heaven and eternal blessedness, by the faithful discharge of my ministry. But blessed be God who has enabled me to beat down and quench the fiery dart, by suggesting to me such passages of Scripture as these: “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” “By the grace of God I am what I am.” “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.””—Christian World Pulpit

Sometimes we find occasion to “pat ourselves on the back” spiritually. We get the feeling that God would be proud of us, or that we have been living up to our commitment to Christ and faithfully executing the duties of a servant of the Lord. That temptation to “toot our own horn” can be described in one word, deadly.

We should never forget that it was spiritual pride that caused Satan to fall. Many, many humans in the Bible also fell because of pride. It was pride that turned King Saul’s heart against God. Pride led to the downfall of history’s wisest man, Solomon. Pride pushed one preacher (Jonah) to disobey God in an unbelievably flagrant way.

It was a heart filled with spiritual pride that had one of Christ’s own disciples saying: “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death”. How shocked he must have been to hear Jesus’ next words. “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22)

Paul, who appears to have had his own battles with pride said these words:
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.” I Corinthians 1:27-31 (emphasis mine)

Really there is not anything to pat myself on the back about. It is God at work in you and I that changes us; that takes us from where we are and puts us where we need to be. It is by his grace alone that we are faithful servants. Church let us not boast about anything except the cross. Spiritual pride and grace are incompatible. They are opposites. Pride says, “My will be done”. Grace says, “Thy will be done”.

It's not whether you win or lose; it's whether you start a riot!

2005-02-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

I thought at least a few (Faulkner and Alabama folks especially) of you might be interested in the story linked above.

Grrr! For Caviezel's Sake, Stop!

2005-02-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

Who cares if The Passion gets an Oscar. Right On!! For once we Christians ought to think before we react. I linked the editorial above and included the text below. By the way who should get the credit for the "screenplay". I can hear it now, "Ladies and Gentlemen, unfortunately Jesus could not be here tonight, accepting the Oscar in His place are Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel."

So "The Passion of the Christ" was shut out of the major Oscar categories.

Should that surprise anyone? Hmm, let's think about this for a minute.

The entire film was audible in ancient Aramaic only, with subtitles. Does that make it a foreign language film? I can't think of any foreigner who speaks ancient Aramaic conversationally today. I am unaware of any "foreign language that doesn't exist anymore" category at the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As far as Best Picture is concerned, the film in its commercial form hardly stands up to "Million Dollar Baby" or even "The Aviator," for that matter.

But staunch supporters of Mel Gibson's film are saying that Hollywood's liberal slant is what kept the box-office smash from Oscar contention.

That's a major Grrr! for me, and a bunch of baloney.

One of the problems we have whenever there is a hot-button topic like Jesus or abortion or guns is the incessant finger-pointing and division that are constantly promoted by groups that should be promoting inclusion, rather than polarization.

The Politicians do it. The Conservatives do it. The Liberals do it. The Religions do it. The Bloggers do it. The Ethnicities do it. Even the Film Critics do it.

Here we have it again and the subject matter is the brutal, final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ, where you'd think an Oscar would be the last thing on Christians' minds.

Do you really think Jesus gives a rat's behind whether or not an OK film that exploits his death to rake in a half-billion for already grotesquely wealthy human beings wins a Best Picture award?

I don't get it.

And what gets lost in all the brouhaha is that "The Passion of the Christ" albeit a powerful, powerful story of one of the world's most famous figures is just a movie.

And while the picture is extremely moving, it is also very disturbing. I forget the number of times I hid my eyes from the screen that's how violent the film is. Where the same groups would deride such violence in most other films, they celebrate it in this one.

Many of the film's supporters tell me that's the point of the film to remind us of what Jesus went through to save our souls. Well, maybe. But I already knew that. My whole life is based around that fact. No matter what one's spiritual beliefs, there are constant reminders in our society in art, fashion, music, architecture, literature, war, on television and at the movies of what Jesus is believed to have done for us.

I don't think for a minute that politics or ideology has anything to do with "Passion" being snubbed. In fact, the movie is nominated in the Cinematography, Score and Makeup categories, where the film shined the brightest.

Grrr! on making Jesus sport for finger-pointing and petty gold statues.

This just in! Americans really are as dumb as we look.

2005-02-01T22:16:00.000-05:00

C'mon people this stuff should NEVER make it to air. Are we that anxious to find something "news worthy". The story below explains. (It is also linked above)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A Web site posted a photograph of what it claimed was a kidnapped U.S. soldier, but doubts were quickly raised about its authenticity and the U.S. military said no soldiers were missing.

An American toy manufacturer said the figure in the photo resembled one of its military action figures, originally produced for sale at U.S. bases in Kuwait.

The statement appeared on a Web site where militants' statements are often posted and was in the name of a group that has claimed previous kidnappings, the Mujahedeen Brigades.

The Arabic text, however, contained several misspellings and repetitions.

Staff Sgt. Nick Minecci, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said ``no units have reported anyone missing.''

The photo in the posting showed a figure dressed in desert fatigues, wearing a vest and knee pads and with a gun pointed to its head. All the items are similar to ones that come in a box with the action figure, named ``Cody.''

The figure in the photo has its arms behind its body, as if tied, and is leaned against a concrete surface. Hanging on the wall is a black piece of cloth with the Islamic profession of faith written on it in white letters.

But the figure appeared stiff and expressionless. The statement said he was named ``John Adam.''

Liam Cusack, of the toy manufacturer Dragon Models USA Inc., said the image bore a striking resemblance to the African-American version of its ``Cody'' action figure.

