The Wood Between the Worlds

2011-03-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

You are not your own.
You are not who you are going to be.
You are not now who you could be.
Reason is: You think you are your own.

What the Church Needs Now

2009-12-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

Back in the early days of this century Christendom ceased… abruptly. We all shrugged wide-eyed, looked at each other and asked, ”Now what?”

With a bloated blogosphere at hand, virtually everyone has weighed in! The problem with all these prognostications is that the ones answering the question often happen to be the ones who brought about this church-plight in the first place!

Don’t get me wrong – we must “figure this thing” in one sense. Kudos to those of us who deign to comment on it. But, more words are not the answer. Condemnation of one another is not the answer. “Better ideas” solve nothing. We do not need simply to pedal harder, “do better.” Neither do we need more exotic and consumer-driven ways and means.

The ways and means of God are tight and tidy.

Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today (Dt 6:4-6).

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Dt 30:19,20).

No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Mic 6:8).

Jesus replied, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments (Mt 22:37,38).”

Yet, fleshing it out is another issue, right? Might we first ask ourselves: How did we get into this fix? I think the answer is both simple and obvious: We have crawled up on the throne and asked God to get down. And, being the gentleman that He is, He moved.
This is yet another chapter in the human story theologians call the Deuteronomic Cycle: Sin-punishment-repentance-restoration.

The answer, let’s admit it, is humility. How complicated are these words from James (4:10) “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor”? Or Isaiah’s words (Is 57:15):

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
the Holy One, says this:
“I live in the high and holy place
with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.”

In the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, there are these words and phrases regarding humility:

(Humility is not) Willful self-disparagement
(Nor are the humble) Guilty, vile, and helpless worms
Inward fasting
Aptness for grace (Luther)
Pure receptivity
Unassuming readiness to accept favor
(Humility) Requires constant self-examination
Trusting the kindness of the giver
I possess nothing I haven’t received
Lowly

Saint Augustine: “If you ask me what is the first precept of the Christian religion I will answer, first, second, and third, Humility.”

In John 13 and Philippians 2, Jesus is our Model, our Exemplar, our Teacher.

God, Keynote Speaker at the opening of the Temple, gave of these bedrock words regarding the ways and means of our faith (2 Chr 7:14):

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

We need restoration. We need forgiveness. We need help. We cannot enjoy “restoration” until then. It seems a no-brainer; humility and repentance are the pre-requisites we so desperately need as a body of Christ-followers.

May I pray for us – God’s church.

GOD ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF ALL, GIVER OF HOPE, FORGIVE US, FOR WE HAVE SINNED AND DONE WHAT IS EVIL IN YOUR SIGHT. IT IS AGAINST YOU AND YOU ALONE THAT WE HAVE SINNED AND DONE WHAT IS EVIL IN YOUR SIGHT. PLEASE SHOW US MERCY, SHOW US GRACE, WASH US CLEAN WITH THE FORGIVENESS OF CALVARY. BLOT OUT THE SIN THAT HAS BROUGHT THIS “CHRISTIAN NATION” TO WHERE IT IS… NEARLY APOSTATE. YOU HAVE PROMISED: A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART YOU WILL NOT DESPISE.
RENEW IN YOUR CHURCH A CLEAN HEART AND A LOYAL SPIRIT.
BY YOUR GRACE, OPEN OUR GRACE-GIVEN HEARTS AND LIPS TO DECLARE YOUR PRAISE.
LOOK WITH FAVOR ON ZION AND HELP HER; REBUILD THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM.

Will the church survive?

2009-11-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

The success, if you will, of the church lies with the few who willfully, yet counter-culturally, see hope in Christ alone, who are willing to answer the call, "Come to Me," and are daring enough to "Be still." I might add those who pray and fast as well.

It is those who let convention and outcome go hang, those who know God enough to trust Him fully for outcome and are confident He will honor their faith.These are the ones who are willing to go years upon years, if necessary, without what the contemporary church calls "results." The future of the church rests on those whose trust is truly radical.

On the Future of the Church

2009-07-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

I put the following on my Facebook status recently – my thoughts this summer are full tilt about church:

Leaders won't take the church into a healthy future. Neither will those intent upon "the will of God," nor the ones committed to a "healthy church." The hope for the church lies upon ordinary people who have experienced intimate nearness to God, Himself. Of Peter and John it was said, "They recognized them as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13)."

A few comments on the future of the church:

 Pastors nowadays are good at evangelism, not helping others cultivate intimacy with God. These “converts” are like seed thrown by the path which will invariably get trampled by today’s culture and die.

 Pastors nowadays are good at running an organization. Churches have organization, but if the leadership is not in tune with the Spirit and deeply committed to personal Godliness, the only product will be fruitless activity, not kingdom building.

 Pastors nowadays are scholarly and good orators. But, if the words are not formed in the crucible of the prayer closet by a heart grown healthy in stillness and solitude ever heeding the Spirit’s direction, then sermons become nothing more than moralistic prattle telling others how to behave. And, God’s kingdom is not built.

 Pastors nowadays are good at telling others about obedience to Jesus. I know of very few that know Jesus – see the difference? We can figure out the implications of this one quite easily.

 The “successful” church will consist of, as Brennan Manning puts it, “bedraggled ragamuffins” whose desperate and primary goal is to plumb the depths of Christ-acceptance. Church people nowadays (who get this honestly from their leader(s) who think they know the love of the Father, but don’t) are driven by guilt or fear that God is gonna getcha! This will not survive the current wave of cultural and godless persecution.

 The healthy church will devote priority energy toward building community, true community – the context for true spiritual growth. (I have defined community elsewhere in my blog).

 The healthy church will hold tradition loosely, careful not to jettison practices just because they have been around for a long time, nor lose the respect for the holiness of God through crazy and novel innovations.

 The church of the future will live by and submit to the authority of God’s Holy Word, the Bible. Scholarship is a must. The right combo is a smart mystic!

 That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

On EXPERIENCING God

2009-07-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

The experience of Jesus as Lord, which brings forth the response of faith, varies as widely as the people who encounter it.

Could it be that we “experience” God more than we think or are aware of? We so limit ourselves by our already set ideas of experience.

(Quoting John McKinzie) The basic element seems to be recognition. In Him [Jesus] the obscure is illuminated, the uncertain yields to the certain, insecurity is replaced by a deep sense of security.

Our trust in Jesus grows as we shift from making self-conscious efforts to be good to allowing ourselves to be loved as we are (not as we should be). An inner stillness pervades our being….

Self-absorption fades into self-forgetfulness, as we gaze upon the brightness of the Lord.

Incremental and a slow process for me! I want fireworks, adrenalin and sky-writing. God wants to cuddle with me and warm my heart!

… The personal experience of the glory of Jesus, the shattering encounter with the transcendent/immanent Christ, is the foundation of the faith and the hope that form and inform a life of naked trust.

Oh, how I want everything under the sun but what I really need… HIM!

Like faith and hope, trust cannot be self-generated. I cannot simply will myself to trust. The one thing I need to do I cannot do.

Yet, somewhere along the way, we must practice stillness, solitude and a protracted willingness to listen and obey.

What does lie within my power is paying attention to the faithfulness of Jesus. That’s what I am asked to do: pay attention to Jesus throughout my journey, remembering his kindness (Ps 103:2).

Trust comes from some experience of the other person, an experience not reducible to proof. Most often, it grows in a relationship of mutual love, one in which we have loved, and been loved, by another.

Experience comes from a humble, yet eager, heart.

The story of Job implicitly states that we can endure the unwanted intrusion of evil when we have experienced a theophany – that is, an insight into the reality of God.
Walter Burghardt writes: “Only trust makes evil endurable – trust not because God has offered proof, but because God has shown his face.

Experiencing God seems to be, at its core, an experience of being totally loved and accepted by God and accepting that acceptance.

[Quoting Walter Kasper] “Experiencing God’s love in Jesus Christ means experiencing that one has been unreservedly accepted, approved and infinitely loved, that one can and should accept one’s self and one’s neighbor.”

[Quoting Julian of Norwich] It is God’s will that we receive three things from him as gifts we seek. The first is that we seek willingly and diligently without sloth, as that may be with his grace, joyfully and happily, without unreasonable depression and useless sorrow. The second is that we wait for him steadfastly, out of love, without grumbling and contending against him…. The third is that we have great trust in him, out of complete and true faith, for it is his will that we know his will that we know that he will appear, suddenly and blessedly, to all his lovers.

Experiencing God comes from an existential awareness that I am God’s little boy (girl), that He is my Daddy in the purest and most infinite sense of Daddy-ness!

(From Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, Chapter 7, “Trusting Jesus” – bold words are my own)

2009-06-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

ALL of God's intentions are good (Ephesians 1:9). No matter what we think. The wording in the Greek means that God exercises His will ONLY for a Good Purpose! Do we SEE God that way... all the time? Or is He often aloof, distant, un-caring or even mean? May we seek with relentless passion to have a clear and correct understanding of our GOOD God.

Thou shalt have no bearings!

2009-05-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

We live in a country that has outlawed compasses. And, we are now being told that compasses don't exist. And, those of us who cry out with the truth that says compasses DO exist and are vital to our survival as a culture are being shot on sight. Hmmm ... scary!

Aphorism, anyone?

2009-05-16T14:16:00.001-07:00

Saying NO to sin means saying YES to the Presence Who takes away our fears. (Isaiah 41:10)

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST

2009-03-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

We must expend our greatest energy coming to know with all our heart that we are loved by a God of pure, infinite and unfathomable love. Yes, we obey, trust, worship, serve and witness. But, we have come to think of these things as primary. Not so! Recall the words of C.S. Lewis:

Put first things first and we get second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.

True love, true and pure service and devotion to God, is an outflow, a result, a product of a heart that has been consumed (or is being consumed) in God’s unconditional acceptance. This love is new and admittedly foreign to our experience, mysterious and inexplicable, outrageous and incomprehensible. This love is the zenith of too-good-to-be-true! It is the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, the Alpha and the Omega!

As you journey life’s days, as you daily serve the God you barely know, may you find a way to allow God to express His love to you. Practice solitude – be alone and quiet long enough that you can clearly hear His voice of love. Also, practice community. He will commonly appear to you in the form of another person, a friend – one who, like you, is on the same journey.

2009-03-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting here re-reading George Barna’s Revolution, now 3 years old (a long time in today’s terms). In it he describes this 20 million strong sub-nation of Revolutionaries this way: The have no use for churches that play religion. They eschew ministries that compromise or soft-sell our sinful nature to expand organizational turf. The refuse to follow people in ministry leadership positions who cast a personal vision rather than God’s…. They refuse to donate one more dollar to man-made monuments…. They are embarrassed by language that promises Christian love and holiness but turns out to be all sizzle and no substance.

They are seeking a faith experience that is more robust and awe-inspiring, a spiritual journey that prioritizes transformation at every turn, something worthy of the Creator whom their faith reflects. Revolutionaries zealously pursue an intimate relationship with God, which Jesus Christ promised we could have through Him.

(All this is quoted from pages 13-15).

For God’s sake, let’s give it to ‘em!

COMMUNITY DEFINED

2009-02-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

I hear from all points that the church is not doing community. Community is missing from the church and is an essential ingredient to kingdom growth.

Yet, I see churches “committed to” building community… community is even in their name and kingdom growth is not happening to any appreciable extent.

I’m sure I could Google community and find many valuable definitions, characteristics and points to be made about what community is and how to do it.

Here’s mine.

I believe that community is like the wall on which a mosaic is cemented, the fabric on which a cross-stitch is sown. Community is an environment – not un-like the agar in a Petri dish… wholly conducive and pristine for growing the things desired. (Oh, and by the way, you can’t make things grow!)

In our contexts – the world and the church – community is the medium in which kingdom growth occurs most verdantly, freely and purely.

Community is life-on-life intimate relationships among Christ-following believers. It is characterized by, in a word, love.

In Christian community there is sacrifice, investment.

Community comes at a high price.

Community is messy, mysterious and frustratingly unpredictable.

Community is not something that can be forced or hurried.

Strategies and tactics are often of little use in the grand scheme of community. A thorough look at the life of our Community Exemplar – namely, JESUS – and one sees very little “plans” and “process.”

That is because community nearly defies a recipe! (By the way, don’t forsake planning, setting goals, praying for results, making outlines and lists! Recall: The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9)

Jesus chose some friends, allowed them to live with Him, gave them things to do commensurate with their readiness for ministry and then he … kinda just … LIVED. And DIED that others might live.

And his friends – having been in community with Jesus and having grown to trust and obey Him because He had been found to be TRUST-worthy – began to act like Jesus.

Better yet, they began to LIVE like Jesus did. Outsiders “recognized them as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13) – community was successful, and the kingdom of God grew.

Ya just gotta get in there and get dirty!

Yet, community is the only environment in which true Kingdom Growth can take place. It is where believers practice new and godly forms of behavior with acceptance, patience and encouragement from others.

It is not simply an act of our will. Yet, we must simply will to be with Jesus. Willing community is skipping a step. Community is only possible in and through those who have experienced the personal acceptance of Jesus (both in solitude and community). Then and only then do Christ-followers have something (namely, love) to give to others.

In sum: For those who want to do and be about community.

1. “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim 4:7b). I would suggest this where you decide to do things like pray, be alone with God, listen, fast, read your Bible, go to church, worship and so on. Seek both to learn about all these things and to practice each of them deeply, earnestly and regularly.
2. Pray for God to direct you into a true experience of community – the kind in which you can give and receive true love.
3. Live life with other Christ-followers.
4. Seek others – particularly those outside the faith – with whom you can influence as you live an intentional godly life.

5. Read the New Testament and pattern your life after Jesus’. Find out how He lived, who He chose to hang out with, what He saw as important, what He did, then … go thou and do likewise!

AN EXERCISE IN PRAYER

2009-02-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Find a quiet place where you can be alone.
Get in a comfortable position with your back straight.
Reduce distractions – pictures, things. Don’t turn out the lights.

Sit and relax.
Shut your eyes and focus on as little as possible. Breathe.
Wait until you are aware that you are physically and mentally calming down. This may take a few minutes.

You will be distracted. Deal with each one with repentance – acknowledge each one and return quickly to your task of prayer.
Recall the father’s reaction when the Prodigal Son returned – open arms of acceptance and joy!

Read these words slowly and with a “listening heart.”

This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.”

So the Lord must wait for you to come to him
so he can show you his love and compassion.
For the Lord is a faithful God.
Blessed are those who wait for his help. Isaiah 30:15,18

Be aware that you are relaxing and focusing.

Take a few moments to tell God Who He is – how wonderful He is.
Use your own words. If it is not too awkward, speak aloud in a soft voice.
Don’t allow negative thoughts to enter your mind about the “quality” of your words to Him.

Read these words slowly and know that in praising God we draw near to Him.

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
Go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
And his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100

Confess your sins to God.
Be specific. Start with these words: Read slowly.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23,24

Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.
For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
But you desire honesty from the womb,
teaching me wisdom even there.
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—now let me rejoice.
Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me. Psalm 51:1-10
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9

Know now… try to experience the fact that you are forgiven, clean and pure before God!

Take a couple of moments to thank God. Thank Him for the things in your life that have eternal significance. Be specific.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

Wrap up this time of prayer with ASKING.
Ask whatever you want!

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. James 4:2

Remember the words of Jesus to Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:51):

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU?

God is asking you that! Give Him an answer.

Ask God for a humble heart.
Seek a heart which says,”God, I want what You want for me.”

Maybe start a list of friends to pray for.
Ask God to bring your friends to mind during the day.
Ask God for ways to bless your friends.

Finish your time with the Lord’s Prayer. Concentrate on each and every word.

Tell yourself: Regardless of how I feel right now, this has been a Good Time!

Community as the Hope for the Church

2008-12-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

I think I want to chime in again... if that's OK. (I guess that is why we have the delete key.) (SEE BLOG BELOW)

I think often about the church and her future; I can get pretty worked up if the truth be known!

