The Search

Re-Routed

2009-02-19T21:07:00.001-06:00

I am in the process of switching to a new blog site. Now all new posts will appear at:

http://neisssteps.wordpress.com/

See you there.

A World of Engagement

2009-02-11T15:58:00.001-06:00

E-mail? Love it.

Connecting with old friends on Facebook? Amazing.

Research at your fingertips? Unbeatable.

Providing information to the world about your product and/or services? Cheap, effective and immediate.

A place to share ideas in a Areopagus-like setting? Very cool.

The Internet has opened to me, and so many of you, a world that we only dreamed of twenty-five years ago. In a word: engagement. We are able to be connected in ways that are mind-boggling.

But I have sensed that my world has shrunk to fifteen inches of two-dimensional pseudo-reality. I have become increasingly connected to the universe on my laptop, while become less and less engaged with the actual universe surrounding me. I realize that many of those cyber-connections can enrich my life, but only in somewhat superficial ways. The Sirens of the ancients are luring me to a rock-strewn shore.

The attraction of the screen is hypnotic. It began with movie screens, drawing us into an alternate reality on Saturday mornings. I can remember being dropped off with friends on Saturday mornings at the Mellett Mall cinema to see a movie, complete with a couple of cartoon shorts, for a quarter or fifty cents (I forget). I escaped from long days in school and boring afternoons in the neighborhood. The massive screen before me carried me around a dirt track with Herbie or soaring in a winged-car with Caractacus Potts and Truly Scrumptious.

Then televisions became the fascination (and still leave a majority of us semi-comatose for the evening hours at home). Soon computers, then cell phones, palm pilots, iPods, Blackberrys, et al. We have been sucked in by the sirens of technology - not by our ears, but our eyes.

The lure is unmistakable. I have seen it in the strongest of us. A spare moment suddenly becomes an opportunity for reflection, prayer, conversation, or service. . . and we opt for a screen. Texting, surfing, scanning, anything but engaging with the world in the same room.

I am guilty as so many of you are.

Do we dare say "No" to it all? Fasting from the screaming screens? Engage in the world around you today. You won't simply avoid the onset of a repetitive motion injury, but you just might save yourself and those around you from isolation and irrelevance.

Your thoughts?

+ + + + + On the Fence + + + + +

2009-02-10T11:33:00.001-06:00

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

- Jesus (John 8:31-32)

How is it that truth sets me free? Truth is about black and white. Truth is the baking concrete under my feet in the summer, reminding me that life is hard so I better deal with it. Truth is the whip of the master, the razor edge of the knife, the blow of the hammer. Truth is an unyielding, unforgiving, uncompromising tyrant gleefully watching my failure and not quite satisfied when I do manage to fall within the boundaries. Truth is a dizzying array of pigeonholes. Truth is a puzzle with every piece different and fitting in only one place. Truth is a checklist with an infinite number of pages. Truth is the electrical leads attached to my skin, waiting for a reason to surge voltage through my tender muscles. Truth is the cat waiting for the mouse to make a wrong move.

Or is truth something else?

Truth has received a lot of bad press. The reason being that the human heart, much more fond of deception and fantasy, feels condemned and imprisoned by truth. When do we ever hear the word "truth" in an upbeat sense?

"I realize that you were told. . . but the truth is. . ."

"Do you have time to talk? I need to be truthful about something. . ."

"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God."

"I've heard both sides of the story. Now I want the truth."

Not happy conversations usually. The air is thick with tension. The room grows quiet. Someone is going to go away wounded.

The harbingers of truth in Jesus' day were the teachers of the law. The truth marshals. If you want to know the way God expects you to behave, ask those guys with the long beards and boxes strapped to their heads. They'll tell you what to do, not to do, and how to do it (or not do it). Truth will set you straight or beat you into submission.

Why didn't Jesus say that?

"You will know the truth, and the truth will beat you to a pulp."

Nope. It will "set you free." How far from the truth is that in your experience?

Note several important contextual factors in John 8.

Jesus' audience. Jesus is in the midst of a people obsessed with finding, knowing and practicing the truth. Often this clouded their pursuit of God Himself. The problem was, for many of them, that the truth of the Law had become an oppressive ogre, rendering them so exhausted at checking off boxes while looking over their shoulders that following God became miserable. They began to drift away from following God altogether. Truth had become detached from the Truth-Teller. Jesus had come to rescue them - not with a different "truth" but with clarified truth, and, more importantly, the truth that was dynamically connected to the Living God. It was the truth that came to bestow life, not suck life out of them.

The source of truth. Jesus' first words leading to the discovery of truth are focused on Himself and His teaching. This could be considered a rather bold challenge to the truth believed to be inherent in the Mosaic Law. The truth was now more clearly seen once the centuries of varnish was wiped away. The traditions of moral bean-counters were no longer clouding the vision of what was true. Jesus brought truth personally into the neighborhood for He was/is truth (see John 14:6 and its context). Truth is not a list of neatly crafted axioms. Truth is the presence of God. Truth is not a periodic golden brick upon which we step to keep our way. Truth is Jesus Christ walking just ahead of us. Jesus did not come to replace the old list with a new list. He came top replace the list with Himself. We follow HIM.

The place of truth in the journey. The statement of Jesus lays out a progression. Note: Held "teaching" leads to "disciples" who "know the truth" and then become "free." Jesus does not slap the shackles of truth on His listeners and then try to convince them that they are now free. Jesus calls followers to be with Him and, as He does, He teaches them. Learning with Jesus causes us to become more like Him. We begin to walk like Him, behave like Him, think like Him, and our transformed life helps us see Him and truth evermore clearly. That truth so embeds itself into us that we find ourselves immersed in the light of truth.

Suddenly the claws of truth retract. Truth is not an intimidating beast. Truth is the fruit of relationship. Some have considered it a bitter fruit, but its sweetness should be savored. Truth offers the nectar of freedom.

Those who view religion as oppressive do so because it brings rigid form or rigorous disciplines which tend to strangle the adherent. A new way of life turns vision away from the old life and toward a new life - one which seems narrow and less fun than that life previously known.

This is not the way of Jesus.

Instead, picture a follower of Jesus being brought inside a fenced area. The fence represents the boundaries established by a commitment to Jesus. We must be honest enough to admit that Jesus introduced a fence of sorts. His call to "deny self, take up your cross and follow me" (Luke 9:23) and similar challenges certainly draw lines in the sand. But these lines are different than the laws of religious philosophies.

The fence is divinely-organic, not man-made. What essentially changes is the human heart, not the boundaries around us. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts" the prophet said (Jeremiah 33:33). The warped, scarred and broken image given to us in Eden is restored and we have a conscience again - a conscience that more closely resembles God's heart than our sinful one. Our compulsion to obey and be holy is not driven by our fear of become shredded by the barbed wire of law, but we are given a heart with the capacity to hurt when we stray from the Father's design. We begin to love holiness as much as He does. This is definitely a process which takes time, but as God is allowed to meddle in us, truth molds our inner fences.