``It is our doll ... To me, it looks definitely like it is,'' Cusack told The Associated Press. ``Everything the guy is wearing is exactly what comes with our figure. If you look at the two pictures side by side, it'd be a huge coincidence.''

The company, based in City of Industry, Calif., produced 4,000 of the figures in 2003 for the U.S. military for sale in its Kuwait bases. It was never sold in the United States but is traded on line among collectors, sometimes to use in highly realistic dioramas, he said.

The Mujahedeen Brigades claimed responsibility for the April abduction of three Japanese, who were released, and of a Brazilian engineer who is missing since last month.

More than 180 foreigners have been kidnapped in the past year. At least 10, including three American civilians, remain in the hands of their kidnappers, and more than 30 have been killed.

The only American soldier known to have been taken hostage is Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, who was shown in a video in April being held by militants. A later video purported to show his slaying, but it could not be confirmed and the military still lists him as missing.

If proven a fake, Tuesday's posting would not be the first hoax associated with kidnappings in Iraq. In August, television stations around the world showed a video in which a 22-year-old San Francisco man faked his own beheading by Iraqi militants.

Tsunami Relief and Soul Saving

2005-01-27T10:35:00.000-05:00

I received a CD this week in the mail with that title. It was from a church related organization asking for help. The CD had one of those printed labels on it with a picture. It could have been any picture, but they chose this one.

Unfortunately this picture doesn't lend a lot of credibility to this organization considering that the above picture is a known fake. Normally I would just trash it and go on, but this time I am a little miffed. The reason for my miffedness (probably not a real word) is this. When you are representing the church you should go out of your way not to make the church look dumb. There are enough people outside of the church trying to do that already.
I have heard preachers tell stories as true, that I knew to be "urban legends". I have listened to the likes of Jerry Falwell making Christians look stupid all my life. I am sick of it. We have enough detractors. It's not funny anymore!!

It really makes me want to vomit when Christians are portrayed as ignorant, bigoted, uneducated, non-intellectual buffoons. It makes me sicker when some of us live up to that description. We need to be the generation that takes back the image of Christians. We need to be the people who are known for our love, not for our "political stance" or our negative attitude toward the world and the lost. I know that the context isn't the same, but I would hope that the modern day equivalent could be said of me "This man eats with tax collectors and sinners".

Deep Soul Searching

2005-01-19T10:13:00.000-05:00

I am in the middle of some deep personal probing. I am trying to deal with some issues in my life that are very private, very personal things from long ago. I don't really care to divulge all the details, but I want to solicit your prayers. The song I have below is from an artist named David Wilcox. He is not a "Christian" artist per se but his songs have become deeply meaningful and profoundly spiritual to me recently, so I thought I would share one of them with all of you.

Inside of My Head

I got such a mess between my ears
like dishes in the sink
Stuff I don't believe just tumbles in
until I don't have room to think
These dark clouds I've stowed away
just in case of a sunny day
So I can stand in the pouring rain
of every tear I've ever shed
I've got to empty out the inside of my head

This could be a room with such a view,
but its covered up with junk
Blocking off the place the light gets through

so it keeps me in this funk
All my failures are on display,
the broken dreams of yesterday
Stuff I should have thrown away,
but I've kept it here instead
I've got to empty out the inside of my head
I've got to empty out the inside of my head

I'd like to turn this place into my home
instead of someplace that I dread
Its the only place thats mine alone,
and I'll live here 'til I'm dead
I'll sort through what I have found,
the stuff that works I'll keep around
But I can't live weighted down
with every cruel word they said
I've got to empty out the inside of my head
I've got to empty out the inside of my head

More proof that America has lost its mind

2005-01-14T09:41:00.000-05:00

Check out the article linked above. It appears that at least some people think that exotic dancing is a career. A career?

The last line of the article is pretty telling. "Eighth-grade kids are not dumb," he said. "They are pretty worldly." Yeah, and whose fault is that? Ridiculous.

Extreme Makeover

2005-01-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

I am in the middle of preaching a series of sermons around this theme so I have been thinking about it quite a bit.

Mandy and I were watching TV yesterday and an ad came on for some weight loss product. Part of the commercial included the obligatory before and after pictures and I am 99% certain that there were different people in the two pictures.

What is it with our culture that we are so obsessed with looking good. I have watched the extreme measures people go to on the Extreme Makeover shows just to look better. And I'll admit some of the people that they have on suffer from some "appreance deficit disorders" (I think it was George Carlin who coined the phrase), but I wonder is it really worth all the pain and suffering that these poor people go through.

What I find disturbing is that at a fundamental level these "Extreme Makeover" type shows in no way address the spiritual/emotional side of the individual. They might have some couseling as part of the services that they provide. As a rule though, they are mainly about the outer appearance.

I know too many Christians that obsess about the outer appearance, and I believe it is because we live in a society that is CONSUMED with looking good.

In rebellion against the culture many people decide that they aren't going to do anything to themsleves so out the window go diet and excercise, which I believe are physical health issues more than they are appearance issues.

I think for the Christian the answer lies not in an extreme makeover of the exterior, but an extreme makeover of the interior.

I am reminded of that other show on MTV "Pimp My Ride". Where they take someone's 88 Dodge Colt and dump like 20 G's into it. It has a PS2, 20 inch rims, a plasma screen TV, hydraulics, the works. How ridiculous, it is still a Dodge Colt. There was no change at the elemental level. You can slap on all the stuff to make it look different, but nothing has really changed.

We need to experience an extreme spiritual makeover. When that happens the before and after pictures are amazing. Look below.