Let me build on a few of broad principles:

1. God, by His very nature (Trinity), is relational (community).
2. That makes you and me - created in the essential image of God - relational, too.
3. (Therefore) Church - whatever else we make of it - is and must be relational.
4. Sin, like drift, provokes in us what I might broadly term anti-relationship.
5. The future of the church lies in her ability to re-capture COMMUNITY.

Eugene Peterson in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, in his chapter on Community, says, "Another way to avoid community is to turn the church into an institution" (pg. 179).

This is true; in fact, you and I above the age of, say, 30, know very little about church that is not institutional. Therefore, as we try to come together post-Twentieth Century and post-Christian Era, we are entirely likely to build the church AS WE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN IT. Getting out of a rut takes lots and lots of strength, courage and perseverance! Otherwise, we'll end up with just another version of the institutional church.

I do not want to harangue on about what I think we oughta do at this point. I do want to make points, if you will, what I see will characterize the church successful.

1. We need to take our lessons from … Jesus.

2. He reached the point of total surrender to His Father. He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (Jn 4:34). Those church-ers will be successful if they look, smell, and taste like Jesus because they have become so intimate with Him and His will. That is the first endeavor.

3. Jesus had three intimate relationships (Peter, James and John), nine in His Sunday School class, and seventy that He taught. His teaching was almost exclusively life-on-life. Jesus simply said to His friends, “Follow Me.” “Come live life with me.” Jesus was intentional and strategic about His relationships. Jesus knew He was worth knowing and being with. Successful church-ers will strategize their lives similarly.

4. Jesus was not hindered by church. Church was a normal part of his weekly life, but His ministry was not hampered because He had to park camels for early worship (what the institutional church calls “service ministry”). I do think Jesus served in the nursery as needed. Servants at heart do that kind of thing!

5. Jesus taught by example. Nowadays we call it “training.” Church-ers will not enlist; they will train, and train by example. Apprenticeship comes to mind at this point.

6. We must presuppose, as Jesus did, that people are ignorant and must be shown how to do relationships. Jesus did not conduct “sign-ups.”

7. Church-ers who get clued into this be-with-Jesus thing (not that complicated, I might add) will do anything and everything possible to obtain holiness. Look no further than Jesus: Jesus disciplined Himself for godliness (Mk 1:35, et. al.). Jesus practiced disciplines the institutional church is downright hostile toward! Like stillness, rest, prayer, and solitude.

8. Church-ers who desire success for the church understand incarnation. We are little Jesuses. That makes us worth knowing. It is good for those who do not know Jesus to be with us! Church-ers will spend a lot of energy simply doing relationships.

9. One caveat: Doing relationships is not the same as having a meeting. It is not the same as what we have come to know as “fellowship,” either! It is costly and dirty; mysterious, unpredictable and protracted, the fruits of which are in God’s hands!

I am not intending to take pot shots at what we know as church. However, we are in a deep rut. May we aspire toward the charge leveled against Peter and John after being arrested for healing a lame beggar by the institutional church leadership:

Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and
understood that they were uneducated and untrained men,
they were amazed, and began to
recognize them as having been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

What Ought We Be Becoming?

2008-12-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

This is a response to a conversation the leadership of our church is in regarding the ways and means of church, particularly how to get people un-stuck.

Thanks for including me in this conversation. I perused it earlier in the week and it grabbed me; it is just now that I can sit, pray and write.

The questions we ask and continue to ask are, indeed, from the heart. No question. We all want God to be glorified in and through ourselves, our families and our church. I am convinced we all want to see God's Kingdom built in our community.

I want to challenge our ideas of what that is supposed to look like.

What is the definition of "stuck"? I am afraid the answer is often subjective beyond my comfort: Not enough people are coming to church, not enough people are in small groups, giving is down, shallow faith is rife, people are leaving the church, etc.

All the assessments below notwithstanding (all are "accurate" insofar as I can see, by the way); I think people are not stuck. I think they are right where they want to be.

I am not sure what the remedy is, either. I am not even sure we need to be asking that question, as if: When we discover that "remedy" and DO it, then God is obliged to bless us - make our church healthy, big and growing.

God is the giver of increase (1 Co 3:7). We are to be faithful, evangelize, make disciples, pray, pray for workers, pray for increase, assemble, worship, obey, raise our family "in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord," etc., etc.

I remember J. I. Packer in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God saying that the evangelist is finished evangelizing not when "he seals the deal" so-to-speak and a convert is made. Evangelism has taken place when we elicit a decision from the one to whom we have just shared.

We must learn to battle in the realm of ideas; ideas we possess and live by that may or may not be God-honoring no matter how Christian they sound!

I think the question might be changed from "What ought we do?" to "Who ought we be becoming?" This question is first and foremost and individual question long before it becomes a corporate one. We are to abide in Christ and He will, through us, bear fruit (Jn 15).

Am I guilty of being with Him? Have I submitted the hours of my day to Him? Is my lifestyle such that if the plug were pulled on Christianity, I would be the laughingstock of the neighborhood for the silly and yet large investment I have made? Read 1 Corinthians 15:19!

Do I know Jesus intimately? Do I smell like Jesus?

Am I seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? By the way, there it is again: "...And all these things will be added unto you... [by HIM!]."

Richard Rohr in his book Everything Belongs uses the phrase "Don't push the river." You and I are traveling along life's journey in the boat of God's Providence. He "works all things at the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11). No doubt you and I are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" (Ph 2:12), choices matter! But, I think we could adjust our ideas a bit and learn - through our intimate relationship with Jesus - that our charge is to trust and leave the driving to Him.

This is the death to self that the New Testament refers to.

I blame Larry Crabb for the following indictment:

You maneuver; you do not trust. You negotiate, you do not worship. You analyze to gain control over what happens; you do not depend. You seek the Better Life of God's blessings over the Better Hope of God's Presence. (From The Pressure's Off, pg. 8)

Later in the book, Dr. Crabb introduces us to the "Papa Prayer." This is up against our traditional (what Crabb calls the "Old Way") - idea driven - prayer that goes like this:

Change that.

Whatever in my life is causing pain, I ask you to change it. Straighten out my daughter, give me a spouse, restore my health, provide an income.

Use this.

Show me what principles I'm to follow to make that happen. Direct me to the person or resources I need to help make it happen.

Satisfy me.

I long to feel alive, content, fulfilled, and happy. Do whatever it takes to make me feel satisfied with me, with life, and with You. (The Pressure's Off, pg. 209)

Here is the Papa Prayer:

Present yourselves to God as you are.
Attend to where you notice God's presence of absence.
Purge yourselves of whatever, at that moment, might be keeping you from noticing more of God.
Approach God with abandonment and confidence, dedicating yourselves anew to coming to Him to know and enjoy and reveal Him, not to using Him to make your life better. (The Pressure's Off, pg. 211. Incidentally, Crabb's next book, The Papa Prayer elaborates on this simple prayer.)

To the church I say:

Sit with Jesus. Allow Him to calm your soul. Realize when the calm comes that this is normal. Then learn to cultivate stillness, for it is in stillness that we see, hear and touch God.

Live with each other. Ask for the eyes of Jesus when dealing with friends as well as enemies.

Pray with maturity - for forgiveness, for others, for God to advance His Kingdom using you and me.

Then, move out, calmly, into faith-driven obedience. And trust Him.

Eternal and Natural Therapy

2008-11-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

Never wait to praise God, when things are just peachy.
Praise Him ever - at sun up, at dusk. Praise Him because He is your own personal God.

Can you praise Him when you are in circumstantial pain?
If so, you are numbered among those who know Him well enough that knowing God is Joy in itself, un-affected by anything ... anything.

If not, your joy is circumstantial, fickle, unpredictable, shifting sand... idolatrous! It is more about you than God.

If not, get there - you can, you know! Repent. Be with Him, think on Him. Imagine Him and His enormous love and care for you.
For you!

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Praising is really natural. Complaining is not.
Think on God! Do it a lot, for a long time.
Wrestle against distraction. We've been taught not to listen and think.

Let's recover our natural bent to think long on God.
Eternal and natural therapy for the soul!
You and I were made for this.

God's YES !

2008-04-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Beth (not her real name) has captured my heart. I think she is my alter-ego. I see a ton o’ me in her… not all good, some good.

Recently, as I was listening to a wise friend speaking about God’s YES, I had her very on my mind.

Let’s say, before time began, God “pondered” whom He might create. Among His infinite and perfect thoughts were the names of forthcoming children. Deep in the heart of God, at one divine, sweet moment, God smiled Beth into existence! There was no Oops! God does not goof. Even before Beth actually came to be, she was “fearfully and wonderfully made” by the Master Creator.

Beth is more magnificent that any beautiful sunset. She is more exquisite than the DNA of which she consists. She is gorgeous in the Eyes of God… and that is all that matters.

I don’t think Beth has come to appreciate God’s beauty quite yet. Trouble is, when you and I and … Beth look in the mirror and have negative thoughts, we are audaciously dissin’ God’s sterling handiwork.

God said YES to Beth. Not MAYBE or OH, WHATEVER. HE SAID YES!

Beth is the only Beth there ever was or ever will be. She is one of a kind. She is a prototype of one. She is priceless. I can see God now! Through tears of joy and a quivering, smiling chin, He whispers, “Beth, I love you! I think I’ll give you lots of red hair! Yes, Beth, YES!”

Beth hears lots of NO’s, the loudest of which are her own. God I pray for Beth. Mute the NO’s that have such a negative impact on Beth’s heart. Give her a chance to hear Your YES. Help me say YES to her for You.

On Living in the Present

2008-04-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

(From Henri J.M. Nouwen's Here and Now, p. 20)

When we dare to trust that we are never alone but that God is always with us, always cares for us, and always speaks to us, then we can gradually detach ourselves from the voices that make us guilty [dwelling on the past] or anxious [fearing the future] and thus allow ourselves to dwell in the present moment. This is a very hard challenge because radical trust in God is not obvious. Most of us distrust God. Most of us think of God as a fearful, punitive authority or as an empty, powerless nothing. Jesus’ core message was that God is neither a powerless weakling nor a powerful boss, but a lover, whose only desire is to give us what our hearts most desire.

To pray is to listen to that voice of love. That is what obedience is all about. The word “obedience” comes from the Latin word ob-audire, which means to listen with great attentiveness. Without listening, we become “deaf” to the voice of love. The Latin word for deaf is surdus. To be completely deaf is to be absurdus, yes, absurd. When we no longer pray, no longer listen to the voice of love that speaks to us in the moment, our lives become absurd lives in which we are thrown back and forth between the past and the future.

If we could just be, for a few minutes each day, fully where we are, we would indeed discover that we are not alone and that the One who is with us wants only one thing: to give us love.

Wasting Time With God

2008-03-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! EPHESIANS 3:8-10 MSG (italics added)

GOD’S PLAN FOR YOU AND ME IS TO BE SO ENAMORED AND CAPTIVATED WITH THE LOVE GOD HAS FOR US THAT WE UNDERGO A TRANSFORMATION WHEREBY WE ARE SO DIFFERENT, NOTICEABLY AND ATTRACIVELY DIFFERENT, THAT A LOST AND SEARCHING WORLD FLOCKS TO US LIKE FOOTBALL FANS DO SUPER BOWL TICKETS.

The headline reads: CHRISTIANS DIVORCE AT A RATE HIGHER THAN NON-CHRISTIANS! Have we lost our minds?! Have I lost mine?

Why is Tiger Woods the greatest golfer in the world? Because he acts like the greatest golfer in the world, that’s why! His behavior confirms his claims. He is consumed with golf – golf is his passion. His heart is for golf; his life is completely congruent to his claim. He is exactly what he says he is. (Mind you, I doubt if he, himself, has ever clamed such superiority, but you get my drift. And, the fact that he makes no claim is confirmation in and of itself!)

Tiger’s eternal destiny aside, I absolutely admire the man because he is so authentic. He has committed his life to being the best at golf he can be and patterns his life perfectly accordingly.

Now, take out golf and put in Jesus, church, or Christianity. BAM! We get it right in the kisser (or maybe the heart….). Is my life as congruent and consistent as Tiger’s? Is yours? NO. I could go on for days talking about all the ways the church is NOT the church, but neither of us need to be convinced of what we already know so sadly and clearly.

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Eph 3:20,21).

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE – you and I have been given the gift of knowing (relationally) the God of the Universe. This is the simplicity of the Gospel. And, the extent to which you and I BATTLE WITH ALL OUR MIGHT against DISTRACTIONS EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY, and simply become still long enough (Psalm 46:10) to know by experience our Loving and Relational God, we will smell like the One we represent, the One Who loves us infinitely, the One Who wants ALL to have this Pleasure.

Hear the words of Jesus:

When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, "Can't you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire" (Mt 26:40,41).

We cannot be a church of activity if we have not been first and foremost the church passive, sitting with and enjoying the Presence of Jesus and receiving the spiritual impetus for all the activity. We cannot go out and win the lost if we as individuals have not been impassioned by spending time with Him in secret aloneness. We cannot give away what we have not received.

You and I can become passionate for God, first for Him and then for His mission work. It begins alone in stillness… something of which the devil has robbed us. Just try to spend a scant 10 minutes alone with Him! Our brain shrieks of the stupidity of this “foolishness”! “You coulda been mowing the yard, paying the bills… leading someone to Christ!” What a waste of time stillness is!

Well, it is in this wasting of time with Jesus that you and I hear the voice of God calling us His beloved! It is in times of silence and solitude that we are renewed – capable of letting God be God and not requiring the same of our world and friends.

It is in stillness and solitude that we become passionate for God’s Kingdom work. And, not before then.

To borrow a phrase: JUST DO IT.

Desk Calendar Devotion #3

2008-01-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

"I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches" (Ps 119:14). Compare Psalm 1:2. It's all about doing things God's way. When we do, life is smooth (in His eyes), we glorify Him, AND it brings US delight!

Imagine - delight - a part of my daily experience: the same kind of delight we experience when we eat fine chocolate! A non-delight-er is a sourpuss! The image of God in us LOVES to bring Him glory!

Today, Lord, may I unleash the power of Your Spirit in me and BRING delight to You ... AND ME!

Desk Calendar Devotion #2

2007-12-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

Matthew 11:28 says, "Come unto Me, and I will give you..., many things to do to serve Me." I don't read it that way.

Ever remember a day just after a great night's sleep? Attitudes were sweet and positive. Work was ... almost ... a pleasure. Tempers were thick and life was enjoyed. Such is life for a believer who truly enters (and relies upon) God's holy Rest.

Might we consider a strategy whereby we prioritize and really DO rest, trusting the salvation of the world to Him. Too often our lives convey the idea that God can't do it without us

Desk Calendar Devotion #1

2007-12-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

"And lo, I am with you always...." How do we deal with a God who'll never leave us nor forsake us? Do we act as if He is here (both to love and to judge)? Is God's Presence existential? Can it be organic? May we feel it? Touch it? Know it?

How ever we experience the Presence of God, it is there; it is here! He is Emmanuel - God is with us! Like the "opposite" of His transendence (other-ness), so His Presence is full and forever!

We are guarded by His peace (Ph 4:7), we hope in the surety of His Spirit's righteousness (Eph 1:13; Hb6:12ff). His enduring and encouraging love does, indeed, last forever. Sin begets loneliness, worry, confusions, compulsions, and discouragement.

Might we learn to climb into the lap of our Emmanuel!

God is super-here!

Experiencing God?

2007-12-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

I have a deep, continual and desperate desire to "experience" God. I also do not have a clear understanding relative to just what experiencing God is supposed to be like.

Here is an idea that I do have, maybe right, maybe wrong: Experiencing God is a good thing. I think that if I show up (and I do) and allow Him to determine what happens during our time together, then I will “experience” Him and will have come to know Him better resulting in my detachment from the world, the flesh and the devil.

Just now I sat quietly for around a half an hour. I tried to focus on Him and not my own stuff (although I did do some serious intercession) – I understand how me-centered prayer can be.