The fence does not restrict, but protects. Fences have two sides and create two contrasting perspectives. From one side we feel like the monkey in the zoo, wondering why we can't be "out there." From the other side we feel like the secure citizen, happy that the man-eating lion is contained. This is why truth in Scripture is so often associated with light as contrasted with darkness. It is the place of hope, rescue, blessing, favor and joy. The fool regards truth as the guard rail on the mountain pass that restricts one from the freedom to drive into gravity's maw and discover the bliss of injury and death. The wise person sees quite another picture: truth is the protector of life, for it knows what a ride to the valley below holds for us - chaos, pain and death.

The fence contains more than it prohibits. If we must view truth as a fence, then make a 180 degree turn. Instead of standing at the fence and looking out at your old life, longing for what God has taken from you, turn around. Look at the vastness within the perimeter of His truth. You will discover that your old longing was for a small patch of thorns, while what God has protected within His truth is a paradise bigger and more beautiful than the grandest vistas of Montana. Your old life gave periodic happiness. Your life in Christ gives eternal joy.

The depths of truth's freedom has yet to be fully fathomed. Only as we increasingly surrender do we begin to discover that there is freedom that enables the Christ-follower to be at ease in any and every situation. Our secrets evaporate and playing the part of untarnished sinner can be cast aside. Living by the script is ludicrous when we can live from the organic pulse of truth.

If the truth is killing you, turn around. Embrace the Truth and discover the wideness of His mercy. Allow His holiness to bathe you in joyful surrender.

Only on the lips of Jesus could truth become a tender song beckoning the battered and bruised to drink deeply from the river of true life.

ΙΧΘΥΣ

2009-02-04T21:04:00.001-06:00

Pasting the name of Jesus on your life view is a popular practice. Whether in regard to individual lives, college mission statements, church purpose statements, or even some corporate mantras, hitching philosophies and behaviors to Jesus Christ as a model has almost become chic. The question is, which Jesus is grasped, or rather, which aspects of the genuine Jesus have become the point of fascination?

Some adopt the social paradigm of Jesus (His world view). The perspectives of Jesus in the first century are considered as counter-cultural today as then. His insistence on justice for those marginalized and His emphasis on peace in the face of conflict have become attractive to some.

It never hurts to appeal to a figure like Jesus for a precedent on world view. If a small percentage of Christians became devoted to Jesus' war on injustice the effects would be staggering. But this stance is not popular because the only thing peaceful about it is the outcome. Along the road to justice and peace a lot of blood will be shed by the peacemakers. And that is a sacrifice few of us are truly willing to offer.

Some march according to the lifestyle of Jesus (His behaviors). Imitating a model of sacrifice, generosity, purity and righteous anger serves as a great rallying point. We could do worse in a culture so self-obsessive and self-destructive.

This, too, is an unpopular choice, for throwing our materialism, comfort and self-centered schedules on the altar is too radical. It would kill most of us. Which is, of course, the point. The rebel within us must be put to death and most of us are too squeamish for that.

Others embrace the God-ness of Jesus (His deity), worshipping Him and appealing to Him for blessing and guidance. His wisdom and power reach into my weak and misguided life to provide hope. His immanence is not considered as much an asset as is His transcendence. Because He is NOT like us, He can reach down into our miserable existence and lift us, change us, conquer for us.

The great thing about Jesus is that we needn't necessarily pick and choose. The early church developed a symbol which served as a cryptic reminder of their faith in times and places in which being a Jesus follower could be hazardous to your health.

Sort of like a gang sign flashed to quickly mark allegiance, the fish was reminiscent of the calling of simple fishermen in Galilee to surrender their literal nets and join a movement to catch people by the grace of God. But for the Greek a fish is an ICqUS (ichthus). The letters in their word for "fish" were anagrammatic for Jesus' identity. He is Jesus (Ihsou"), Christ (Cristo"), God's (qeo") Son (Uio"), Savior (Sothr). He is ALL these things, not just one. And although even these facets do not completely convey His essence, they are a powerful reminder of His most prominent attributes.

It is tempting as we develop spiritual and philosophical roots to discover that one BIG IDEA which serves as a magnetic pole for our world view, purpose, behaviors, and attitudes. Indeed, in Christ, we have that pole, but Christ Himself cannot possibly become defined in one idea. Is He prophet? Yes. Is He miracle-worker? Yes. Is He teacher? Yes. Is He deliverer from injustice? Yes. Is He Creator, Life-Giver, Almighty God? Yes, yes, yes. His capacity is limitless. John alluded to that.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

John 21:25

It almost seems criminal that such a limitless One should be encased in a human body for thirty-three years and limited to a few hundred square miles of terrain, doesn't it? But within those shackles He has managed to touch every life, every place, in all time, in every way.

The aspect of Jesus Christ that must be grasped above all others, however, is His authority. Will He be Lord?

In John's Revelation Christ is depicted as a montage, but always as Lord. Slain Lamb, yes; but alive and at the center of the worship of elders and living creatures. Son of Man robed in white, certainly; but with eyes of blazing fire, and a voice of rushing waters and sharp, double-edged sword. The blood-stained Rider of a white horse, indeed; but leading the armies of heaven, wearing numerous crowns, and bearing the name "King of kings and Lord of lords."

By the time John had recorded his visions, Paul had penned these words 40 years previous.

God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Above all, He is above all.

An Evening with Chen, Smetana & Dvorak

2009-01-28T22:52:00.001-06:00

I just returned from an evening out with my wife hearing the Formosa String Quartet. This was as high brow an experience I've had since I was in grade school and took a trip with my classmates to a special presentation of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" followed by a fancy beef stroganoff dinner at the Onesta in downtown Canton, Ohio. Both events are unforgettable, but I'm not sure what I experienced either time.

I needed this night. The musicians were exquisite. The accolades bloated their bios in the program to a full page each and none of them could have been out of their twenties. It's just that my exposure to high culture has been rather limited. Having people like me in the audience was akin to slipping caviar into a Spam can. It is a far cry from what people like me are accustomed to witnessing.

The evening consisted of 3 works - the first contemporary and the other two from the late nineteenth century. I am sure that Shih-Hui Chen is a talented and lovely woman, but her composition, less than 2 years old, didn't seem to hold up to the works of Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak. Granted, I am no musical critic to ANY degree, but the older works were so much more pleasing to my ears. Then again, I am the same guy who just can't understand the fascination with canvases that appear as they have been decorated by the colorful excrement of seagulls when around the corner are paintings of recognizable images so vibrant and breathing that they cause me to stop and stare with delight.

My cultural stretching exercise has allowed me to appreciate that there are many ways to convey the soul in music - some which will be liked by one and sound repugnant to the next. But it also opened my eyes to something else - that the oldies are classic because they have tapped into something organic in us.

People who consider themselves culturally relevant can converse and recognize the classic artists (in musical art, visual art, architecture, literature, etc.). They may be acquainted with the newer artists and their freeform expressions, but the tried and tested masters are the meat and potatoes of cultural high browism. The old-timers are not only cool; they are the standard upon which all others are judged. At the end of the day the music we want to hear is from Beethoven. The paintings we want to see are from Rembrandt. The sculptures we want to touch are from Michelangelo.

This gives me hope in a world that seems to want to throw Jesus under the bus. The Jesus of history and Scripture (they are one and the same if we are talking about actual history and the canon of Scripture - don't let the double-talkers fool you) is, when all is said and done, the One people want to hear, see, touch and know. He will draw a crowd and move hearts as no other.

This gives me hope that we don't have to dazzle people with the newest thing, because the Ancient of Days is enough. I mean, if Bach has been packing them in for 300 years, the Creator and Sustainer of all things can awe the crowds pretty well. The simple, beautiful, heart-breaking melodies, harmonies and rhythms of His presence is the greatest, and only genuine, hope for the world.

I probably will attend a limited number of concerts like I did tonight. I have a shelf full of classical music CDs that I play once in while when I need some background music for reading and/or study, but my staples will probably continue to be the Beatles, Elton John, James Taylor, Sara Groves, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Keaggy, Rich Mullins and the like. To some of you, these are the oldies.

And in my soul-walk I will always find joy in learning from C.S. Lewis, Max Lucado, Gordon MacDonald, Eugene Peterson, John Stott and Lauren Winner. But the classic Book and the classic God is the foundation which never gets tired, stale or irrelevant. It keeps my toe tapping right into the forever of tomorrow.

Meeting Grandpa

2009-01-27T21:21:00.001-06:00

For most of my formative years (those years when you learn to walk, use a toilet, read, write, pick friends, kiss a girl, drive, and dream about your adult life) I lived near my extended family. Both uncles and their families and both sets of grandparents were a bike ride away. Allow me one asterisk for that last sentence. My mother's dad - Grandpa Mac, short for McVay - died shortly before my second birthday. I have no conscious memory of him.

Until this last November. I was home (Ohio) visiting my mother, father and sisters, and while I was alone with my mom she told me about the day her father died. Mom said that Grandpa Mac and I were pretty tight, so much that whenever we went to their house I would immediately go from room to room until I found him.

On the day he passed from this life my mother and I went to Grandma Mac's house, and when I stepped in the door I stopped, looked around, and just shook my head from side to side. I knew he was gone.

Even now, as I type those words, my eyes tear because somewhere down inside of me there is a lingering bond to a man I can't remember. The moment Mom told me it were as though I had just been told I had a long lost twin or something. I was dumbfounded. And almost immediately I began to love this mysterious man who I can only recall through faded photographs and second-hand stories. The child-heart in me revived and I have thought about him more often in the last two months than I have in the last 45 years.

You might think this would create a sadness, a longing for something that is irretrievably lost, but it hasn't. Instead, I am filled with a hope and an impatient joy as I look ahead to seeing him again someday. I will have eternity to know this man I forgot I knew.

And I can assure you of this - on that day I will go through every room until I find him.

I miss you Grandpa Mac, but it won't be long.

Buggies on the Highway

2009-01-26T20:00:00.001-06:00

For those who live in Amish country, this is no laughing matter. In fact, I saw an update on the news while I was back at my home in northeast Ohio in November about a court case still in process concerning a driver who hit a horse and buggy driven by an Amish family. A little boy in the buggy was killed in the accident and the driver of the car was under the influence of a controlled substance (why do they call it a "controlled" substance when it leads to a lack of self-control?).

But I thought about the intersection of Christ with culture as I was nearing my mom's home on one of those days. On a four-lane highway passing through Amish country, a horse and buggy pulled up to the highway, stopped, waited for a break in traffic, then dashed across. The picture before me was rather striking.

The Amish have established a way of life which attempts to stay true to Christian simplicity. You and I would probably differ on many of the specifics that constitute a life of holiness in Christ. But the willingness of the Amish to maintain a separation between themselves and the world system is honorable. And yet, that separation cannot be maintained to the extreme. Every once and a while the buggy has to cross the highway.

Some friends in our church family have been very thoughtful in their approach to raising their family in the midst of culture. Their business, education of their children, and vision for the Kingdom of God as it is pursued in all their endeavors has been thought through extensively and they provide an exemplary model for other Christian families.

One of the clarifying themes which they have worked through is defining the differences between being people who are exposed, isolated, or insulated. Those who are exposed have been so left to the influences of the world that they succumb rather easily to the mindset and behaviors of the world. Those who are isolated from the world become naive and unable to cope when those periodic and inevitable collisions with the world occur. But those who are insulated have protection from the onslaught of worldly thinking while still being connected to people in the world. Only those who are insulated (with the Holy Spirit, the word of truth, the power of prayer, and the fellowship of believers) will become influential rather than influenced.

Those three categories are visible all around us. So many in the church have revered relevance to the point that they unwittingly have wandered into the jungle of compromise and have little that sets them apart for the Kingdom. Others, though far fewer, seek to be cloistered away in communities of hibernation from the "world" and become ineffective. The Jesus way, pursued by far too few, manages to be among the people of the world while maintaining distinction and integrity.

In order to accomplish this third way, we will have to become comfortable with discomfort. The other two ways are all about comfort zones - either ensconced in worldly ways, or in refuge from all threat of battle with evil forces. Jesus' way meant a life of constant tension - accepted by masses at times, and, at other times, in the cross hairs of their wrath. If you find yourself drifting back and forth between those two extremes, you are probably following Jesus closer than you know. You will be loved by some in the world in the morning, and then hated by them in the afternoon. You will be revered by the church on Sunday, then declared a heretic on Wednesday.

Pretty enticing life, eh?

Odd for God

2009-01-15T10:32:00.001-06:00

The basis of this post is due to my fellow pastor/minister, Chris. His recent devotion challenged my thinking and my life. His devo, in turn, was inspired by the late Mike Yaconelli, from an article entitled "The Truth Shall Make You Odd."

Once again, I am impressed with the power of peculiarity. Throughout Scripture we have been branded with oddball status. Not in a Freak Show sense - though some of us qualify for such (my hand is raised). We stand out because of God's imprint on us. We are "aliens and strangers," "a city on a hill," and a "chosen and peculiar people."

God offers this oddball status to everyone, but most aren't takers. Love me? Treasure me? Grace me? I am all in for that. But make me odd? Sorry. I want to be dull, ordinary and loved.

God's love starts when we are simple folk, just like John Boring next door. (Actually, I went to school with a guy named John Boring - seriously. He didn't live next door, however.) But God's love is a peculiar thing. It begins to tamper with us. He loves us as we are, but His love wants to shape us.

The "problem" (when I say "problem," I am adopting the world's view of our status) is that the shape God chooses is His own. And that shape is not the shape that the world deems normal. It's like those cultures that revere woman who are. . . well. . . big. Beverly Hills is the not cosmic center for female beauty. Some cultures consider fat to be beautiful. In some places, the lighter the skin tone, the more desirable the person. Beauty might be enhanced by a bone through the nose, or tiny feet, or a schnoz the size of a trolley car.

In the Kingdom of God, beauty defies the world's parameters. Consider the Kingdom traits that Jesus names in Matthew 5. These marks are like deforming scars to the world. But to God they are like that delicate mole above the lip of Cindy Crawford.

"But I don't want to be odd!"

Who does? I do, however, want to be beautiful in the sight of my Creator and Savior. In the end, it is His approval that matters most. And, strangely enough, it is this odd-ness that slowly becomes attractive to the world. It is not a quirkiness that repels, but a distinction that draws, much as Jesus' character created a compulsion to see who this Man was.

Let's call it oddly beautiful.

When There Are Too Many Ministries

2009-01-15T10:02:00.001-06:00

I attribute it to the development of individualism in the founding of our nation. What began as a spirit that drove exploration and the establishment of civilization in the frontier, has grown to become isolationist.