I also understand a bit about God’s Grace, Providence and Timing. I understand that the previous 30 minutes was a good thing, period. I have God’s word on it.

But, am I truly getting to know Him better? If that is defined as I did above, I begin to wonder if I am. I am inundated with evil thoughts, fantasies, and am very often drawn into sin.

What does an “experience” of God look like? What does it feel? How can one improve on the “experience”? Sure, I understand the danger of connecting experience with feelings, but I just wanted to ask those questions anyway.

I sure would like help… as if I’m not doing well “experiencing” God. Maybe I am doing well-er than I thought! Maybe I need to pray Psalm 139:23,24 more often and with more fervor. Maybe I have this deep hidden sin that remains un-confessed and therefore a mass impediment to my experience of God. Maybe, as Brennan manning says of his times with God, “I think He is just glad I showed up!!”

Maybe God is holding out. Maybe I am going through a desert, and God is intentionally allowing me to experience dryness so that he can shape me somehow.

Then, how do I explain my irritability? My impatience? My critical spirit? My fear? Why is peace so elusive?

I know I am in good company with many of the psalmists, but often even that does little good in consoling me. I want, I long for an experience with God, to experience His manifest Presence, His divine Encouragement in a noticeable way. A way that, when it happens, I have a keen awareness of it. I sure would like to have an emotional thing happen. I mean, how do we know something happens if we don’t … experience it with some sort of sense, for crying out loud?

I am not discouraged – maybe that is confirmation that I have, indeed, experienced God. I am not about to give up. I am not gonna quit, either! I am not going to live in the future when …. God has me in the now… where He is.

He has promised that He is “with me always, even unto the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). That is good enough for me (possibly another sign that I have experienced God, huh?)

He's Right In Front of You!

2007-12-25T12:20:00.000-08:00

The prophet asks the people: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:2a)”

I ask that of myself very often. I spend so much time and energy, thoughts and money on all those things that, at the time, promise to fulfill me, yet I know wouldn’t and won’t… but I “bought” them anyway.

I am convinced we all know – on a soulish level – that we have an eternal need within us, only met by something eternal, and are desperate without it.

That “it” is Jesus. Oh, stop it! You don’t have to start that stale, been-around-forever crap that tries to refute Jesus being the “way, the truth and the life.” You’re sitting at a computer… no one is watching you. You’ve got nothing to prove right at this moment. Get real for at least one second!

He is all that!

What if He really, REALLY is all that? I think He is – I am convinced He is.

I think every heart knows that.

The birth of Jesus is irrefutable. ‘Tis the season we’re in right now! His claims are, too; the ones in which He claims to be God, the Savior and Creator of the world as well as the Alpha and the Omega (the beginning and end of all things).

He died and came back to life – another irrefutable, scientific, empirically substantial fact!

OK, OK. Enough of that.

Back to me, personally. I am convinced. I am sure.

I scribbled this in church yesterday at one and the same time totally convinced that Jesus is all I need, yet willing to chase rainbows of the most diverse and creative varieties.

GOD IS HERE!
“I AM” IS WITH US.
HE IS OUR DESTINATION.
TERMINUS.
OBJECTIVE.
GOAL.
HE IS WHERE WE ARE GOING.
HE IS EVERYTHING.
HE FILLS US; HE FULFILLS US. HE TOTALLY SATISFIES US.
HE IS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR; OH, THE CRAZINESS OF WORRY
AND DEMANDS.
DAMN YOU, SELF – YOU FROTHING LIAR!
HE IS THE HAND WE, THE GLOVE, RECIEVES.
HE HOLDS THE KEY… HE IS THE KEY!
HE IS MINE, I AM HIS.
THERE IS NO NEED TO LOOK ANYWHERE ELSE.

On what do you base your life?

One contemporary of Jesus asked Him (not a bad question in my estimation): “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting? (Matthew 11:3 MSG)”

Jesus’ reply seemed to say, “John, ol’ buddy, I have confirmed that I am The One way beyond any doubt. Now it is yours to believe or disbelieve.”

My worldview must say – with the Psalmist (14:1) – “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Suppose I am right and you disagree. Ergo, you spend the only life you have been given wastefully.

Suppose I am wrong and you agree? So what? You spent the only life you have been given charitably.

Suppose I am right and you agree. You’ve won the eternal lottery!!! Not only that, you begin receiving dividends even before they are due!

Allow me to expand the prophet’s quote from above (Isaiah 55).

Is anyone thirsty?

Come and drink—

Even if you have no money!

Come, take your choice of wine or milk—

It’s all free!
Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?

Why pay for food that does you no good?

Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.

You will enjoy the finest food.
“Come to me with your ears wide open.

Listen, and you will find life.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you.

I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.

Choose Life. No need to look elsewhere.

Merry Christmas!

Put Your Wait Upon God

2007-12-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

I am not my own (1 Co 6:19). In Christ I live and move and exist (Ac 17:28). These truths are hard to believe, actualize and live by – we live in such a God-denying, God-rejecting world.

For instance, as Christ-followers we are taught to “wait” for God, trust Him and be patient. Gees! I have difficulty waiting for lights to turn green! What does this say about me?

I am impatient even for good things. I want to be “godly” right now! Godliness is not a bad thing to seek, but what about my heart clouded with impatience? Here is how God works: Moses was put on the back side of the desert for 40 years at “prime” of his life before God used him to deliver the Israelites. God must’ve had a perfectly good reason for that. Do you reckon Moses experienced impatience, acid reflux while out there tending sheep for his father-in-law?!

Waiting means to “stop striving.” It comes from a heart resolved to trust everything – even the timing of events – to God.

God’s weird! But, only through eyes not yet clear on Who He is. God healed one crippled guy at the pool of Bethesda! How much harder would it have been for Him to heal all of them?

God paid a full day’s wages to men who had worked all day as well as to those who worked one hour! How weird is that! God’s response: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own (Mt 20:15)?”

You and will battle with this as long as we live and as long as our knowledge (and, hence, beliefs) of God do not engender full trust.

What do I do? Just trust Jesus? NO! Find a way to get to know Him for Who He is! Sit with Him, read about Him, fast to know Him better, get alone and be still! Listen.

The following is truly an existential possibility for you, for me ! ! ! This is Good News!

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,

Or, whine, Israel, saying,”God has lost track of me.

He doesn’t care what happens to me”?

Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?

God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.

He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

And he knows everything, inside and out.

He energizes those who get tired,

Gives fresh strength to dropouts.

For even young people tire and drop out,

Young folk in their prime stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.

They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired,

They walk and don’t lag behind. Isaiah 40:28-31

The Joy of Being Destitute

2007-11-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

How would you describe yourself emotionally right now? I am not talking about publishing it in USA Today; I am talking about you to yourself, right now.

Choose from the following, or add on: fine, afraid, I don’t know, empty, happy, confused, afloat, desperate, sad, mad, maintaining, hopeful, at the and of my rope, I don’t have time to think about it, I don’t want to think about it, stable, iffy, low, high, nuts, bitter, sullen, dug in, joyful, hopeful.

Here’s me: destitute. I am a real mess. Most days you could knock me over with a feather. I live on Tums. I feel destitute’s siblings, too: fear, a lack of confidence, despair. Yet, the Bible says “blessed are the destitute” (my loose paraphrase). The Greek work means “reduced to beggary,” “powerless to accomplish an end.”

That’s me. Mind you, however, I try not to come across as destitute. I try even harder to accomplish certain ends. That is the madness of it, isn’t it?

I really would like to come to a point where I cherish being destitute, because it is there that I find God, there that I am nearest to Him. It is in destitution that I find rest. But, I don’t like feeling destitute! I try everything possible to mask it, avoid it, make it go away, be adequate on my own.

The destitute are at the bottom. They are at the bottom, but do not feel anything below them. It is one thing to be on the ocean floor, firm on some kind of rock or something. But, to be down there with nothing under foot…!

God invites us all there! It is there that God can be found! When I run out of self, God is there. I am now out of self!

Paul is my hero – he got it! He called all worldly scaffolding “dung.” Not just dung outright, it was in comparison to “knowing Christ” (Philippians 3). He also said, “I am determined to know nothing … except Christ Jesus and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul had reached the bottom and discovered the bottom was Jesus!

That is what I pray for; not in an intellectual sense, but in an existential sense. I want to feel it; I want my emotions to be consistent with it. I want others to notice and be drawn to it.

If Jesus is not the answer, I am to be most pitied. I gotta believe that regardless of my life station and circumstances, Jesus is still there, He is good and is my only source of hope. As the disciples asked, “Are you the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else (Matthew 11:3)?” Either I place all I am and have on Jesus as The Source or I live totally as a practical agnostic!

Where are you emotionally? Emotions tell you where you are. If you are fearful, then fear drives you and you have nothing on which to trust and allay those fears, right? And, add to that, you do not have enough personal resources to stop the fear.

May you and I find Jesus. He is near and can be found. Sit, listen, read the Bible, pray, anticipate, hope, resist the word of Evil.

Do something today that reflects your desire to know Jesus.

Near The Cross

2007-11-21T06:27:00.000-08:00

Recently I began carrying again my old worn Bible I had retired to the bookcase - it was falling apart. It is the one made of bonded leather full of napkin parts, envelop corners… anything on which I could scrawl my latest thoughts.

Here is one I wrote as I studied through the book of Hosea:

Why do we pursue harlotry?
Because we’ve abandoned God?
Why have we abandoned God?
The sin that separates us from the Love of God.
Not because we “misbehave.”
So, where do we start?
(Hos 6:1) Convincing people that they are LOVED by God.
Not by beating them over the head with their sin.

I want to repent and replace the first person plural with the first person singular. I am the one who pursues harlotry. I am the one who needs to stop beating my own self over the head with my sin.

I am the one who needs to be convinced I am loved by God.

I now dare to give myself some direction in the matter:

Be still. Be alone. Listen. No matter what it feels like; no matter what else you “want to” do. See “I love you” in Jesus’ gaze.

Listen to the voice of God in others… above your own voice. You would never speak to others the way you speak to yourself. Let your friends speak to you, think for you, be Christ for you.

Ponder the Cross. He did that for YOU. Go there, be there. Hear the pain, smell the blood. Let Jesus’ blood-curdling shrieks penetrate your own heart. You were His motive. Jesus’ own Daddy abandoned Him… imagine that pain.

He’d do it again…just for you.

Jesus, keep me near the cross,

There a precious fountain

Free to all, a healing stream

Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Refrain

In the cross, in the cross,

Be my glory ever;

Till my raptured soul shall find

Rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,

Love and mercy found me;

There the bright and morning star

Sheds its beams around me.

Refrain

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,

Bring its scenes before me;

Help me walk from day to day,

With its shadows o’er me.

Refrain

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait

Hoping, trusting ever,

Till I reach the golden strand,

Just beyond the river.

Refrain

(Near The Cross by Fanny Crosby)

This is the Essence of My Prayers

2007-11-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

God, I want what you want for me.

God, I want to know you better. I want a real experience of Your Presence.

Lord, You are ….

Please forgive me.

Please let this cup pass; yet not my will but Yours.

Regardless of what happens, may your Kingdom be advanced.

Lord, I ask for ….

(Silence)

(Listening)

(Waiting)

(Groaning)

(Wishing)

Lord, this is Your time – do with it what you will.

JOY... yet again!

2007-10-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

The liberal devises liberal things, and seeks objects of charity. It must be with piety and devotion: The joy of the Lord is your strength. Let it not be a carnal sensual joy, but holy and spiritual, the joy of the Lord, joy in the goodness of God, under the direction and government of the grace of God, joy arising from our interest in the love and favour of God and the tokens of his favour (From Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Nehemiah 8).

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

I don’t feel it. I wish to, though.

I feel like Job when he says: “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy” (Job 9:25).

Willing it won’t make it happen… or at least it hasn’t yet.

How do I survive, function as a Christ-follower in this condition? It is the condition in which I DO NOT feel strengthened by the joy of the Lord. Would somebody PLEEEASE answer that question!

In this context, the existential joy of being under God’s goodness and grace is that which motivates charity. I don’t generally live there.

I want to. How do I get there?

Sometimes I think if I just position myself and ponder God’s joy a lot, I will get it. I admit I feel much like Linus must have felt on the morning after Halloween. He had waited all night, expectantly, optimistically, regularly for the Great Pumpkin only to be once again disappointed.

Nothing happens many times.

God, in Christ, asks parabolically (Mt 20:16): “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?”

(Here is where I try to self-preach) God is good; He is a generous God of grace. He has given me Himself (“the keys to the Kingdom”); I cannot possess any more than I possess right this moment! Never mind that I live on this side of the full consummation of this inheritance, I have it – rather, it has me! – and “nothing can snatch me out of His Hand” (from Jn 10:28f)!

So, what am I complaining about?

Is it wrong to want the experience of joy?

No.

I guess my prayer is for patience. I will still be Linus and pray for the gift of joy.

(Psalm 51:8) “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.”

(Psalm 86:4) “Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”

(Psalm 45:7) “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

Connecting With God's Heart ?

2007-10-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was talking with my spiritual director yesterday - about a men’s retreat - and the subject of "connecting with God" in a way that, when it happens, I know that it happened. I told him how we had snippets of time to go off and reflect, and how I really longed to have some experience of God - one in which I sensed His Presence, His Arms around me, His encouragement, SOMETHING.

He said something like this: Isn't it interesting that you have a deep sense of longing (for something like what Adam had with God in the Garden prior to the Fall) as well as a deep sense that it isn't happening in a way you (legitimately) desire. This points to our being between the "already" and the "not yet" of the Kingdom. Longing for God is the "already" and the "it ain't happening the way I want" reflects the fallen world in which we live, the "not yet."

So, I wrote this while waiting for God to “do something.”

To connect with the Heart of God...
The silliest of all notions!
Yet, somehow we can...
And somehow we have to.

To connect with the Heart of God.
Is that like to connect with you?
God is the Giver of Life,
The blood that comes from His ... Heart.

To connect with the Heart of God
Is the only way we can live.
All other is merely device.
All other is ignorant fantasy.

The world needs you and me
To connect with the Heart of God.
No other way will they see
God as He really can be.

To connect with the Heart of God.
Is as easy as 1-2-3.
Why look anywhere else
To To truly ... be free.

So, where is the Heart of God?
How does it taste, how does it feel?
Please let it be real
For me to connect with Your Heart.

DO NOT BECOME A CHRISTIAN

2007-09-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Do not become a Christian if you have the idea that Thing Number One is your happy life. A fork is only happy when it is of some utility in a person’s hands. A fork was not made for itself! First Corinthians 6:19 tells me: “You are not your own.”

Churches, yes CHURCHES!, do not get this one! “Send for this prayer cloth, send in tons of money and receive abundant blessings!” Huh? I send you money and God, in turn, sends me money? Why don’t I just keep my money and we’ll call it even!

The prevailing IDEA is that the Number One Thing God is here for is to make my life work.

Sorry, bad idea!

Cutting to the chase, refer to Romans 8:29 and read: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." YOU AND I ARE HERE TO BECOME LIKE JESUS! We’re forks in the Hand of God!

What was He like? For one, He was a sufferer. Here are His own words: “… The Son of Man [that would be … Jesus, Himself] is going to suffer” (Mt 17:12).

Paul commends the Thessalonian believers (1 Thess. 1,2) for responding to the Gospel, becoming like Jesus and enduring suffering!

For those whose idea it is to be honored by being among those chosen by God to be among His eternally safe children, to bask forever in the very Presence of their Creator Abba, to belly-up to a Banquet Table whose fares never end, to see Him face-to-face, suffering is but a “momentary light affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17).

You and I will suffer. When we do, and as we persevere and refuse to curse God by making personal comfort The First Thing, others will see Him in us.

And, we will be honored to participate in cosmic history as ones who have been used (God’s forks!) to build God’s Kingdom here on earth!

Personal comforts (blessings) do not satisfy – in the Biblical sense. Hear the words of Isaiah (in 55:2,3a)

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live….”

It is no wonder the church is anemic these days. She is telling her people that suffering is a must to avoid, when in fact it is part and parcel of becoming Christ-like!