Our stress on individualism is just as rampant in the Church as anywhere. We encourage followers of Jesus to have a "personal relationship" with Christ. We train people to discover "their own" passions, interests and places of ministry. And all of this has enabled the Church to grow, like a squid, into a multiplicity of ministry emphases. No matter the need globally, there are likely a dozen, perhaps hundreds of ministries devoted to that very thing. Be it developing worship music, providing clean water, treating AIDS, feeding the hungry in the inner city, translating the Bible, reaching out to homosexuals, building and staffing schools in the Third World, training women for jobs in oppressive cultures. . . everyone has a ministry.

I am beginning to wonder about how much of this we can tolerate and be effective. I don't mean to sound nit-picky toward a phenomenon which has caused so much good to be accomplished, but I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the thousands of ministries which plead for my help and money - via mail, e-mail, website banners, billboards, phone calls, television ads, news articles, appeals at concerts, and personal invitations by acquaintances. The omnipresence of ministries, at times, does not tantalize with options. It paralyzes me.

The local church often suffers from the same dilemma.

It is rooted, I believe, in the loss of true community and the inability to adopt common vision. As a minister in a local church I have seen it happen countless times - a great ministry initiative is proposed, backed by a very small group (maybe only one or two), but which cannot sprout wings and fly without a broad-based support. The proposal is innovative, exciting, bursting with potential. The listeners hear the plans and enthusiasm of the presenter(s) and feign their approval and support. And then. . . nothing happens.

You see, the "support" was the "I'm not opposed to that, so go for it and let us know how it's going" - not the "That is a great idea, how can I help us accomplish this?" The reasons for opting out of involvement sound justified.

"That's not my area of giftedness/interest/passion, but I think YOU should definitely run with it."

The potential ministry sits on the runway without fuel and never slices the blue skies.

The driven idealist will forge ahead and attempt to do what they can alone or with a skeleton crew, while everyone else tries to find her/his own niche. After time the local church becomes a multi-headed freak, doing everything, but few things well.

In Luke 10 we are given a peek into the home of Mary and Martha. The story contrasts the quiet devotional attitude of Mary with the frantic spirit of Martha. In vs. 40 Luke uses the word "distracted" to describe Martha's mindset. The word means to be pulled in many directions at the same time. Think of the guy spinning plates on the end of sticks, trying frantically to keep a dozen dishes spinning until the numbers and the effort become too much and everything begins to crash to the floor.

Has the Church started too many plates spinning?

The roots of our multi-directional distraction are pride and selfishness. We want to be the chief of our own ministry tribe.

"If it wasn't my idea, I don't want any part of it."

And we wear our selfishness on our lapel when we decline involvement in an existing ministry because it doesn't perfectly fit our plans.

I am in the ministry business - I know, a crude way to put it - and I have seen ministry morph into an image that Jesus did not intend. The Church universal has become an open market with an infinite number of vendors pushing different ministries. Walk along and sample.

Wouldn't it be bizarre if this was all Satan's idea? Divide and conquer. Have the people of God so scattered and fragmented in their efforts that they do little good because of their detachment from one another and their limited resources. Hmmmm.

The cornucopia of ministries seems to go against the grain of Jesus' prayer. It also paralyzes the power of the unified Church. How many missions should we support when we have phone calls every week wanting a mission work to present their ministry? How many events can crowd the church calendar before we have people worn out in many things, rather than sufficiently weary from a few powerful ones? Have we nickel-and-dimed our way in ministry, and done little more than underwrite administration costs, preventing sizable gifts which might become beacons of hope to the hurting? And is the multiplicity of local churches a declaration of this same isolated self-absorption?

Excuse my cynicism. I only yearn for the Church to become simpler that it might become the transformational power it could be.

Your thoughts?

New Year Wishes

2008-12-31T14:47:00.001-06:00

Several years ago I gave up muttering at the close of the year, "Well, this year has to be better than last year." I gave it up because for successive years a number of sorrows and stresses made each following year ever more forgettable.

I also am giving up seeking to be blessed in some amazing way in the coming year. Instead, I simply ask God to help me be a blessing.

May the blessing of 2009 for you be this: That you may be a blessing to as many as possible in the coming year!

Valuable

2008-12-31T14:37:00.001-06:00

Because I tend to be most worrisome when it comes to financial matters, my thoughts often circulate about the cost of things. Whether it is expensive propane to heat my home, replacing kitchen appliances built by sub-standard companies (I promise not to mention names, but I am strongly tempted to do so), or maintaining four automobiles, the cost of things tends to cause me nauseous anxiety. When dollar signs fly, I am tense. When all is paid for and cash flow is uninterrupted, I am at peace.

Pathetic, I know. But you worry about stupid things too. The problem with my worries are that they tend to make a commentary on the value of all things.

I was reminded the other day about the pain of life. In my line of work I see plenty of busted souls. I meet people who have been abused in every way by every means - even by themselves. It isn't just self-centered sin. It is an inwardness which disregards the value of humanity - both next door and in the mirror.

I may worry about money, but I am learning to weep for souls. Souls that are lost, wayward, straying from God gleefully. Souls that are broken to the point that they are almost completely detached from their bodies. Souls that are so hardened to all of life that they are little else besides breathing statues. Souls that are oblivious to a higher purpose and a greater Kingdom. Souls that are more like zombies of the horror genre than babies knit together in the womb of a glowing mother-to-be.

Nothing is more valuable than the human soul. And when I say "soul" I mean the body, mind and spirit of a human being - not just some vacuous, inner entity. The soul in ancient, Biblical wisdom was the complete being of man. God created souls as the crown of creation. He dared to become flesh in an effort to pull human souls from the sewer of the sinful cosmos. That speaks volumes concerning the worth of my soul and your soul.

I wish I could promise that finding the value in the human soul will make life happier and less painful. It won't. You will, in fact, experience more pain, more anxiety, and more discouragement. But you will hurt and worry and despair over that which is infinitely precious.

You will fathom the previously uncharted depths of prayer. Faith will become a learned skill, not a bullet point on a doctrinal syllabus. Love will reach its tentacles into every fiber of your own soul. Your life will be scarier, more unpredictable, richer and fuller than ever before.

I have learned this as a friend, a son, a husband, a parent, a minister, and a fellow soul. I wouldn't trade my scars for anything in the world.

Frenzy or Funeral?

2008-12-11T20:07:00.001-06:00

Not much of a choice, huh? When Christians get together it seems like it is either some kind of tongue-speaking, snake-holding, Spirit-slaying, sweat-shouting revival or the folks gathered speak in whispers and look as though they had stock in GM or AIG. I wonder how honored God is in either setting.

I'm not suggesting that God cannot be honored in lives that push the envelope of exuberance or lie beneath the exterior of the living dead. I'm only looking for the answers here. Should not our hearts, when genuinely in awe of our astounding God, be so powerfully booming in our chests that something dynamic happens in corporate worship?

The key to hearts united in genuine and obvious worship is purpose. Are the people united in purpose? Is our gathering about God receiving glory and the world being changed by our witness to His glory?

There is an electricity which buzzes through the crowd at a U2 concert or a Rams game (preferably a game in which they are competitive). The people there are from every imaginable strata of culture, and yet are united in the purpose of the event. And you can feel it. The crowd is alive and almost has a life of its own. Why does the Church rarely get to this place, except at a Promise Keepers conference (remember those?)?

We cannot manufacture this. And we do not want to somehow imitate the world's gatherings. But if the Holy Spirit of God inhabits a people who are gathered in His name, for His purpose, singing Him praises, and surrendered to His will, I would think something tangibly powerful would begin to sizzle.

Do you long for this?

The Cyber Affair

2008-12-11T19:59:00.001-06:00

The number of ministers who have fallen due to sexual indiscretion is tragic. On almost a monthly basis, another name surfaces, and as God weeps, and the church cringes, and fellow ministers mourn, and the watching world shakes its head in disgust, the Kingdom luster increasingly fades.

Many of us who have managed to keep our names from that list are relieved to have escaped, but may be wrestling with an affair just as deadly. Because of the invasiveness of technology, too many ministers/men/women/whoever are able to have private affairs which may never surface in this life. And they are just as deadly. Perhaps more so as they remain hidden and slowly drain the Spirit's power from those who are web adulterers.

If you think about it, this tactic of Satan is ingenious. Move the realm of sexual indiscretions to a battleground that can devastate far more victims because of the lure of perceived secrecy and immunity. Of course, Jesus cut this off at the pass with His clarification of the issue in Matthew 5:27-30, but most of us seem to miss the point and still slip behind the veil to indulge our lusts. In years previous, to live a Solomon lifestyle (a plurality of mistresses and wives), one had to be fairly public about it. It was pretty tough to hide. Now we have the illusion of privacy.

Culture has not only bought the lie from the view of the web adulterer, but from the view of the non-offender. The reasoning goes:

What a person does in the privacy of his/her own home is his/her own business. Just keep it out of view and do it on your own time.

Don't miss this: No sin is committed in a vacuum. Those who think their private dalliances are truly private are sadly mislead. Every thought that is nurtured or corrupted works its way out in our behavior. The private web adulterer begins to assess each woman/man as to her/his sexual potential and looses a healthy perspective on her/his soul. That begins to trickle down to those he/she influences.

The brokenness of individual lives, families and society as a whole is a symptom largely, I believe, of this perceived isolation of private sin from public impact. Individual choices made in countless moments through times pile upon one another as snowflakes on a mountainside. Eventually the mass reaches a critical point, the stirring begins, there is a ripple of energy and in moments the avalanche begins.

It is no respecter of persons. Those near and far are caught up in its rush - some to a deadly degree, some merely dusted on the edges, others watching across a valley, but none are left unchanged by the destruction.

Spend long enough in Matthew 5-7 and you begin to discover the Kingdom of God. "The kingdom of God," as one of my college professors so rightly stated, "is the reign of God in the hearts of men." Christ reveals that God rules in us when He has captured our heart. We may not become sinless, but we are rescued from the oppressive reign of sin. We are not content to simply love the lovely; we love those who hate us. We resist not only revenge; we relish humble charity toward those who mistreat us. We go beyond allegiance to our commitments; we become people of such sterling integrity that "I promise..." becomes irrelevant. We are sexually pure in body - and in mind. We not only keep our hands free from blood; we renounce anger in favor of reconciliation.

Christ followers walk with him from the inside-out. Cyber affairs are as detestable as fornication in the town square.

And this is just the beginning, for being a disciple of the Son of God is not only about what He purges from your life, but what He embeds into your soul. . .

GPSing in the Big City

2008-12-11T19:32:00.001-06:00

I am woefully cheap. When my wife chose to buy a car that most would consider a luxury vehicle, I felt it was a bit too extravagant. Why do we need seats that heat and cool, audio controls on the steering wheel, and a full-blown GPS system?

Having returned from three days in downtown Chicago, I am a believer. In fact, I mean that quite literally. I have been to Chicago about three times, and, while I don't find it overly intimidating, I usually feel compelled to take time in advance to study city maps and become somewhat comfortable with street layouts and landmark locations.

I needn't stress the big city any more. In fact, I packed everything for the trip, forgetting my Chicago city map, and never worried. Not with "Deb" on board.

"Deb" is the name we have given to our on board GPS system because it uses a soothing woman's voice to provide directions. Deb has been nearly perfect in her guidance. We have come to the point where we trust her implicitly. She has proved Internet mapping services to be flawed. We simply punch in the street address and let Deb lead us onward.

After Deb had brilliantly navigated us from the bowels of Chicago to the open lanes of central Illinois, I reflected on the "faith" I have increasingly placed in her. And I wondered why my trust in God's guidance is not as pure.

The payoff for heeding Deb's instructions is immediate. When Deb tells me I have reached my destination, I know instantly whether she is right or not. In fact, during the journey there are opportunities to see if Deb is on target. If she says "Turn left" and there is no street to the left, Deb stands condemned. For the record, excepting for areas under construction, Deb has mislead me only once.

In trusting God for guidance, I must turn and proceed in faith many times, not knowing where His voice is leading me. The trustworthiness of God's guidance on some of the journeys is validated along the way, perhaps at the end. But sometimes, even when the journey is "done," questions may linger.

Am I there yet?

Where am I?

Is this a rest stop, or the final destination?

What now?

This is the fear and the joy of traveling in the realm of the Spirit. All the analogies of life's road maps and sign posts fade in meaning. There are not always clear markers or even distinct journeys, thus creating times of intense confusion and anxiety, and, at other times, an appreciation of the freedom we have to explore and know that God has our back.

As we navigated the streets of Chicago, it was a blessed assurance to hear Deb's clear voice. She speaks and we listen, unless we are up for an adventure in the land of the lost. When we try to stray from Deb's determined path, she lets us know and commands us to "Make a legal U-turn" and get back on track. We can decrease the volume of her commands, but that would be foolish.

God's voice is not so clear. Many times God may have no specific route for us to travel. While God's grand purposes are unified and unchanging, our individual journeys toward fulfillment are varied. Some offer similar terrain. Some are completely unique. Many are the roads which offer opportunities for declaring the glory of God.

Because there is ONE God and ONE Lord, Jesus Christ, we assume there is but ONE way to honor God along the journey that is our life.

If I miss that ONE job, that ONE relationship, or mishandle that ONE decision, I am spiritually AWOL, forever doomed to wander in the badlands of disobedience!

But God is not so limiting. On the one hand, disobedience is a narrow way. When God is specific about what we are to do, or what we are not to do, obedience cannot be partial. That is sin. I cannot respond to God's prohibition to lust by lusting in different ways and be congratulated for my ingenuity and my creative disobedience. And I cannot respond to God's command to love my wife by loving every one else and everything else, while neglecting the woman to whom I have pledged my life. I must lust after no one and no thing. And I must love my wife specifically.

Obedience, in contrast to disobedience, is often a broad path, with many options for honoring the Father. In loving my wife, I can love her by sacrificial acts of service. I can love her by faithfully praying for her. I can love her by exhibiting a gracious spirit in her presence. I can love her by showering her with presents. I can love her by challenging her to spiritual maturity. The options are nearly limitless.

Deb has a specific route for my journey. She does exhibit grace when I begin to make an "unapproved" turn. She will re-compute the route, and continue her directions. But she alters her chosen path only when I force her to do so.

God's journey, while committed to the destination, sees the value in a variety of side trips and a good bit of meandering. In fact, the meandering develops the traveler. God is in control of the destination. It will be the same for all of us who faithfully head in His direction. The journey, however, is varied for each one because while we travel, God builds us.