I wouldn’t become a Christian either if those words were being drummed into my head every week. I SUFFER! I’VE TRIED TO AVOID IT! I CAN’T.

The church follows: “OH! What have you done wrong?! Better get on your knees and confess, better try another recipe to avoid the pain.” Is it any wonder that those suffering through, marriage problems for example, have to LEAVE the church because of all the extra grief they get saddled with?

Get your ideas straight … and live! Read Paul.

“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.”

What is suffering to the self-absorbed? Out of the question.

What is suffering to the one who knows Christ?

Poop!

On IDEAS . . .

2007-09-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

A new idea dawns on me: I am not, after all, a “Christian performer” here on Earth to do Christian acts. I am here to become holy, to become like Jesus and minister like Jesus so that God’s kingdom is extended.

A crisis immediately ensues. Do I want to be holy? And, if I do, how do I become holy?

Another new idea: Becoming holy is not something I effect upon myself; I simply give myself over to God who, in turn, makes me holy.

(I am here, by the way, to become holy, not to become happy. This idea-shift is revolutionary and freeing in that pain, for example, becomes something to embrace rather than avoid! Pain is God’s way of … making me holy!)

Another crisis: Hmmm! Do I really want to do that? Do I know Him well enough to give myself totally and unconditionally to Him? Am I willing to trust that my current “happiness” is worth the sacrifice?

Part of the answer lies in what I see in other people, namely those who are a few cobblestones further down the path to holiness. Am I so attracted to what I see in them that I want it for myself – will their holiness lead me to trust?

Community (deep and trusting friendships) is therefore a necessary ingredient in making you and me holy and, therefore, to the building of God’s kingdom.

Good news (another new idea): I do not give myself over to God, a God I barely know, alone. I go there with those with whom I travel right now, some who are “further along” than I.

Add the idea which says, “I will take you there. My power will sustain, enable and lead you.” This power comes from the Spirit of God working both in you and your traveling partners.

What choices do I make – what ultimately depends upon me? Answer: nothing and, yet, just a little bit. It is entirely a work of God’s grace. But, somehow, mysteriously, God has designed this thing called choice. He tells us to “… work out your salvation,” in Philippians 2. My decisions matter.

I think it is a bit like canoeing. I buy the boat, take it to the river, get in, give a semblance of paddling, and the river, the Mighty River, takes me! This is great news for the Christian! To discipline myself is better described as “positioning myself” for a work of God! All I have to do is show up! Piece-of-cake! The hard part is turning off the TV, putting on those running shoes, pushing away that Twinkie, talking to that person you work with about meaningful things, sitting with your Bible for 15 minutes.

We are still at a crisis point: Do I want this? Another pitch for community. We can admit our fears to our friends and still be accepted. We can wrestle with our confusions and reluctances in a safe environment. If I am not becoming holy (and only you can answer that), it is because you do not want to.

How do I come to want to? A couple of operatives here. One is the holiness of our friends. We see others becoming holy and want that for ourselves. Two, we, as Paul said to Timothy, “discipline ourselves for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). It is precisely what we do when we do things – like exercise or diet – that hurt for the moment, but payoff in good ways. We do something because we “know it is good for us.”

What comes before the “want to”? The want to “want to.”

Try this. Take 15 minutes and be alone. Make every attempt to stop thinking. When you get as close as you can, ask God to do something. Ask Him for the gift of becoming holy. If you don’t want to become holy, admit it. “God, right now, I like to run my own life.” Ask Him for the desire to become holy.

Then, sit there for the remainder of the time and keep on not thinking. When the time is up, go on to the next thing. And, be assured that your prayer is being answered!

AN ADMONITION

2007-06-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Make doggone sure you do exactly what you want to do. I mean, after all, everything you do is because you want to do it.

Don't fool yourself otherwise.

The world is out to get you to want to do the stuff you don't want to do right now.

The world is a liar.

Bud Light won't make you happy... it's that simple.

Happiness is becoming yourself. Who is "yourself"? You don't determine that,... any more than you determined that you would be born.

God determines who you are - He defines you. (Oh yeah, the "you" you think you are right now is probably skewed to one extent or another. I mean, look, for cryin' out loud, at who has been telling you who you are for all this time! TV and other incomplete, hurting people.)

And the extent to which you live into who He designed you to be, you'll be happy.

And that's the truth.

Therefore, happiness is deciding to become yourself... because you want to.

The Bible has much more to say about this. Read it! Read St. John.

To Joy

2007-02-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

It's all about ideas - beliefs that we have accumulated like barnacles from the open sea. And, for the life of us, we have no real idea how and from where we got them.

Slim young ladies think they are fat. Most of us think we're "ugly." Barney Fife thinks he can sing. You and I can think that we have no value or that no one really likes us. And, just like barnacles, wrong beliefs can be our undoing!

We're in good company. Two of our traveling partners had their stories plastered on the pages of the New Testament.

One is in John 5 at the pool of Bethesda. A poor fellow had been abandoned for 38 years. He had contracted a belief like so much gossip that God was holding some sort of contest so that the “first one in” wins the healing prize. How lame an idea (no pun intended)! Certainly the place was rife with blind and cripple… those whose infirmity made sure they weren’t the first ones in.

Interestingly, the belief did not start as a boldface lie. How many of our ideas about church, the spiritual life and God are merely truths one degree off center? Hmmm! How many beliefs do we hold tightly and tenaciously about ourselves that are like the ones of the fellow at the pool?

The embarrassment comes as he lives out his idea. Verse 7 tells us that he is so misshapen in his beliefs that he deigns to teach, to correct God! Read it!

How misshapen are you and I? And, how hard are we willing to fight for wrong ideas about ourselves knowing that, although the ideas “protect us” from harm, they are infantile at the very best.

Great news: God is both aware of our ignorance, patient with our self-protection, and yet eager for us to learn the freeing truth! Read the rest of John 5:1-9!

The second story is in John 4. I tell this one second because there is a hopeful admonition right in it that gives you and me great hope.

The story is not unlike the Bethesda one. A lonely young lady encounters Jesus and talk about wrong ideas…! He promises her eternal and consummate joy, and she thinks He is about to drill an artesian well! (I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that we are “far too easily pleased.”). Sad thing: She believes that if she were to have more water and a better well, things would be alright.

What about you and me? If I only had ______, if only _______ would happen, then all would be well. Would it?

Here is the key – the hopeful admonition! Read John 4:10. “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” Again, “If you and I knew Him (the antidote for bad ideas and beliefs), we would ask (our behavior would change; prayer would be paramount) and He would give (us Himself, first and foremost!).

We get Jesus! Love Incarnate! I read this on a grave marker written by Thomas Merton: LOVE IS OUR TRUE IDENTITY. WE DO NOT FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE BY OURSELVES ALONE – WE FIND IT WITH ANOTHER.

I close with a prayer I wrote a dozen years ago.

Dear Father,

Indeed, we don’t know what to do. Becoming like a child involves much un-learning. Being humble means I must forsake those structures I worked so hard to erect, and on which I so desperately depend. Ironically, those are the very structures I built in order to avoid the very fears that will inevitably flood my soul upon their destruction. But, I must realize that there is nothing to fear in nakedness – and that only in You will I find my rest (Your rest given by grace).

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28,29.

I am not somebody because of my own merit and possessions – be they mental, physical, or spiritual. I am somebody because You are my Daddy!

Lord, I must come to You, abide in You, be with You, grow to know You more, bask in Your immense love for me… rest in You.

On Knowing God

2007-02-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I have said:

Men will wrangle 100 hours planning, organizing, marketing, promoting, and gathering the refreshments for one program to assemble a group of heart-guarded believers before they will invest 5 minutes heart-sharing with one friend ... the true and redemptive work of the church.

Charles Caleb Colton said:

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.

Why? WHY is that? WHY do you think that is true? Does it not bother you that the world, the Christ-following world, is like that? Does it alarm us that WE – you and I - are like that?

And what can be done?

A few years ago, I hammered out my ecclesiology. Take a look.

We live to bring glory to God
by building His Kingdom
by becoming like His Son Jesus
by abiding in Him (in other words, “knowing God.”).
All the while we
Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength;
Love “one another” (the Body of Christ, His church); and
Love “outsiders” (those outside His Body) by fulfilling the Great Commission.

The Church is the Body of Christ, those individuals – Christians – who have been saved by the finished work of Christ on the Cross and have been adopted as children of God, and whose purpose, again, is to bring glory to God by building His Kingdom …;
The collective nature of the church is, in sum, to incarnate God
by bringing the knowledge of God to an un-knowing world
through Encounters with God in
Worship (anything that directly makes much of God),
Community (the fabric of relationships on which life is sewn), and
Service (expressing the love of God by meeting the needs of others).

It is the responsibility of the church to reproduce itself – indeed, it is the nature of survival (analogous to the physical world of plants, animals and humans), making plain the place of for Discipleship (which includes the fundamental ministry of Evangelism) in the building of God’s Kingdom.
The greatest gift that can be offered an un-believer is the gift of eternal life (Evangelism) and to bring that individual to maturity in Christ (Discipleship) through investing Relationships. Thus, that individual becomes a reproduce-er him- or herself, thereby building God’s Kingdom.

Bottom line: You and I, we, do not live for God, do not do the hard work of the gospel, because we don’t want to. And, the reason we don’t want to is because we have a weak, diminished, incomplete and maybe even false knowledge of God. Note: I am not speaking simply of intellectual or cognitive knowledge of God. I am speaking of a “knowledge” that is of the heart and reflects a deep intimacy one with another.

Conversely, were we to know God better, for Who He truly is, it would change the way we live our lives.

Read Paul and the way this principle bears out in his life!

DUH! Read the words of Jesus in His big-time prayer to His Father (John 17:3):

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

(ALL CAPS means I’m yellin’!) GET OVER THIS FALSE NOTION THAT “KNOWING GOD” IS THE SAME AS “GETTING SAVED.” A WOMAN DOES NOT KNOW HER HUSBAND FULLY JUST BY GOING THROUGH A 40-MINUTE WEDDING CEREMONY!

I have written much about knowing God. Others have. For this moment I want to condense it into 2 words… COMPANY and COMMUNITY.

You and I have to do the counter-intuitive: We have to keep COMPANY with Jesus (Mt 11:28-30 in The Message). Not DO for Him, primarily. BEING with Him changes our beliefs about Him (Romans 12:2). When this happens, we will nearly automatically DO for Him. Keeping company with Jesus is tantamount to the ancient - and should be contemporary - disciplines of SILENCE and SOLITUDE. God get a copy of Ruth Haley Barton's book titled "Invitation to Solitude and Silence" and READ IT!

Secondly, we get to know Jesus better as we see and experience with Him relationally in the lives of our Christ-believing friends. In a word, COMMUNITY. As you and I INCARNATE Jesus (BE Jesus, in a sense) to and with our friends, we all will, as a result, know God better. It's called life sharing. It is deep, costly, vulnerable friendship.

Another DUH!

All this ain’t easy. Our “old” nature wants to BE God and to live in a little safe and manageable shell. By the way, this is why RELIGION works – you can go to heaven and stay in control at the same time! Another lie.

COMPANY and COMMUNITY is hard work. It will be painful. That is why Hebrews 12:3 says “Consider Jesus.” The Greek word is the word from which we get analogy. We are to analogize Jesus – compare ourselves to Him, the Supreme Sacrifice. Jesus gave His life so others could know the Father. It caused Him immeasurable pain. You and I have the same honor as Jesus.

We can KNOW the Father, become like the Son (know imcomparable JOY – John 15:11), in fact, we can become Son’s ourselves (John 1:12)!, inherit eternal life, and participate in the building of God’s kingdom here on earth.

DUH!

WHO SAID IT FIRST ? ? ?

2007-01-27T12:44:00.001-08:00

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Men will wrangle 100 hours planning, organizing, marketing, promoting, and gathering the refreshments for one program to assemble a group of heart-guarded believers before they will invest 5 minutes heart-sharing with one friend ... the true and redemptive work of the church.
RICHARD GREGORY WHITESIDE

... I guess he did, since he died in 1832! Would you believe I said it totally unbeknownst to Colton's?

THE BASIS OF FIRM PEACE

2007-01-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Thomas à Kempis
Book Three. Internal Consolation
The Twenty-Fifth Chapter
THE BASIS OF FIRM PEACE OF HEART AND TRUE PROGRESS
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, I have said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you."
All men desire peace but all do not care for the things that go to make true peace. My peace is with the humble and meek of heart: your peace will be in much patience. If you hear Me and follow My voice, you will be able to enjoy much peace.
THE DISCIPLE
What, then, shall I do, Lord?
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
Watch yourself in all things, in what you do and what you say. Direct your every intention toward pleasing Me alone, and desire nothing outside of Me. Do not be rash in judging the deeds and words of others, and do not entangle yourself in affairs that are not your own. Thus, it will come about that you will be disturbed little and seldom.
Yet, never to experience any disturbance or to suffer any hurt in heart or body does not belong to this present life, but rather to the state of eternal rest. Do not think, therefore, that you have found true peace if you feel no depression, or that all is well because you suffer no opposition. Do not think that all is perfect if everything happens just as you wish. And do not imagine yourself great or consider yourself especially beloved if you are filled with great devotion and sweetness. For the true lover of virtue is not known by these things, nor do the progress and perfection of a man consist in them.
THE DISCIPLE
In what do they consist, Lord?
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
They consist in offering yourself with all your heart to the divine will, not seeking what is yours either in small matters or great ones, either in temporal or eternal things, so that you will preserve equanimity and give thanks in both prosperity and adversity, seeing all things in their proper light.
If you become so brave and long-suffering in hope that you can prepare your heart to suffer still more even when all inward consolation is withdrawn, and if you do not justify yourself as though you ought not be made to suffer such great things, but acknowledge Me to be just in all My works and praise My holy name -- then you will walk in the true and right path of peace, then you may have sure hope of seeing My face again in joy. If you attain to complete contempt of self, then know that you will enjoy an abundance of peace, as much as is possible in this earthly life.

To Rise Above this World of Pain Into Consummate Joy

2006-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)).

I am one of those crackpot idealists who believes that I can experience near ecstatic joy here on earth… before the second Advent! I don’t think the pains, challenges, and conflicts of this life will cease by any means; but I do believe I can joy far more than is my current experience – in fact, I have come to anticipate it. By joy, I do not mean some sense of giddiness in which I lope in slow motion through the field of daisies this life is. I mean a sense of peace and calm amid the storms of life because I live on another plane.

Did not Jesus promise us:
I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow (John 15:11 NLT)!

Look at Paul – the quintessential follower of Christ, the chiefest of sinners. Granted, I have done some reprehensible things in my day, but I would be hesitant to name myself the “chiefest of sinners.” This same Paul is chained in a rat-infested, stinking prison, and yet he reveled in the experience because otherwise his guards would not have heard the gospel! Read Philippians 1. Another plane!

He called the likes of shipwreck, scourges and stonings to be left for dead “momentary light affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Not me! I hit two red lights in a row and that’s an affliction neither momentary nor light! Another plane!

I must admit that I really envy Paul. I do not think Paul ever experienced acid reflux, ever contemplated taking Zoloft. He lived above the fray. I’m sure he was still human. I am sure he still cried and complained to God for relief. But, there was something exceptional in this man that I want for myself.

Oh, and by the way, whatever Paul possessed, I do not think it materialized simply as a function of his will. I don’t think Paul woke up one day and said, “Y’know, life is pretty much getting to me. I think I will just opt not to worry any more!” Pardon me for showing my anger right here, but so much of modern preaching is of the ilk: JUST TRUST JESUS, isn’t it? Preachers think that by their simple admonition, you and I will just – at the nod of our wills – trust Someone we (and the preacher, too, for that matter) hardly know!

Back to Paul. Much more could be said about this saint-cum-sinner, but let’s get right to the heart of the man and this plane on which he lives – the same one I want for myself.

Here it is:

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it (Philippians 3:7ff, The Message).

Paul so knew Christ and His love for him that it totally revolutionized his heart. (For you “Bible-Belters”: knowing Christ is not equivalent to “getting saved.” That’s the problem: Our faith experience means we “get saved” (come to “know Christ”) and then begin to conform our outward behavior to what the preacher says. Ugh!)

There are a few people in my life I would die for. I am not speaking here of my family, although I would certainly die for each of them. I am talking about the few people who have come to like me so well that they value me simply for who I am. I love to be around them, they make me feel … valuable. I like that. It warms my heart. I want to do for them as well.

This is a function of relationship, of community. It cannot happen suddenly. It is a journey. It is a friendship. It is both costly and risky.

I have a friend named Paul. He likes me. We have been friends for over 10 years. He likes me for who I am, not for what I can do for him. I am drawn to this “like” like a magnet. I would do anything for Paul. I hurt when he hurts. I pray for him. I love it when he calls me on the phone just to “hear my voice.” I like him, too. He says he appreciates me “liking” him, too.

Our like for each other transcends the pains we encounter together. If we disagree or get into a fight, our like for each other is not violated – it is the very thing that helps us endure the pain. Our like has become very other-centered – it has taken us to another plane. We consider other things (reputation, pasts, the risk and cost involved) “rubbish” in order that we might enjoy one another.

Because I know he likes me, I can like others.

This change, this revolution we are talking about is not, as I have said, simply an intellectual endeavor. Telling someone that God loves them is good, but not enough. Love is caught relationally from someone incarnating Christ. Essentially, we do not love the other person, we love the Jesus in them. My friend Paul does not have the capacity to like me in a way that transforms me. But, because he has experienced the love of God in Christ (meditatively, cognitively and … incarnationally in the live of those who have loved him), he has what it takes to love me.

Wouldn’t you like to rise above the pains of this world? Wouldn’t you like to be a part of the transformation of the hearts of your friends? Wouldn’t you like to have deep infecting JOY? Me, too.

How?

You might have come to think that the will has nothing to do with this revolution of the heart. Well, it does, but you cannot force it simply by willing it. Read (again) Paul’s words to the Philippians (2:12f The Message)

Dear friends … Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

You and I choose (“Work hard”) to position ourselves for change to occur. Yet, the timing and the events of change are under God’s Sovereign Providence (“For God is working in you”).

This is the definition of discipline: Position yourself for God to work. This is the essence of Psalm 46:10: “Be still (cease striving) and know that He is God.”

I would say do these things:

… Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance (Paul to his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7ff).

1. Keep company with Christ (John 15:1-12). Think deeply on His Word (this is called meditation).
2. Remove impediments from the heart-to heart connection with God (Psalm 66:18; 1 John 1:9). This is called confession.
3. Position yourself for change. Show up and shut up. This is called the discipline of Solitude and Silence. LISTEN for that still small voice that says, “I really like you!” Read others who have experienced this discipline.
4. Pray for God to send you into relationships. Be willing to invest and to be invested in. This is hard – the world does not value community. It’s too busy valuing the death of real intimacy – BUSY-NESS. Ask God for mentors (mature individuals who can teach you and love you), peers (fellow travelers on the journey) and disciples (friends of yours to whom you can incarnate Christ!).
5. Do your best to worship both corporately and privately. Dwelling on the character of God brings about good change (and it keeps the focus of you). Accept nothing but true worship – it might be hard to find.
6. Seek healing from the past. From past beliefs that effect your thinking in the present, and from past wounds that impede relationships in the present. I cannot tell you how to do this. Counseling, spiritual direction and outright miraculous healing come to mind. Healing, though, for the most part, occurs in community.

Friend, there is more! Our God is that cool and He is that eager to bless you with a Joy that is beyond anything you or I could dream up or fabricate!

Avoiding Idle Talk

2006-10-03T16:46:00.001-07:00

The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis

BOOK ONE

THOUGHTS HELPFUL IN THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

The Tenth Chapter

AVOIDING IDLE TALK

SHUN the gossip of men as much as possible, for discussion of worldly affairs, even though sincere, is a great distraction inasmuch as we are quickly ensnared and captivated by vanity.
Many a time I wish that I had held my peace and had not associated with men. Why, indeed, do we converse and gossip among ourselves when we so seldom part without a troubled conscience? We do so because we seek comfort from one another's conversation and wish to ease the mind wearied by diverse thoughts. Hence, we talk and think quite fondly of things we like very much or of things we dislike intensely. But, sad to say, we often talk vainly and to no purpose; for this external pleasure effectively bars inward and divine consolation.
Therefore we must watch and pray lest time pass idly.
When the right and opportune moment comes for speaking, say something that will edify.
Bad habits and indifference to spiritual progress do much to remove the guard from the tongue. Devout conversation on spiritual matters, on the contrary, is a great aid to spiritual progress, especially when persons of the same mind and spirit associate together in God.

What is Church Anyway?

2006-09-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

What is Church Anyway?

I bet you think of a building, don’t ya? Or, maybe a congregation of people in that building? Think of it this way: If Jesus had in mind what you and I think church is, would it not make sense that He would have spent His time on earth doing things other than just hanging out with people???

Seriously folks! What about believers in other parts of the world, what about those in other centuries? Are they condemned because they didn’t dress up many times a week and go to a building for services and prayer meetings?

Might I posit the obvious: Our understanding of church needs work!

Church is Christ-followers living out their faith together (key word there!) which sometimes and occasionally includes corporate activities. Corporate activities are vital to church; they are not, however, most of what we do.

Neither, I might add, is small groups church… altogether. “Small groups,” in and of itself can be just a smaller corporate meeting. “Small groups” is “Community Lab.” I see it as a place where we learn to live out our faith and practice it safely in a hospitable environment (i.e., community).

Which idea of church are you living out? Is church a lifestyle – constantly relational for the purpose of building God’s Kingdom? (I know church staff people that are too busy with church work to do that!!!) Or is your idea of church something else? Something that is not congruent with the life of Christ we read about in the Gospels?

Improvement on our ideas is what I’m after here, not a change in behavior. That will come when our ideas change.

Read the Gospels.

Profundity in Simplicity

2006-09-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

There is more wisdom in the simple than the profound and complex.

God is good.

Heaven is real and coming.

We will battle the tendency to reject God until the day we die.

Be still and know that He is God.

The one who listens to God hears Him.

Hearing God means that we spend time alone and silent.

If we don’t spend regular time alone and silent… we won’t hear God.

God want us to hear Him.

Hearing what He has to say is a good thing.

It seems we want to listen to any other voice besides the voice of God.

God ordains whatsoever comes to pass.

Precious little (in fact, nothing) depends on you.

God loves you whether you know it or not, whether you’re lovable or not, whether you have experienced any kind of love or not.

Jesus died to wipe out any penalty you owe for your wrong-doings.

Worry is a sin.

Alcohol in moderation is not.

Every prayer is heard by God.

Praying is the end of prayer (not answered prayer).

Joy is available. As you become the real you, joy will emerge.

The world stinks.

Hope motivates.

God’s gonna win!

Ever noticed that you CAN notice?

2006-09-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

Oh, what a beautiful morning! As I drove out this morning, I thought this to myself as I noticed the crystal clearness of the haze-free and dry early fall morning.

Then I had a metaphysical, existential moment:

I noticed that I COULD notice!

I noticed a beautiful morning with the gift of notice-ability.

I not only noticed the beautiful day waking up, I noticed that I was given the gift, the ability to notice!

God let me see, let me notice, let me behold.

Do you notice… you can?

What do you see when you look?

(Jesus said:) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God (1 John 3:1).

How Do You Know If What You're Doin's God's Will?

2006-09-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

I am currently tutoring a rising senior in high school – Algebra II, ugh! We begin our summer mornings on the porch where we “solve the world’s problems” before we solve the ones in the math book!

Today went like this: You see, the young man is a committed follower of Christ, mature and apparently committed to God’s plan for him. He is an excellent baseball player. His decision du jour revolves around which school to attend (he has been home schooled and plans to go either to a Christian school without baseball or the public school with baseball). It seems it comes down to this: Christian school portends the end of baseball – what the young mans calls “laying it down.” And, public school is place of ill-repute in which one’s faith is attacked regularly and without mercy. There is more to it than that, but this young man really wants to honor God and has a love for baseball as well.

This scenario and millions like it face believers daily. Some simply do their best to make a decision and others seem to hear God speak to them clearly and decisively saying, “This is what I want you to do.”

Interestingly, this particular morning I was sitting reading a book on solitude and silence when the conversation began. What follows is a record of my mind’s ruminations on the subject of pondering God’s will. I purposely will not fire off the customary Bible verses with the “And, there you have it!” at the end. I want to talk in a rational tone to a rational mind.

The first thing I want to note is that regardless of one’s theology of determining God’s will, personal beliefs seem to bear on the decision with invariable certainty. For example, one might have the belief that in order to follow God’s will, personal enjoyment is out of the question. So, in our case this morning, the prospect of God’s will including baseball seemed self-promoting and therefore very remote. Now, don’t scoff! I’ll bet that hits close to home for many of us. Point is, though, our ideas and beliefs we bring to the decision table bear strongly on the proceedings.

This young man went on to tell me that “everyone” has been quick and generous with their “advice.” This is where I really began to think. Paul in Colossians strongly warned against this. (I said I wasn’t going to do it, but I am). Go read chapter 2, a polemic against self-appointed arbiters!

What place does advice have then? Here is the biggest point I want to make: I want to heed the advice of those who have done well hearing from and heeding Jesus themselves. Would it not make perfect sense that the advice of greatest value comes from the ones most intimate with the Lord – the ones who have been with Him, the ones who have spent time listening to Him in silence and solitude?

I want those kind of loving relationships, don’t you? Think about this in a church context. Suppose you are in a town meeting or an elder meeting in which the future trajectory of the church needs to be addressed and strategized. Traditionally, the meeting happens, everyone gives their “opinion” (“I think we oughta ….”), a token prayer opens and closes the meeting and decisions are made right there on the spot – ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH!

For those of us even remotely interested in doing God’s will, would it not make practical and plain sense for us to spend time with God, quiet and in the listening mode? I mean, really! Think about decisions you and I have made – from the brand of deodorant to the choice of a spouse. Have these decisions (at least the key ones) been preceded by times of intentional, protracted and meaningful times of silence with the hope of HEARING GOD? Then why, for crying out loud, do we think we are following God’s will?

Jesus in John 10 says (as plainly as the nose on your face) “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me (v. 27).”

I guess the best indicator that one has “heard the voice of God” is that person has been still and quiet long enough to have heard it. Only problem is: The church discourages stillness, does it not? Even the silent prayer time in the worship service has an organ playing in the background! We are to be do-ers of the Word, winning the world to Jesus, right? Activity and busy-ness is rewarded in the church. (Sorry for letting my cynic show.)

So, where and when are we taught and encouraged to “Be still and know” that He is God? My God, may the church take a practical clue and stop and listen!

Stupidity is Not Necessary

2006-08-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

"For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25)

Neither of us, you and I, has to be stupid.

So, when the commercial comes on the TV and tells you that you can earn $10,000 a month in your spare time, laugh and ignore such a stupid and ignominious lie! In a more subtle, yet no less insulting, way, fall not prey to the promise that beer is the key to lasting happiness and fulfilling sex!

I do not mean to insult anyone, but we’re all stupid. Were it not for this fact, then TV would be refreshingly void of commercials! Is this not an accurate definition of a marketing expert: A person adept at taking full advantage of a person’s stupidity by using whatever spurious and manipulative means available to cause him or her to buy something he or she does not need by promising something the product cannot deliver?

Oh well, I am right in there, too! I am just as stupid as the next guy.

There is hope – in the Person of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible, I can gain something (or Someone) worth more than “the whole world.” Possessing Jesus (or better, being possessed by Him) is what it means to be me. This is up against the lie of the world that says in order to be “happy” I must have things and be “someone” in the eyes of the society.

Satan is a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44). Our mind is mostly convinced of that, but our other parts (body, emotions, etc.) will still covet that pair of Nike’s, receive that comment for the ego and make that ill-advised click on the computer.

Paul calls that doing the very thing we hate (Romans 7).

Don’t lose heart. We are in good company.

May we, on the other hand, seek the truth and the Father of all truth – the same truth that LIBERATES and opens our eyes to the unfailing truth in the statement: Gaining Christ is all that matters. What does it mean to “be my self”? Simply this: Knowing with all of me that I am loved and possessed by Love and am the beneficiary of eternal hope to the extent that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Go read John 15:1-11 in a readable translation over and over until you begin to see that trust is built upon intimacy and intimacy is built upon a relationship.

Do You Smell Like Jesus?

2006-07-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

There is a restaurant in my town that I rarely patronize. It is one of those greasy spoons where profanity flows and smoke blows and the air could be cut with a knife. Breakfast is their forte.

Go there for any length of time and what? Right! You’ll emerge smelling like the place you just left, smoky. Most of us can identify with the scene, that is why I use this analogy, albeit negative, to make my point: THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH JESUS SMELL LIKE JESUS.

Read Acts 3 and 4 (one of my favorite passages) and go as far as 4:13. No sooner than bold-speaking Peter and John had healed a man (not exactly a capital offense) they were arrested! Kept overnight and interrogated, these two men spoke with boldness! It must have come as a shocker to the powers that were that Peter and John did not cower and capitulate in order to attain freedom. In any event, they were hastily up and released! All the dumbfounded officials were left with was that they “recognized them as having been with Jesus.” They were as blown away by the Jesus in the apostles as the garrison of soldiers sent to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane. Read John 18 (4-6):

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.

Here it was Jesus, Himself. In the case of Peter and John, they merely smelled like Jesus – they had the same impact on others that Jesus would have had if He had been there in the flesh.

Rocket scientist I ain’t, but I can put it all together to say this: Churches of impact into the gates-of-hell of this world smell like Jesus – they are an assemblage of Christ-followers who “have been with Jesus.” This is the opportunity afforded us all in John 15 by none other than … Jesus:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

Churches of today do smell, stink even, but not much like Jesus. George Barna reminds us that the number of Christ-followers leaving the organized church in order to find Jesus is at 20 million and rising! Imagine that, leaving the church to find Jesus!! Now I’m dumbfounded!

Churches today are consumed with anything and everything but Jesus! We spend tons of time planning to worship Jesus, but do we … worship Jesus? We have the latest and greatest Vacation Bible School week complete with every creative craft known to man in order to encounter Jesus, but do we? We meet as a small group, go deep as heck, share our lives on a weekly basis in order to become like Jesus. Do we, really? Are we becoming more like Him with all this Christian “activity” we are given to?

Question is this: Is the product of the postmodern church human incarnations of Jesus, “little Christs”, Christ-ians? Are we turning out people who smell like Jesus? Statistically, the answer is no. We divorce like the world. We shun, gossip, abuse and molest like the world. We bicker and split like the world. We eat our own worse than the world ever did.

What to do? What to do?

We must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who is at work us to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Ph 2:12f). First, we must find ways to simply “be with Jesus” (Mt 11:28-30 in The Message):

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

This is so simple it is nearly impossible, given the consumeristic, busy, traditionalistic, narcissistic, legalistic state in which we find ourselves. Yet, it is the next step for the church. The cost is high – it may take leaving or closing the doors of what we know as “church.” It will take a humble and daring heart that says, “I am gonna do it.”

If you will, start with ten minutes of alone time, in which your only objective is to be still and silent. It’ll kill ya! Fidget ain’t the word for what you will likely do! Ten minutes will seem like ten years. We are so unaccustomed to stillness! Yet, it is in the still times we will hear the voice of God saying, “I really like you, y’know!” And it is in the still times, close to Jesus, we will begin to smell like Jesus. We will be doing the right thing, and the world will see the building of the Kingdom of God if we do it!

Second, we must rest in the mysterious grace of God. It is God who is at work in us to will and to do. Do what you hear Him saying to you. Fight the guilts that say you haven’t done enough. Do what you can to “keep company” with Him! Then, pat yourself on the back because He is just glad you showed up!