Unlike Deb, the voice of God is not always so clear. Our ears may not be tuned to the frequency of His voice. The times when He does speak more directly to steer us from danger or toward a golden opportunity, we may be distracted by the shouts of the world or the tunes of our selfishness. The key to a journey which arrives where God desires, and traverses in a God-glorifying way is to listen. He may not speak at every turn, but when the moment is crucial, we do well to give Him our ear.

I wish you well on the journey. I wish you ears to hear. I wish you wisdom and adventure along the way. I look forward to seeing you when we get there.

The Price of Natural

2008-12-07T22:17:00.001-06:00

I spent a week back home (Ohio) to visit family and friends recently. One morning I decided to take a walk in a nearby park surrounding a small lake. When I was a kid this lake and its environs weren't much to look at. An old ramshackle marina perched on one edge of the lake, a few moderately-priced homes surrounding the marina. Much of the rest of the area was swampy and overgrown - an impenetrable wilderness.

Some years ago the community decided to transform the mundane lake property. The small library in the township had burned and the lake area, several miles away, but still in the township, seemed a great spot to build a new one. Along with the construction of a beautiful, larger and high tech library, the marina received an extreme makeover, and walking trails were meticulously planned and placed. The park is now a beautiful place drawing people to the library, wilderness walks, and fishing/boating. It is not a commercial venue, but a simple, restful spot in the midst of an otherwise residential community.

As I walked one of the many trails, I was impressed by the quality of the surface under my feet. My concern for the bottom line drew my eyes away from the sweet nature surrounding me.

"I wonder what this cost? Who paid for this? Private donations? Tax levy?"

It was a beautiful day made more spectacular by the nice walking conditions. But the cynical Dave would not be suppressed.

"A walk in the woods can sure cost a lot. Why not just walk on the streets of the neighborhood, or make your own path through the woods?"

My cynicism hemorrhaged as my mind skittered.

"I'm kind of thirsty. Wish I had a bottle of water. A bottle of water. . . Isn't it absurd that we actually pay money for the stuff that flows from the kitchen spigot? I wonder how many billions the world spends on bottled water each year? And the cost of recycling all those bottles?"

A walk in the woods and a swig of water. Our forefathers would roll their eyes in disgust. So pampered and indebted we have become over such things.

The reason these thoughts plagued me was because they were representative of our yearning to return to the simple things, but in a complicated way. I didn't seek a Bowflex® or a Coke®. I wanted what Survivorman and Bear Grylls get for nothing each week - a walk in the woods and a drink of water. We want it simple, but convenient. And there is an emptiness in the costly simplicity.

Honestly, I didn't allow these frugal thoughts to ruin the relaxing scamper through the glade. I even left the trail at one point to scale a hill through the piling leaves. But I've thought a lot about how much we hunger for the simple life and are willing to dig deep in our pockets to pay for it. The truth is, it costs little to nothing IF we are willing to accept it as the gift it is. When we want it to fit the puzzle of our busy, techno-lives it becomes an expensive piece. It must be retro-fitted. Package the water in an ergonomic, recyclable bottle. Pave the path with materials both recycled and amiable to ankles and knees.

How about the simplicity of isolation? Cage the time on our crammed calendars and save up the bucks for the plane ticket and the pricey resort, only to discover that everyone else is seeking isolation there too. Or find solace by plugging $20 earbuds into a $200 mp3 player. Noisy, but alone. . . sort of.

I don't have an easy answer for doing simple cheaply. We are enmeshed in a complicated and expensive world. But start by walking where the path isn't paved. And find a reusable water bottle. You might come across a spring to fill it.

"I approved this message."

2008-11-13T18:17:00.001-06:00

Aren't you sick of that expression? Hold on a minute. One more Man would like to speak. . .

Could Jesus Christ look at our words, our thoughts, our lives, and say the same thing?

Fighting Entropy

2008-10-10T16:32:00.001-05:00

I had the privilege of hearing Garrison Keillor perform live a few nights ago. Early in his performance he said something that was very clarifying for me. I can't quote it, but he was talking about the sonnets that he memorized as a child and how, later in life, these structured elements have become more valued to him. He observed that as we grow older we become more endeared to structure and form. In our younger days we are drawn to randomness and flying this way and that.

I immediately knew what he meant. There is a fascination by younger people to find comfort in randomness. I have seen this especially in theology. Younger believers are entranced by a worldview which embraces wildly divergent "truths." This worldview is not simply a syncretism of unorthodox views, but a casual collection of views that previously would never have been considered compatible standing along, let alone woven together. It produces a bizarre tapestry. And that tapestry is a constant work in progress, perhaps, after a time, barely resembling anything close to orthodoxy.

What I appreciate in this is the allowance of the dynamic nature of theology - not that truth changes, but that our understanding and application of it does. I also admire the ability to live with mystery, for God is a God of mystery and the obsession of many through the ages to define and systematize God has sometimes served to emasculate God of sovereignty to a degree. A bent, however, toward preferring randomness has also led to some rather unbiblical, even anti-biblical, beliefs. While we must be comfortable with mystery as a basic element of God's nature, we must never be so enamored of it that we choose it when clear truth stands ready to be grasped.

At the other end of the theological scale reclines the older folks in churches (not all of these are chronologically older, but all are spiritually aged) who resist change and insist that if it is not done the way it has always been done, we have adopted heresy. Often these older ones (note how I haven't yet aligned myself with this demographic?) conveniently forget that in years previous they were the ones on the cutting edge of change and were in tension with their elders who have long since passed away.

I am increasingly appreciative of the security that is provided to older adults when the church holds fast to certain traditions. In the world around them they see constant change. Everyday they are pressed to keep up with innovation that will make their life easier, and they are looking for some place to provide some bedrock amid the shifting sands. Their local church is often the only place that offers that hope. When that unchanging refuge becomes fluid in terms of music styles, authority structures, schedules, ministry objectives, programming, and architectural appearance, they panic and fear that all is being reduced to rubble and quicksand.

And yet, as I age, I hope to maintain a balance between the importance of change and the value of tradition. I have acquired a taste for structure. Flying by the seat of my pants spiritually doesn't cut it anymore. I need set times, places and habits to keep my soul sharp and strong.

And this growing hunger for structure is, I believe, one of the marks of God's image in us. In contrast to the world around us, God moves from chaos to order. Even in original creation, the chaos was invaded by the structured power of God - dividing light and darkness, separating water from land, declaring day and night. Could it be that, as we age in Him, we grow a heart that values order?

At the same time, God is a being of mystery. His character and purposes do not change, but His processes are often unpredictable. His Spirit is unpredictable, Jesus said (see John 3), but He is, simultaneously, a Being of order. God can be mysterious and unpredictable in our sight (He is not mysterious or unpredictable to Himself, as though He exists and accomplishes with randomness and does not know what He will do next), but human beings do so at great risk. We must be willing to be ordered by God's Spirit. This is precisely the paradoxical truth of Galatians 5:23 which declares the final facet of Spirit-fruit as "self control." We are ordered within ourselves, but not by ourselves. God provides the structure of His Spirit. We control the self by surrendering and choosing to not control ourselves. We give the reins to the Spirit of God in us.