He will bring you to discipline yourself. In the quietness and far reaches of your heart, see if therein lies a flicker of willingness to take the high road, the counter-intuitive, counter-productive path to holiness. I’ll bet it is!

May the Kingdom of God be built – may you and I so BE with Jesus that others smell Him on us and come to Him!

Letter to a Pastor Friend

2006-07-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dear _________,

Today was good.

I am in one of those pensive moods as I prepare to paint the bathroom - long over due. Ya know the new bathroom is over due to be painted when your wife buys kleenex to match the color of the drywall!

Bear with me.

Jesus said that the world will be changed ("by this world will know") when believers "love one another" - as you said today... LOVE WELL. That is clear as a bell in John 13.

We live in a culture in which believers in Jesus have not been loved well. They have begun to journey with Him, but they have not experienced that kind of agape atmosphere (relationships, community) enough for life change (transformation).

You and I have to love well. The requisite for that is to have been loved well. We have to have been loved well by His incarnation in the form of another believer - we have to have been mentored, discipled.

The folks in the room have not experienced that. Sure, a few have to an extent, but the majority have not. So, for them to hear the admonition, "Love well," they don't have reference for that. They are like the young person in the slum making mudpies... he does not want to go to the beach!

Love well means to DO something they (in their current belief system) are not currently not doing, and the congregation doesn't want to. Each of us is doing exactly what we want to do.

We cannot talk about obedience, mission, and outreach until we have people motivated by the love of Christ found in people like you and me.

Step 1: You and I "keep company with Jesus." We allow others (mentors) to love, and nurture, and lead us to Him. Here is where we experience agape.

Step 2: You and I pick out a few friends to live with, to invest in, and to sacrifice our lives for... exactly like Jesus did. Here is where we give away (agape) what we have received.

Step 3: Once trust begins, you and I can invite our few friends toward life change.

Obedience, etc. is nearly automatic at this point.

You and I have got to live our lives as Jesus would live them if he were us.

We have to incarnate Jesus.

We have to create relational atmospheres conducive to life change.

It seems we will do ANYTHING but this - the tough work of investing in the lives of a few friends.

Change is going where we have never been with someone who has. The church is stuck on the Savor Christ step. We all worship what we know of Jesus. We get to know Him better as we journey with those who do. Telling others to go and Savor Jesus is not enough.

From John 1:

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.
45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip.

Some how herein lies the key to the future of the church... loving one another.

On Easter - and the vital-ness of COMMUNITY

2006-04-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Each of us was made to love and be loved, cherished, admired and liked. No one honestly turns love down. I guess more songs have love as the theme than any other.

Burt Bacharach wrote these lyrics back in the 1960’s: What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love; no, not just for some but for everyone.

We were made to be loved and to share love. And, because, yes, there is a love deficit in our world, each of us feels – to one degree or another - unloved and even unlovable.

This thought pattern festers. Left alone in the mire of our own minds and thoughts, this feeling of “Nobody loves me” gains canon status and becomes as “true” as truth gets… at least in our own minds. Thomas Merton writes:

“The soul that picks and pries at itself in the isolation of its own dull self-analysis arrives at a self-consciousness that is a torment and a disfigurement of our whole personality” (No Man is an Island, p. 34).

We wind up as a society of empties demanding of each other what no one can supply.

Good news: You are not who you think you are! You are who God thinks you are… after all, He made you, right? So, who are you? It’s no big secret: YOU ARE THE BELOVED OF GOD! You are God’s child (John 1:12) and God’s children are His beloved – His loved ones (Mark 1:11).

Here’s where we experience a disconnect. You and I read that and say, “So!” Everything we experience existentially says the opposite, and it is this to which we defer. “I don’t care what the Bible says, I know I am not loved!”

What to do? What to do?

Will the knowledge that God demonstrates His love for you by dying for you and shouldering the vomit of your rebellion on the Cross make any difference? Read:

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God--all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God” (Romans 5:8-11).

How much are you and I loved? Enough to cause our Creator to say, “I’d rather die than live without you!” This is the Easter experience.

Well? Still hung up on the experiential level? Join the crowd! We western Americans have been so Easter-ized that the Cross has lost its luster, its effect. How tragic is that! If we have heard that Christ died for our sins once, we’ve heard it a million times!

So, what is it that will make the Cross real enough for us that we will abandon our selves and our “truth” about ourselves for the reality of our belovedness?

In a word, COMMUNITY. Community is that relational fabric upon which life is sown. Community consists of those Christ-following friends who have so experienced the love of God in Christ that they have excess enough to give to others. (Read the article by Henry Nouwen called “From Solitude to Community to Ministry.”) Incidentally, community is impossible without those in hot pursuit of it first having begun to experience that ruthless love of God in the Person of Jesus. Without that in place we all remain spiritual carnivores.

In COMMUNITY, I am free to assail and execute the need to impress. We become free and clear of “our own worst enemy.” We can hear the voice of Jesus’ love emanating from our friends – a voice, a message we would never give ourselves. We can experience the freeing effects of our own friends thinking for us! In community… we can hear others tell us – in word and action – “You have eternal value! You are special! You are loved!”

Jesus had this in mind when He gave the 11th Commandment, when He told us the key to the building of the Kingdom of God lies in the way Christ-followers love each other.

The upshot of this is obvious: the church must build community not institutions, not programs or services.

Bacharach’s song continues (with a few little emendations)

Lord, we don’t need another meeting. There are prayer times and socials, enough for all.

We’ve got so much stuff to do, all kinds of ministry,

Enough to last till the end of tiiiiime!

What the word needs now . . . .

CHANGE ! ! !

2006-03-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

What do Amway, exercise, ski boats and small groups have in common? Certainly it is obvious! No? OK, here it is: one word…

Change!

Each of these “things,” when taken seriously requires a fundamental, significant and ongoing change in one’s lifestyle. Buy a ski boat and you’re gonna use it… you’ll obviously use it more than you did! In other words, change. I remember the first time a friend approached me about Amway. I thought, “I can make and save money; but am I so willing to radically adjust my living patterns in order to make this thing work?”

The same goes for exercise and small groups! I have quipped many times, “What do you see most often in March yard sales?” Exercise equipment. The New Year’s resolution to “work out” that was brought about by the treadmill Christmas present fizzled in the first quarter of the year.

We joke about change. How many ____________’s (insert your religious denomination) does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: … CHANGE!?!

Without change there is no life.

How do we change? Just do it. Nah! That won’t work. Never mind to many church leaders! For most of my life I have heard preacher after preacher seek to inspire parishioners toward change by simply reminding them that the Bible says to grow, so GROW! Sorry, not gonna happen!

What is change for a Christian? It is becoming conformed to the image of Christ – becoming more like Him and less like the selfish sinner we naturally are (Ro 8:29). It is decreasing so He can increase in me (Jn 3:30). It is dying to self (Gal 2:20).

I’ve said this before: No one in their right mind is going to accept the admonition to change with a mere act of the will. Two problems: the will is weak and we lack the necessary trust and heart.

Again, what is change? Change for a Christian is a fundamental alteration in the way we act. Whereas we did not pray, now we do. We did not read our Bible, go to church, serve God and talk to those who do not know Him about Him… now we do.

Where do we begin? We begin in a safe relational environment conducive to those new kinds of behaviors, much in the same way a doctor learns to doctor. I am told that a physician’s first suture patient is an orange! Hardly life-and-death, huh?

OK, the place is right, what else? The heart! I must be motivated to become a mature Christian… or a doctor, a plumber, a statesman, a mommy, or whatever! Unless and until you and I are sold on the idea of change, it won’t happen. And, I become sold on the idea (my heart changes!) simply by keeping company with Jesus! We see this between the lines of Matthew 11:28-30:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Christ invites each of us to live with Him (John 15:1-11); and don’t you think that when we live with Him for even a little while, we’ll start to behave like Him?

From Adele Ahlberg Calhoun in her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (IVP, 2005, p.17) we read

From its beginning the church linked the desire for more of God to intentional practices, relationships and experiences that gave people space in their lives to “keep company” with Jesus. These intentional practices, relationships and experiences we know as spiritual disciplines. The basic rhythm of disciplines (or rule) for the first believers is found in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching [a practice] and to the fellowship [relationships], to the breaking of bread [an experience] and to prayer [another practice].”

In the beginning, we don’t want to keep company with Jesus. Not only that, we don’t have what it takes to keep company with Him in the first place! We start by starting. Disciplines usually move from “have to” to “want to” in much the same way that playing the piano does.

Something inside us – a small voice – tells us that this Christian thing is real and we trust that voice and do things in order to hear better. We choose to conduct some rudimentary Christian practices and we align ourselves with fellow travelers and journey toward maturity together.

This is where community comes in – small groups. Ideally, small groups are a safe place to practice new forms of behavior. It is a place to shuck and be healed of the past and its ungodly and self-centered patterns. Small groups is not a formula, a recipe for maturity. Small groups does not oblige God to show up and transform everyone in the room.

But, if we show up, if we create space for our King to manifest Himself, He will … and our hearts will all be changed as a result.

This is a plea for those of us who have heard the tinkle of that small voice to take steps toward Jesus, to sacrifice in order to build community. It is a plea for many to keep company with Jesus, to practice the disciplines with dog-jawed tenacity in order to become more like Him so we might participate in the building His kingdom!

Change is what we’re after – may we keep company with Jesus and change into His image. May there be not one small group in the church’s spring yard sale and covered dish dinner!

On Raking Leaves

2006-03-04T21:32:00.000-08:00

Therefore, my dear friends, … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Ph 2:12f).

The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps (Pr 16:9).

Can it be – could God be speaking out of both sides of His mouth? No. This is what J.I. Packer calls an antinomy, “an appearance of contradiction.” God, for all time, has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Is 55:8). And we know that He “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11, my italics).

God is mysterious – He cannot be explained. And, that is OK! Mystery gives oomph to our faith. God is unpredictable, neither is He capricious. And, that is where we land. We plan, He directs. How, then, should I plan my way? What, if anything depends on me?

I saw this principle illustrated in a vivid way: God is sovereign, and my decisions matter and make a difference.

I raked leaves today for over six hours! I know it’s March; you come tell my trees that the fall is back a few months! I obsess over leaf-raking. I set out to rake every last one of them. I don’t like to rake leaves. I like to be outdoors, but leaf-raking to someone like me is bad. I also have a pattern. I rake in neat rows, turn exactly 90º, make identical piles, and generally rake downhill… when possible.

What do you think is the worse thing that could happen to me? (Pause) Wind! Wind is from the pit of hell to the leaf-raker. Leaves go back to where they came from, and there is no alternative but to rake them again! I hate raking a leaf more than once!

I could have planned the life cycle of the tree better, I think. Once I enjoy the Technicolor beauty of the fall foliage, the leaves could just disintegrate!

Oh well, this is what I learned. At 9:30 this morning, leaf-raking was down around 5000 on my want-to-do list, but it was Numero Uno on my Git-‘R-Done Today list. For the first half-hour or so, I … pouted and grumbled – sinning in full view of God, my family and all the neighbors. Lesson #1: Leaves do not rake themselves. God for-ordained from eternity past for you and I to do things, things that matter. Yet, learning the doctrine of human instrumentality is not the lesson that touched me most this morning.

Lesson #2: Wind is not a friend of the obsessive. So, I had a decision to make: Would I force my “pattern raking” to happen in the face of changing circumstances or not? Here’s what I did. I became very sensitive to the direction of the wind. I befriended him. Or … her. When the wind came from the north I raked … south! When it turned, I turned and raked the other way. I had to run to the other end of my area a couple of times, but I didn’t knuckle under and do it my way, regardless!

Here was a perfect example of God’s sovereignty along side my responsibility. The wind is God – blowing whither it wishes. I respond responsibly with cooperation. I seek not to harness nor alter the path of the wind – it is out of my control. Yet, by choosing responsibly, I actually do avail myself to the power of the wind to accomplish my task!

Cool, huh? Admittedly, there were times when the wind swirled and caused havoc on my neat piles and rows. But, today, I learned deeper the beauty and mystery of God.

How might we learn from this in our days as followers of Christ? I see at least two ways. One, we can relax and take ourselves less seriously. God is in control and “will accomplish what concerns [you and] me” (Ps 138:8). Two, we can learn to cooperate with God and His Spirit (“wind” in the original languages!), and again, relax in our diligence.

We have to listen to God’s Spirit to grow wise. Listening is a matter of removing distractions and diversions and creating space for
God to speak clearly. And He does, and He will!

What Drives Our Trust

2006-02-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

I had a great 2 hours with my mentor of nearly 30 years yesterday. We go back to the Fall of 1977, when I was a strapping young football coach and a tadpole in the faith. Speaking of strapping, he obviously had no idea what he was strapping on when he moved into my life! I was quite a project! Still am!

In the midst of the conversation, I was waxing as eloquent as I could when I came upon the following line of thought. See what you think.

We are not our own. We were bought at a price. We are here on this earth with the sole purpose of bringing glory to God. This story is not about ME!

Nobody in their right mind is going to live that way!

Unless. Unless what?

Unless we know, love and trust God.

The BEGINNING point of all this is the love of God.

So, the words of Brennan Manning and others ring ever true and profound:

UNLESS WE ARE CONVINCED WE ARE LOVED BY GOD THERE IS NO OTHER MESSAGE.

This is not an event nor is it a transaction. It only begins that way. IT IS A RELATIONSHIP; a hard, mysterious, unpredictable, un-manageable, thrilling, scary, life-giving, life-long and often frustrating RELATIONSHIP!

This is the first thing. Be with Jesus - the lover of you! Push back the stuff of your life so you can hear Him say, "You're mine! I birthed you. I love you beyond limits. You are worth a lot to me. Come and sit with me and be happy!"

Be with him in your alone times.

Be with Him in the lives of your Christ-following friends.

Run to the hem of Jesus as any child of His would (presume upon Him!), stand on tippy-toes, rear your head back so your eyes meet His, raise your hands and watch Him lift you to His warm, loving and secure chest.

And be happy.

Operating Assumptions - Help Me Write My Life

2006-02-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

I am dealing with some stuff on a very subterranean level - just what is the story of my life. What have I become as a result of the past? Who am I? What are the values I'd die for? How has God fashioned me so that He can use me in the building of His Kingdom? I am trying to write this stuff down.

Today I have sought to write the Operating Assumptions of my life as a follower of Christ. They are below. I wonder about the following question in light of them: IF EVERYONE HAD THESE VERY SAME ASSUMPTIONS, WOULD THE CHURCH BE HEALTHY AND WOULD GOD'S KINGDOM BE BUILT? I need you to help me EDIT these Assumptions. By EDIT, I mean more than feedback - look for what's not there as it relates to me and my life. Help me as my community to ask: Where is my journey taking me?

I want so much to help build God's Kingdom by assisting in making His Bride, the church, stronger. I am starting by writing stuff down that is in me.

Will you please take time to read, re-read, read between the lines of the following as a way to see what God is up to and where He is taking me?

I know it will be risky - but any comments, questions, remarks, anything that comes from your heart... I'd love to hear it. You can write me back or we can talk in person. And , THANKS.

OPERATING ASSUMPTIONS

ABIDING IN CHRIST
Being with Jesus is the First Thing.
Being with Jesus allows us to hear His voice.
His Voice speaks of His love for us.
His Voice tells us we are accepted by Him.
His Love motivates our life of Service.
Service is imitating the life of Jesus.
Being with Jesus is a hedge against sin and idolatry.
God’s Word, Prayer and the Disciplines (positioning ourselves for God to work) are vital for Abiding in Christ.

COMMUNITY
Community is deep life-sharing. It is Relationship.
Community is the essence of the Church.
In Community we become like Christ (Spiritual Transformation).
Community is imitating the life of Jesus with our friends.
We see and experience Jesus in Community.
Community is costly in nature and is not without risk.
Community builds Intimacy.
Community is the first place life change occurs – it is where we “practice” our faith.
Community is the fabric on which our life of Service is sewn.
Community is the “staging area” for Service.
Community is both intentional and organic. It cannot be forced.