Trusting the governance of God's truth, will and Spirit will take us in directions of mystery and structure, but never down paths of randomness. In the places where order is obvious, I will embrace God's structure. And when God's plan is ambiguous, I will trust His certainty to hold me close. In either condition, my faith-steps lead to maturing health, not aging decay.

God has graciously given me the structures of spiritual disciplines to help me find order in the midst of a universe in decay. I values these more every day. They enable me to navigate the phases of life which mysteriously shift beneath my feet, serving as an anchor of His sovereign wisdom. Paradoxically, I can live more comfortably with mystery and the unknown/unknowable because I have those other places which are solid and established. My house, when built on the rock, will stand.

Your Top Five

2008-10-09T21:17:00.001-05:00

One of the greatest dangers to the Kingdom of God is the Christian, armed with the law of God. Like two six-shooters strapped to his/her side, the laws of God can become weapons with tremendous destructive power when placed in the hands of the prideful.

This is, I believe, exactly one of the reasons that God clearly warned the man and woman in Eden to NOT eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Opening that Pandora's Box (sorry for mixing mythology with Biblical truth - I don't equate them except for this brief analogy) would lead to a long painful journey for mankind, and a costly solution from the hand and heart of God.

The intricate minutiae of the Mosaic law illustrates this precisely. But even more deadly is how we wield this truth. Once we become a child of God we often believe that we have been deputized by God to roam the prairies and rope in the outlaws. We are on God's side and suppose we speak for Him.

See if you don't fall into this trap. Take a moment to think about the top five sins. You can choose the criteria for this judgment in any way you like. What's tops on your list?

It would be fascinating to see the lists of people from different cultures and different generations, for we are morally shaped by the bubble in which we find ourselves. A Midwest top five would be quite different from a West Coast top five. Go to various geographical regions, politically diverse communities, and the array of religious centers, and the responses would differ wildly.

Now compare your top five with God's. What? How do we do that? Well, comb through the Bible and see what sinful habits God addresses most often. You might be surprised by what you find, and how pitifully your top five compares with His.

Many conservative Christians today might have something like this:

Homosexuality
Adultery
Abortion
Pornography
Substance abuse

Now, I haven't done a study of this (yet), but from casual observation, I would say that God's top five might be:

Idolatry (which comes in a multitude of forms)
Materialism/Greed
Injustice to the powerless and poverty-stricken
Cold faith
Reckless language

I'm not sure where that takes us, exactly, but pondering this might just help us refocus on how we do:

Personal holiness
Worship
Evangelism
Benevolence
Relationships

Care to share your Top Five?

Sting Lessened

2008-09-26T11:56:00.001-05:00

After watching the UNRANKED Oregon State Beavers beat #1 USC last night, 27-21, the sting of Ohio State's pounding at the hands of the Trojans has been slightly alleviated.

I tip my hat to another OSU to the northwest. Well done! I would now rank USC at #15 or worse. We'll see what the "experts" determine.

The Dangers of Self-Diagnosis

2008-09-12T20:11:00.001-05:00

I was listening to someone tell a story the other day about an elderly woman who was scheduled for an examination at a hospital. This woman, in her 90's, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was defiant. She refused to submit to the exam that was crucial for her health and well-being. To make her point, she managed to produce some rather colorful language. The well-meaning medical staff had her best interests in mind, but because she felt she knew best, she refused to cooperate.

As I was listening to this tale, like a lightning bolt, I thought about ministry in the local church. After all, doesn't every event in life have some parallel to ministry, serving as fodder for a future sermon illustration?

Anyway, it was so powerful I shared it immediately to those listening and they immediately saw how true it was. In the context of ministry, as those of us in leadership attempt to provide ways for people to grow and achieve greater spiritual health, certain people are determined to exhibit the belligerence of this dear woman. Her mind, being ravaged by a disease which disabled sound reason, rendered her a victim to her own misguided thoughts. In the same vein, people of perfectly sound mind (?) are being asked to voluntarily take this step or that in order to progress in their walk with Jesus Christ, but they are adamant. No way! Their self-diagnosis keeps them spiritually infantile and stunted. What they perceive as self-preservation is actually self-imposed soul decay.

Now, granted, not every idea that ministry leaders propose is God's clear will or even best for people or the church, but I have seen many reasonable suggestions to disciples rejected, when to have submitted would have at least opened the door of opportunity to greater Christ-likeness. Instead, because it is change, or because it is uncomfortable, or because it is not the way they prefer to do it, it is dismissed. In the wake of this defiance, leaders become exasperated, followers grow more alienated, and the church is weakened.

I, too, am often resistant to physical examinations. My favorite line following a refusal to see an MD for a current ailment is, "Let's wait until the autopsy." It's a guy thing. When I say that, most guys laugh with approval. Most women shake their head in disgust.

Disciples of Jesus and churches of Jesus can ill-afford such complacency. IF God has placed the leaders in your local church for the purpose of leading, and IF the leaders are prayerfully determining the direction of the local church, and IF you have, as a member, pledged to honor your local church leaders, your rebellion is a coup against the Kingdom at some level. You have become a renegade sheep. And sheep are notorious for following other sheep, whether wayward or homeward.

Curing Forgetfulness

2008-08-20T22:14:00.001-05:00

I figure that by this time in my life I have preached somewhere between 1700 and 2000 sermons. A lot of words. A lot of study time. A lot of forgotten stuff. Forgotten, not only by my listeners, but also by me.

If the Church of Jesus Christ had a better collective memory, we would have turned the world upside down by now. The Kingdom of God would have so powerfully moved into our communities and homes that Satan would have been sent packing centuries ago. The reason this has not occurred is because the distance from our cerebral cortex to our hearts and hands and lips is further than we know. If only God would have designed us as efficiently as Apple does its computers. Slap the information in, and the machine performs precisely the task desired.

Human beings are not high tech in that regard. This explains why negative influences around us do not immediately create in us negative behavior. We forget. It is not necessarily a chosen forgetfulness. We simply need some kind of help to "remember."

What can help the marvelous truths that teachers and preachers proclaim become embedded in our minds to the point that hearts and behavior are transformed? The Sunday School answer is:

Trust the Holy Spirit and prayerfully commit to become what we've heard.

This is certainly an important aid for developing a transforming Christ-memory. But we tend to need something more.

The spiritual disciplines that have been practiced through the millennia provide a powerful part of the answer. To some people these are the habits of monks, nuns and cloistered fanatics. To others they are occasional practices which disciples of Jesus can pick and choose from the buffet of spiritual delicacies:

If it helps you, feel free to try some. Have your fill. When it bores you, drop it in favor of something more apropos.

But truly transformed people through the ages have recognized that consistent application of these habits (Scripture reading / study / memorization / meditation, prayer, fasting, worship, confession, fellowship, service, solitude, silence, tithing, etc.) does something to the soul. It gives the heart a better memory.

The mind forgets, but the body tends to remember. The first time I recall learning this lesson was when I was in my late 20s. We had organized our first Super Bowl party with the high school youth in the church we served in SE Kansas. Before the game and food, we had a football game at the nearby schoolyard. It began as flag football. Quickly the flags were cast away as foolish, and we played football like it was meant to be played. Everyone, young and old, male and female literally threw themselves at one another in a no-holds-barred game of tackle football. No pads, no helmets, no fear. No problem?