WORSHIP
Worship is the expression of the “Worthiness” of God.
Worship is both an individual as well as a corporate discipline.
Worship increases our Faith and motivates our Service.

Preface from Andrew Murray’s ABIDE IN CHRIST

2006-01-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

During the life of Jesus on earth, the word He chiefly used when speaking of the relations of the disciples to Himself was: “Follow me.” When about to leave for heaven, He gave them a new word, in which their more intimate and spiritual union with Himself in glory should be expressed. That chosen word was: “Abide in me.”

It is to be feared that there are many earnest followers of Jesus from whom the meaning of this word, with the blessed experience it promises, is very much hidden. While trusting in their Saviour for pardon and help, and seeking to some extent to obey Him, they have hardly realized to what closeness of union, to what intimacy of fellowship, to what wondrous oneness of life and interest, He invited them when He said, “Abide in me.” This is not only an unspeakable loss to themselves, but the Church and the world suffer in what they lose.

If we ask the reason why those who have indeed accepted the Saviour, and been made partakers of the renewing of the Holy Ghost, thus come short of the full salvation prepared for them, I am sure the answer will in very many cases be that ignorance is the cause of the unbelief that fails of the inheritance. If, in our orthodox churches, the abiding in Christ, the living union with Him, the experience of His daily and hourly presence and keeping were preached with the same distinctness and urgency as His atonement and pardon through His blood, I am confident that many would be found to accept with gladness the invitation to such a life, and that its influence would be manifest in their experience of the purity and the power, the love and the joy, the fruit-bearing, and all the blessedness which the Saviour connected with the abiding in Him.

… I pray earnestly that He would, by whatever means, make the multitudes of His dear children who are still living divided lives, to see how He claims them wholly for Himself, and how the wholehearted surrender to abide in Him alone brings the joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, let each of us who has begun to taste the sweetness of this life yield himself wholly to be a witness to the grace and power of our Lord to keep us united with Himself, and seek by word and walk to win others to follow Him fully. It is only in such fruit-bearing that our own abiding can be maintained.

In conclusion, I ask to be permitted to give one word of advice to my reader. It is this: It takes time to grow into Jesus the Vine; do not expect to abide in Him unless you will give Him that time. It is not enough to read God’s Word, …, and when we think we have hold of the thoughts, and have asked God for His blessing, to go out in the hope that the blessing will abide. No, it needs day by day time with Jesus and with God. We all know the need of time for meals each day – every workman claims his hour for dinner; the hurried eating of so much food is not enough. If we are to live through Jesus, we must feed on Him (John vi. 57); we must thoroughly take in and assimilate that heavenly food the Father has given us in His life. Therefore, my brother, who would learn to abided in Jesus, take time each day, ere you read, and while you read, and after you read, to put yourself into living contact with the living Jesus, to yield yourself distinctly and consciously to His blessed influence; so will you give Him the opportunity of taking hold of you, of drawing you up and keeping you safe in His almighty life.

There Has Got To Be More - Part 2

2006-01-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

In Part 1, I may have done more harm than good. Those who read it looking for hope found condemnation... maybe. But, just like the one who has treatable cancer must hear the word "cancer" before hearing treatable, you and I must admit that we are screwed up before we can become ready for the answer. "If my people ... will humble themselves...."

The “More” we are looking for is ... Jesus. There are Bible verses galore to support this. There is the very life of Jesus, Himself, as told by the Gospel writers that supports it. There is Paul the apostle who said "Knowing Jesus” makes the things of this life (yachts, money, comfort, ease, power, achievement) seem like so much dog-do!

I want that, y'all, don't you?

I want to be so detached from the crap of this world and so enamored with the joy of knowing Christ that my joy takes on such a gleam so that I see my world the way Paul saw his AND others are drawn to that joy in me! I am not there, yet! Heck, I can fall apart if I hit two red lights in a row!

Joy can happen as we seek Jesus. Not service for Jesus. Not church. Not the experience of Jesus. Not His blessings or His comfort. JESUS.

Jesus was rather adamant about this, don't you think? (And, why do we miss the point?) Read.

“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you” (John 15:4a, The Msg).

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NIV).

“Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37, NIV).

There is a profoundness about seeking Jesus, the Person of Jesus and nothing else, for the simple and sole purpose of being with Him.

When we seek Jesus, we begin to know Him.

Some say, “I know Jesus!” No they don’t – they have only begun to know Him. This is why Paul just after saying, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect…” (Philippians 3:8,13).

And, as we begin to know Him we begin to become like Him (Romans 8:29). And, as we begin to become like Him, the world is attracted to Him in us and the kingdom of God is built.

The “More” we are looking for is Jesus.

He can be found! In fact, Jesus is praying for that to happen!

"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 'Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent'” (John 17:1-3)

Practically speaking, here’s what I’d do: Make time to be with Jesus. Sorry for sounding so simplistic, but I say that to say this: When you and I sit down with the sole purpose of seeking to be with Jesus, we will nearly instantaneously begin to realize everything we seek other than Him. We want stuff. We ask for blessings. Our arrow points toward self as we seek. Seeking Jesus turns the arrow away from ourselves.

This is not easy, it’s even foreign to many … Christians. But, seeking Jesus is the FIRST THING C.S. Lewis wrote about.

Service for Jesus flows from one who has been with Jesus. How can we expect to evangelize for Jesus if we have not been with Him and begun to “smell” like Him? What is the role of the church if it is not primarily to help people be with Jesus. This is the definition of worship!

The church began and grew because the world recognized the likes of Peter and John “as having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

People will read this and think that it’s easy. It is not. The church today is seeking many things. To seek Jesus solely will mean major changes in the way we do church.

Good news: Jesus is not lost, He can be found! He wants to be found be you and me.

There Has Got To Be More - Part 1

2006-01-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

“Come to Me….”
“Follow Me….”
“Abide in Me….”
“Come to Me and drink….”

For quite a few years now I have heard the prevailing phrase, “There has got to be more,” as friends reflect on their church experience. So many of us are fed up with legalism, traditionalism, denominationalism, shoddy music and preaching, and the mentality that says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

My knee-jerk response is, initially, there is something more! And there is! But a couple of things need to be said here at the outset. First, for those who seek more, I would say to you, nourish that need: That need comes from a place within you that can only be filled by the Real Thing, God, Himself. It is a legitimate and authentic longing for our Creator and Father (read Psalm 73:24-25).

On the other hand, it is likely the case that you and I have been substantially influenced by the culture of consumerism (under the rubric of sin, flesh and the devil). Just as when Satan enticed Adam and Eve to adjust their gaze a mere one degree off the object (or the Person) of their ultimate affection, namely from God onto themselves, so you and I have been drawn into thinking that “something more” has everything to do with “me.”

Here is what it looks like. It is Sunday afternoon around 12:30. You are finally in the car on the way home or to McDonald’s. You breathe a sigh of relief, loosen your tie and enjoy a prolonged period of silence, like say, five seconds. “I didn’t get anything out of that! Did you?” And the usual conversation ensues precisely as if you had just exited the local movie theater. Point is, we are not in church primarily to “get something out of” it as one would watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

For another way to see Christian consumerism surface is in the way we pray. Let me take this route: Were you ever taught A.C.T.S. as a pattern for prayer? “A” stands for Adoration, “C” for Confession, “T” for Thanksgiving and “S” for Supplication. Which of those prayer components is the hardest to do and which one is the only one not focused on me? The answer is the same… “A”! You may say not so… “T” is thanks to God, right? I say that thanksgiving is thanks to God for what He has done for ME. Those of us suffering from Christian consumerism to one degree or another see self as the locus for success of the church/God experience.

“There has got to be more” is an expression that is both legitimate and honorable. But, it must be refined and purified in order to lead us in the right direction. Step One is to repent of our self-orientation when it comes to church.

Next and now we need to recognize the church’s complicity in the problem. Yes, Margaret, there is an elephant in the sanctuary! And, she ain’t moving unless and until we first say with audible clarity, “There-is-an-elephant-in-the-sanctuary!” One of the main reasons you and I come away from church spiritually anemic is because

Remember C.S. Lewis’ quote: “Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”?
I am about to generalize what I feel are the few categories of second-things-first churches:
1. Church is a duty. You have an obligation before God to be here. Never mind that you are bored!
2. Church is about little more than evangelism. Even the Valentine’s Day banquet has an altar call.
3. Church is about church work. You come to church to serve… the church.
4. Church is where we receive our weekly stamp of absolution.
5. Church meets our social needs. It is a great place to meet friends. Belonging to XYZ Christian Church is a clear asset when running for the school board or city council.
6. Church is a generational thing. I go because my parents, their parents, etc. went.
7. Church is about learning the Bible and becoming a better Christian.

Each of these “second things” in this list is of some value. The problem lies in the fact that we have nearly forgotten the First Thing. And, because we do everything except the First Thing, people by the droves are leaving the church in order to find God! Imagine that!

In Part Two of There Has Got To Be More, I will attempt to describe the First Thing we all long for… essentially putting first things first.

How To Be Still

2005-12-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

This is for those who have been so caught in the administrative trap, the consumerist trap, the busy-ness trap, the expectation trap, the rut trap that you are “mad as %#&* and you’re not gonna take it any more.” Or, maybe you are at the end of your rope physically, emotionally and spiritually. You’re counting on the remote possibility that this is not all there is. Well, good news… it’s not! Here is my premise: You and I can so make our home in the Person of Jesus Christ that troubles won’t go away, but they will lose their grip on us and shrivel to their proper “momentary light affliction” status, joy will rule in our hearts and all those around us will be glad to be with us!

Jesus promised us, promised us mind you in John 15, verse 11, “I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” C’mon! Seriously, do you really think that giving it all for Jesus means that we run around like chickens with their heads cut off, tired, lonely, frustrated, irritable, and too busy for anything meaningful? I sure hope not, too!

What can we do? (Now, be careful. This isn’t a recipe. But, in the scheme of things, we have choice, choices matter and have effects on our lives. We are to “work out our salvation” (Ph 2:12f)). I want to talk about the discipline of silence and solitude – an ancient practice largely lost in our day, but so necessary if we are going to reach balance in our lives. I define “discipline” the way Henri Nouwen did: Creating space in our lives for God to work.

Jesus is our model for solitude and silence. Periodically, Jesus became both physically and spiritually fatigued. So, Duh!, He pulled away. He had a remarkable sense for balance and rhythm in His life. So can we!

Now, this is written as a sort of “Beginner’s Guide” to the discipline of silence and solitude. I am not trying to seem pious nor insult your intelligence, but I am convinced very few of us practice this discipline, and we really need a starting point.

Begin by beginning. Cordon off a single hour somewhere in your schedule. Not at the end of everything else, give it prime time when you are fresh. Make it a time that reflects a significant sacrifice in your schedule. By the way, there ain’t nothin’ so blame sacred about your schedule in the first place! This is a hard step – we take ourselves far too seriously. This step is as important as taking your wife out to eat and canceling that committee meeting to do so! Mentally say, “This hour is of utmost importance!” Don’t broadcast what you’re doing, either. Matthew 6 takes care of that. If people find out you’re off alone “doing nothing,” they will see that as a vacuum and a waste of the time that they pay for and you will be in deep do-do.

Go to a place where the stimuli and distractions can be reduced to a minimum. Another hard step. No cell phones, no TV or radio. Make the place become quiet and comfortable visually. Keep your back straight, don’t slouch. Lie down or sit straight. Posture can create a significant distraction. If you need a nap, take one! Good grief. Fight the propensity to “do” anything!

Incidentally, the Evil One doesn’t like it when Christians get still. They hear God’s voice! Ach! Bad thing! He will pull out all the stops to keep you from this time of silence. Also, your mind is about to become a battleground. More about that as we go along.

Now be still. It is in being still that we “know that He is God.” We are not accustomed to this – you will realize this about 30 seconds into the hour. You must be convinced that this is the absolute best use of this hour, no matter what the sirens of this world screams in your mind! Squirming is predictable. Mark this challenge: When distractions come, when the tendency to quit is strong, when you get frustrated at the amount of noise there is in your mind, when you nearly become convinced this time is totally counter-productive, repent and come back to silence. The Prodigal’s Father is there to hug you, weep with joy over you, and be glad for your return!

THE TIME YOU ARE SPENDING IS A GOOD THING. Reject the lies of your Adversary!

Now listen with apathy. Huh? Do not feel like you must write something down or DO anything. Allow God to determine what happens in this precious hour! Brennan Manning calls this a time of “apathetic mysticism” – we trust God so much that we don’t care what He decides to do with it. You don’t determine what is successful anyway, He does. You are to show up and shut up. Become a sailboat in the sea of God’s love. Simply hoist your sail and go! Let God be God.

I venture to guess you will experience at least two things. One, if you are serious, you will come face-to-face to yourself. Busy-ness is the best distraction from facing our own worst enemy… self. But, it is self that must be faced. Here is who self is: nothing. More than that, we are sinful nothings! Outside the kindness and mercy of God’s grace, we are road kill on the highway of life. This is a necessary hurdle to peace and joy. It is part of what the ancients called the mortification of the flesh. As long as we clinch self, our hands are not open to what God would place there!

Two, we will begin to hear the voice of God saying, “You are my beloved! I am honored and glad you came to see me! I love just being with you.” An amazing thing occurs: Life takes on balance. Urgency fades and we can, for example, truly “smell the roses.” Recently, in a period of silence, I became nearly enamored with the grandeur and stature of an oak tree! Here is a created thing simply doing exactly what it was created to be and do – to reach for God and live! You and I are of much more importance than that tree. In solitude and silence we can replace the pseudo-value we place on ourselves and enjoy being valued by God.

That is all. Accept God’s acceptance. Wouldn’t the hour be profitable if you and I could walk away resting in the fact that we are loved by God and truly believe that truth is all that really matters? Oh, at the end of the time, Satan is going to try to convince you that your hour was a “waste of time” and “Don’t ever do that again.” Consider: You have just given God your undivided attention for an hour; how can that be a waste of time? Remember when Judas said just that? Here it is (from Matthew 26):

6While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. 9"This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor."
10Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Giving God an hour is never a waste of time.
Now, finish, and plan your next time of silence and solitude. Enjoy these times. If you are not coming to experience the joy of John 15:11, confess your self-absorbed yardstick for “good.” Silence and solitude is not to be “liked” as we would a movie, a ballgame or a taco! It is an intimate relationship with our loving Daddy, and hour long hug in the lap of eternal comfort and acceptance.
Until we become convinced we are loved by God, there is no other message. There is a time a place for service, petitionary prayer, and other do-ings of the faith. I am convinced, though, that all that is preceded by time alone with God.

From The Message, we read Jesus’ words (John 15:5),

"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing.”

Paul told Timothy, “Discipline yourself for godliness (1 Tm 4:7).” That applies to you and me. It is a truth that sets us free! We can soar like the mighty oak in our Daddy’s kingdom! Imagine that – joy unspeakable!

“And, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Good News for Pastors

2005-12-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

Are you a pastor or a church leader? Are things rosy? Church growing, everybody happy? Love what you’re doing? …Honest?

I have news for you… and it’s all good! Many, many pastors out there experience what I will call the Reality Gap. There is a huge gulf fixed between where you’d like to be (individually, spiritually, career-wise, church life) and Reality. It is not very easy to cope with it, huh? "It’s them!” we often say. Then when we are alone with ourselves, we wonder, “Where did I go wrong?” If you’re like me, you have a hard time getting away from your own worst enemy… self. We know about denial, but the pain of the Reality Gap is often nearly unbearable.

We pastor types really do well to dream! We even ask God to direct our dreams! We receive what we consider to be God-given, and off we go to make it into a reality. …It doesn’t happen! The Reality Gap! It’s the difference between my church and Acts 2:42-47!

Here begins the good news. Jesus said to those who would be around after His ascension (and that includes you and me)

“I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left--feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught “(Jn 14:27, The Message).

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27, ESV).

If neither of those renditions is your life verse, help is on the way… help is right here! And, since we live in such a list-driven world (I hate lists!) here’s my list.

1. Stop readin’ books (metaphorically speaking, that is) ! Books are deceptive. For one, they seem to convey the idea that if you do all that is contained within, your ministry will soar! Not so. They also feed on your consumerist bent. “Buyyyy the booook! You NEEEED this book!” Plus, they charge too much for them.
2. Put first things first. A “successful” church (or ministry, or life, for that matter) is not the first thing. Do you see what is missing from this formula: Read book, implement book’s plan for successful church, BOOM - successful church? What is missing is what God wants to do in YOU! You are here first and foremost to become more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). What am I doing to become a Christ-like person is a better question than how can I build a successful church. Finally, success is not something you can do. Success is God’s business, faithfulness is ours.
3. Be faithful by being with Jesus. THAT is the first thing. Ever read John 15:1-11??? Christ is inviting the likes of you and me to make our home in Him! This is freeing! Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 (The Message), “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.” It is the free and rested soul that is the Kingdom-builder in the crowd. SIMPLY FIND WAYS TO BE ALONE AND STILL WITH JESUS. Hear Him call you His Beloved child. Let Him stroke your hair with His soft comforting Hand. Let His eyes delight in you. This is the truth, the freeing truth. And, oh, by the way, if you “don’t have time” to be alone with Him for any period of time, your fuse is lit. You may not lose your job; worse, you may work for the next 20 years in a ministry only to produce “wood, hay and stubble.” You don’t have time NOT to be still and hear from God.

Be still and know that He is God – it is that simple. What is your SQ, your Stillness Quotient? When you are still in that Sabbath Stillness, you hear of your acceptance, and “the things of earth will grow strangely still, in the light of His glory and grace.” Oh, and the Reality Gap will lose its death-grip on you. Then, others will grow more Christ-like from being with you because they will say of you what they said of Peter and John, “They recognized them as having been with Jesus” (Ac 4:13).

Peace!

Well ... HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE ?

2005-12-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

The church does not have the luxury of “hanging in there” over the next few years. The church has lost her status in the community and people by the droves are leaving and will continue to leave if the church chooses to “hang in there” even if hanging in there means peddling harder and doing better.
From www.barna.org, and from an Update entitled “A Faith Revolution Is Redefining ‘Church,’ According to New Study”

"One of the most eye-opening portions of the research contained in the book [Revolution] describes what the faith community may look like twenty years from now. Using survey data and other cultural indicators he has been measuring for more than two decades, Barna estimates that the local church is presently the primary form of faith experience and expression for about two-thirds of the nation’s adults. He projects that by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack. Importantly, Barna’s studies do not suggest that most people will drop out of a local church to simply ignore spirituality or be freed up from the demands of church life. Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons – hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means."

What!? Am I reading that correctly? Are people leaving church in order to find God? That’s insane! That is like saying that people are having difficulty finding a grocery store that sells… food! Or maybe it is a crazy as having to look long and hard to find a bank that cashes checks! Am I unreasonable to assume that the one place God could be found is the church? If the research is true, and I have no reason to cast doubt, that is about the most serious indictment on the church I have ever heard. In my estimation, that is right up there with the Crusades and the selling of indulgences!

I sure wish Francis Schaeffer were alive. “How then shall we live?” is even more poignant now than when he first posed it. That is what I mean when I say that the church cannot hang in there – she must, must answer Schaeffer’s question.

Here is my answer (I am not now interested particularly in the How? Another
post, possibly.) ….

1. The church must be about putting people in the Presence of Jesus. I am not referring to evangelism per se; I am talking about literally putting people in the Presence of Jesus. See John 15:1-11 and Acts 4:13 (“… They recognized them as having been with Jesus”).

2. The church must purify any and all that she does so that is building God’s kingdom (Matthew 6:33).

3. The church has got to be a fellowship of intimate followers of Christ. If there is no community, there is no church and, therefore, no impact. Read Acts 2:42 and following.

4. The church must seek to enrich her worship experience. She is woefully lacking in this area. There is a holy God near by that we have yet to imbibe like we can.

5. We must maintain a sober and careful adherence to God’s written Word. We must learn it and teach it with passion and precision.

6. We must create community à la John 13:34,35. The church is not the church without love and koinonia as her warp and woof. This is hard, hard work.

7. We must forsake the negative side of Institutionalism, Individualism and Rationalism. I get this from Dr. Robert Webber in Ancient-Future Faith. We must embrace mystery.

Like Paul told Timothy, we must “discipline ourselves for godliness.” Nothing else will do. We certainly cannot hang in there! The process does not begin with our own resolve to correct or remedy something. We must find ways to “be still and know that He is God.”

“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.’”

Until we begin to experience the transformation that comes with hearing and knowing the voice of the One who calls each of us His Beloved, there is no other message!

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.

2005-11-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Many people shriek, “That’s not in the Bible!!” Well, … it is, too! I can think of at least 3 places in the New Testament where we read those words. Read Matthew 7:7,8; John 4:10; and John 7:38.

It is very unfortunate that the principle quoted above has been so maligned through the years; it is really sad, considering that it is very true! Allow me to explain. First, some terminology, namely, “help themselves.” In the original language it means “to avail oneself of,” or “to take advantage of.” For example, nowadays we hear that phrase used at mealtime. The cook (in my house, it is primarily my lovely wife) assembles the family and guests at a neatly set table and proudly hails, “Everybody help themselves, … there’s plenty!” The cook graciously and freely offers her bounty to all present.

So, in the case of this principle, “God helps those who help themselves,” a clearer rendering might be: “God shows immeasurable grace to those who simply help themselves to it.” Consider the 3 references above. The John passages liken the grace of God to water and say there is enough to go around, and then some! There is almost a silliness to it! If you or I were to see a $1 hundred bill lying on the ground, would we need to be coaxed into retrieving it? Never!

Such is the grace of God. Such is the nature of God: generous, fatherly, gracious, giving, lavish, extravagant, unconditional, caring, rich, adequate, satisfying, eternal, sure, trustworthy, committed, loving, confident, personal, tasty! Thus, we read the final words of John, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

The Bible is a book about God, God is the hero, and the story is about Him. It was written so that you and I might come to know Him (Jn 20:31!), come to experience intimacy with Him, come to be loved by Him, come to drink deeply at the well that is Jesus Christ – come to help ourselves at the banquet table of His bounteous grace – and then, and only then, gush over with grace into the lives of our friends. This is what it means when the Bible says, “… By this all will know.”

Have You SEEN Jesus?

2005-11-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

I am thinking about a conversation last Sunday night. What is it going to take for us to be a healthy, growing and ministering church?

I really believe it has to do with individuals (both individually and in groups) seeking to be with Jesus, starting to “look like Jesus” (transformation), and then being Jesus for others to see.

This is how conversion happened to each of us. We were drawn to Jesus by way of the Jesus in one of our friends. We were attracted to the love (and “God is love.”) shared with us in a relational way. Now, we have the honor and privilege of becoming Jesus for our friends!

For the church to “succeed” (I put that word in quotes because of the relativity of the definition of the word; although it is true that the church can experience true success!), she needs simply to be full of people who have been with Jesus!

We have to have seen Him! Psalm 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” God is great about giving us images we can understand to describe intimacy with Him. Tasting and seeing we know full well. I am thinking about how good Breyer’s ice cream or one of Marilyn Broussard’s small group goodies tastes!

And, seeing is believing. Those of us who have been to the Grand Canyon know the frustration of telling someone who has not been there what it is like. We invariably say, “You just gotta go there for yourself and see it!” When I finally went there myself and saw it, I could claim with authenticity that I had SEEN the Grand Canyon!

Seeing is a deep thing. Some see and don’t see – the psalmist says of the heathen, “They have eyes, but they cannot see” (Psalm 115:5b). Many claim to have seen Jesus, but the light is not in them and the church does not grow.

The Bible says that even when we do see, the sight we have is not fully complete. “For now we see I a mirror dimly, but then face to face,” Paul told the Corinthians (1 Co 13:12). Our view of God in the Person of Jesus Christ is limited and incomplete, but it can improve with time with Him!

Think of Linus this past week. He faithfully traipsed out to the pumpkin patch and sat in the cool night air with high hopes to see the Great Pumpkin. Though he for years on end has failed to have his goal met, he is buoyed by the fact that if he were not to show up for a viewing he surely would not see the Great Pumpkin.

To see we must simply show up and look. Linus will not see the GP if he does not position himself. And the great news is that, unlike the GP, when we position ourselves to see Jesus, WE WILL SEE HIM! Through the prophet Jeremiah, God tells us, “I will be found by you” (29:14).

I believe the first step to a healthy, growing and ministering church is individuals and groups of Christ-followers who smell, look like and taste like Jesus! The mist of our dim view of Him right now can be lifted as we become still enough to know that He is God.

How can you and I take steps into the pumpkin patch of hope right now?

To the church ... on BUSY-ness !

2005-10-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Just a thought:

Imagine going through a day laden with a 75-pound backpack filled with rocks on your back, sunglasses, MP-3 buds in your ears cranked up to volume 10, and 25-pound barbells in each hand. How hard would it be to get through your daily responsibilities?

Isn’t that us, though? Satan can quote Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God.”) and Isaiah 30:15 (“In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength.”). He knows that stillness connects us with God; and he knows that distraction is the opposite of attention.

The church is too busy and distracted. Anemic faith is our best hope at the present rate. I am as guilty as the next guy.

But guilt is not my aim. Go back to those verses above. Stillness leads to knowledge of the God of the Universe! Repentance and rest lead to salvation – salvation from sin, yes, but also salvation from the weights that torment and distract our lives away from God! We are strengthened as we sit quietly and trust our Father!

God told Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20) that “the battle is not yours but God’s” (v. 15). He went on to say, “You need not fight this battle, station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. … For the Lord is with you” (v. 17). We need not take ourselves so seriously.

What can you and I do, even on a beginning level, to introduce a less hectic schedule into our lives? What can we cut out that clearly reflects a ruthless trust in God? How can we begin to reduce the clutter, noise and BUSYNESS so we can hear and respond to God?

The future of the church lies in our ability and courage to answer and act on those few questions.

Why "The Wood Between the Worlds"?

2005-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

In C.S. Lewis’ fantasy The Magician’s Nephew two wide-eyed children (Polly and Digory) find themselves in a new world by way of the shenanigans of Digory’s magician uncle. It seems by holding colored rings in the correct hands, one winds up in the Other Place, a “different universe.” Digory’s uncle fears the trip himself, but surely wants to “find out what it’s like” so he opportunistically enables his nephew and neighbor to go in his stead.

The two wind up in a lush and eerily placid forest whose moss-covered bed is rife with clear and beautiful pools of water. Incidentally, the kids have just arrived in the wood via one of the pools.

Once Digory and Polly collect their wits and realize they have, indeed, come to another world, they become conflicted between their spirit of adventure and their strong urge to return home.

While contemplating all the possibilities up against the risks, Digory exclaims, “I don’t believe this wood is a world at all. I think it is just a sort of in-between place - … a place that isn’t in any of the worlds, but once you’ve found that place [like the space under a house], you can get into them all [the rooms of the house]. … Nothing ever happens here. … Nothing goes on in the in-between places.” He goes on, “I think we can get out of this place into jolly well Anywhere.”

Their conclusion: Take hold of the rings, pick a pool, any pool, and leap to experience the world on the other side! Which is what they do, which is the balance of the book.

I firmly believe that is precisely where we as Christians, as church, are today.

Christendom is over and we have been thrust into a new paradigm. It is mysterious in nature simply because we have only just arrived… it’s an “in-between place.” My premise is this: We cannot know now fully what church “ought to” look like, but we must dream, we must change, we must experiment relentlessly, and yet we must also remain as balanced as we are adventuresome! We must move forward. We do know Who holds the future!

Might I change the analogy for a second. We are the children of Israel just after the Red Sea experience. We have seen clearly the Hand of Jehovah God, but the place we find ourselves now is foreign. How then shall we live – what are we to do? Do we gather several days of manna just in case? Do we go back to Egypt? Or do we press on in ruthless trust of the God who brought us here?

We are in the “in-between place” as the church. It is scary and unfamiliar. We can return to the familiar (essentially the post World War II “traditional”) or we can jettison any semblance of the familiar “because it didn’t work” (what I cynically call the “beatnik” church) and start all over again.

Our “situation” demands courage, sobriety, humility, daring, risk, the freedom to try and fail, and community. We must trust God and each other and seek to determine the path He has for us.
We are in “The Wood Between the Worlds.” God will uphold us. We must join together and talk, wrestle to exhaustion, and pray like there’s no tomorrow. And our ears will hear a voice behind us saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). We must be still and know that He is God. We cannot assemble in some smoke-filled room somewhere and expect to vote on whose opinion of the church’s future will prevail. His is a still small voice discernible by those who know Him, those whose posture is one of abject humility before the terrible and matchless throne of Grace! Grace yearns for beneficiaries! God longs to show us compassion and direction. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11)”

Let’s grab the rings and jump!

Opening Day!

2005-09-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Wood Between the Worlds! I pray that this blog will honor God as we all stand poised in this wood among these many pools - pools that represent choices, choices regarding how we will do church. Oh, for crying out loud, God is Sovereign, the gates of hell will not prevail against His church and all that. BUT, we choose, and our choices matter. The world needs us to choose wisely how we will shape our expression of church. This is not a red pill, blue pill decision. Nor is it which chalice leads to the eternal youth. Nor is it some mystical bullseye that we either hit and the church prevails or we miss and the church collapses. But like I said, our choices matter.

How will we choose? What will be our bases for choosing? What makes church church? Now, I will be frank. We do not know enough about Postmodernity to make near-perfect choices. I mean, gee, the post-Christian age is merely seconds old in cosmic time. We must neither jettison all that has brought the church thus far nor seek to go back in time to what we consider the "Golden Age."

I believe there is direction. I believe there is wisdom. I believe there is balance. That is why this site has been created. Let's talk!

The Wood Between the Worlds

You are not your own.You are not who you are going to be.You are not now who you could be.Reason is: You think you are your own.

What the Church Needs Now

Will the church survive?

On the Future of the Church

On EXPERIENCING God

Thou shalt have no bearings!

Aphorism, anyone?

PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST

COMMUNITY DEFINED

AN EXERCISE IN PRAYER

Community as the Hope for the Church

What Ought We Be Becoming?

Eternal and Natural Therapy

God's YES !

On Living in the Present

Wasting Time With God

Desk Calendar Devotion #3

Desk Calendar Devotion #2

Desk Calendar Devotion #1

Experiencing God?

He's Right In Front of You!

Put Your Wait Upon God

The Joy of Being Destitute

Near The Cross

This is the Essence of My Prayers

JOY... yet again!

Connecting With God's Heart ?

DO NOT BECOME A CHRISTIAN

On IDEAS . . .

AN ADMONITION

To Joy

On Knowing God

WHO SAID IT FIRST ? ? ?

THE BASIS OF FIRM PEACE

To Rise Above this World of Pain Into Consummate Joy

Avoiding Idle Talk

What is Church Anyway?

Profundity in Simplicity

Ever noticed that you CAN notice?

How Do You Know If What You're Doin's God's Will?

Stupidity is Not Necessary

Do You Smell Like Jesus?

Letter to a Pastor Friend

On Easter - and the vital-ness of COMMUNITY

CHANGE ! ! !

On Raking Leaves

What Drives Our Trust

Operating Assumptions - Help Me Write My Life

Preface from Andrew Murray’s ABIDE IN CHRIST

There Has Got To Be More - Part 2

There Has Got To Be More - Part 1

How To Be Still

Good News for Pastors

Well ... HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE ?

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.

Have You SEEN Jesus?

To the church ... on BUSY-ness !

Why "The Wood Between the Worlds"?

Opening Day!

You are not your own.
You are not who you are going to be.
You are not now who you could be.
Reason is: You think you are your own.