The next morning I could barely move. Now please understand that I am no wimp. I grew up in Ohio. I have played football all my life. We played in blazing sun, torrential rains (the best!) and waist-high snows. We played in the morning, stopped to eat for sustenance only, then played through the afternoon, and, after a brief break, played until dark. If we had had a ball with a light in it, we would have played until bedtime. I was no stranger to this brutality. But my body was older now, and at sun's rise, it would not allow me to forget what I had done to it the previous afternoon. The next year we decided to name an MVP of the game each year, but the MVP stood for "Most Vertebrae Popped."

Spiritual disciplines capitalize on this ability of the body to remind us of what our minds often forget. The classic disciplines of Jesus-followers "force" our bodies to incarnate spiritual principles. As we continue to do this, our body remembers and begins to bring the heart and mind along with it. As the discipline becomes a habit, our bodies yearn for prayer, for worship, for confession, for service. . . for God.

We are broken people. Sin has fractured our souls and the image of God which gives it shape. The disciplines provide a cast which helps the shattered bones of our soul become re-aligned and grow into their proper strength and shape. The setting of the soul-bones hurts. The cast chafes and itches at times. It becomes cumbersome. But the process enables us to walk as we were intended to walk. Soon the cast (here is where the analogy breaks down) becomes a part of us, growing INto us. It is no longer a noticeable accessory, but our soul assimilates it as a part of our nature, much as the dancer slowly wears away the painted feet on the dance floor until the dance becomes incarnate. He no longer dances. He is a dancer.

This, too, is grace. The grace of becoming what we could never have become by our own efforts. As the Spirit wields the tools of these disciplines, we are made new again. Christ is formed IN us (Galatians 4:19).

With renewed vigor, I surrender to the disciplines, recognizing them not as chains of law, but tethers of grace, lifting me to things above.

When the Heat Is On

2008-08-19T21:01:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago the temperatures were absolutely blistering here. It was on those days that the argument favoring the reality of global warming made a lot of sense. The last couple weeks have been marvelously cool. In my 25 years of living in this area of the country, I can never remember it being like this in August. So now the Ice Age theory seems more likely.

I have tried to remain open-minded in my assessment of the whole global warming debate. Of these two things I am fairly sure:

The climate in most regions seems slightly warmer than it was 30 years ago.
Man-made pollution does have some kind of affect on our global environment.

The questions that nag at me, however, are these:

How has the climate changed over longer spans of time? Global warming and ice age prophets both seem to focus on a handful of decades, when the atmospheric cycles for the history of the earth - regardless if you believe it has been here for 6000 years or 4 billion years - would be far more instructive as to what is "normal." Though the debate rages, areas like Greenland had a much warmer annual climate in the ancient past than today (thus the name). Ice core samples reveal lush forests and vast insect populations.
How accurately can we ever know what the climate was like, say, 100 years ago? The precision of single or fractions of degrees cannot be reliably determined in past generations due to the nature of the apparatuses used then, or the lack of any apparatus at all. Even using current technology to assess ice cores and other samples could not possibly be accurate to the degree (pun intended) needed for evaluating environmental changes.
Is even the worst of our pollutants able to actually alter atmospheric conditions over the long haul? We cannot automatically jump to cause-effect assumptions simply because we now pollute more and temperatures have risen (if they have). What other factors may be the cause? What pollutants which actually come from creation itself (forest fires, volcanic eruptions, flatulating cattle, etc.) are a part of the effect? A friend recently directed me to a website which tracks sunspot activity which indicates a strong correlation between sunspot activity and temperature change cycles. The more potential factors that are added to the list, the more improbable it becomes that we can ever, with any integrity, say what causes climate change. The combination of factors becomes so complex that there exists no laboratory big enough, or computer powerful enough, to combine the factors and come to an accurate conclusion.
In what specific ways is the climate affected by man-made pollutants? The talk today is about global warming, but when I was a kid in the early 70s, the were panicked about the coming ice age. There are some "scientists" who claim that every bizarre atmospheric condition that we see is the result of global warming - record blizzards, scorching heat waves, and killer hurricanes. How is that possible? If our pollution causes such random events, then we wouldn't be talking about global warming. We would be concerned about warming for a brief time followed by freezing conditions, followed by massive floods, then devastating droughts. . .

I am (obviously) no scientist. I don't even do much armchair-meteorology. But I do consider my connection to this issue as a follower of Jesus Christ. I affirm that the God of Scripture created this world and all that exists. When He created human beings, God charged us with having "dominion over" (not a term for abusive or uncaring sovereignty) the planet and its multi-faceted life forms. God's direction definitely allows man the privilege of "exploiting" parts of creation for his own benefit (see Genesis 1:26-29), but we have also been called to be good stewards of all that God has given.

The concept of stewardship is throughout the Bible, and we usually apply it to money, the gospel, our lives, or other "spiritual" issues. Seldom do we discuss our stewardship of creation. If God desires us to be good stewards of our material possessions, and God desires us to be good stewards of His truth and life itself, doesn't it make sense that anything that falls in between those two extremes (material to eternal) should be "stewarded" as well? How can we become passionate about spending $100 properly, yet not care about how we treat the earth that God created and pronounced as "Good"? Regardless of whether global warming is a reality or not, our role as caretakers of God's creation is a Scriptural mandate.

Our very existence on this planet will cause the environment to be impacted, but the severity of the impact can be greatly altered by our lifestyle. When venturing into wilderness areas, hikers and campers are instructed to "leave no trace" or live in such a way as to leave "minimal impact." This shows respect for the beauty of God's handiwork.

The difficult part of this philosophy comes in determining where the line is crossed from honoring and respecting the creation of God to worshipping it. When does my insistence on minimal impact become more oppressive to man than to creation? When does creation begin to have dominion over human beings? Herein lies the heart of the ecology debate. And much of this is rooted in vastly differing opinions on what constitutes necessity as opposed to luxury. Progress in technology has impacted creation as both manufacturing methods, and the goods produced (or the maintenance of them) pollute our environment. But the technology boom has also elevated the health and life span of people throughout the world. How much is enough? Where is a God-honoring balance?

It is important as a follower of Jesus for me to be "green" to a certain degree (pun not intended). As I consider the fact that God made the ground I walk on, the air I breath, the water I drink, the food I eat (unless it came from a cardboard box or a drive-thru window), and the people I see. As an expression of worship to God, I treat all of these with honor. I used to dump my motor oil on the backyard brush pile. I recycle it now. I used to throw discarded mail and most trash into a landfill. I now take time to sort and recycle what I can. I think more about the conservation of gasoline, not only because it impacts my wallet, but because it has some kind of impact on the air quality in my community. I am more carefully thinking through more of my actions in regard to the environment, not because it's preservation is my ultimate goal, but because what God has created deserves my respect.

And your thoughts would be. . .?

The Pain of Change

2008-08-07T20:59:00.001-05:00

I heard it said years ago:

People will not truly change until the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the pain of change.

In other words, no one changes because they want to change. They change because their backs are against the wall and the self-preservation mode kicks in. Change or die.

Until that point of necessary change arrives, change is given lip service, but seldom adopted. In fact, the corollary to the above axiom is this:

Significant change is always noticeable. Therefore, superficial change is preferable.

What I mean by this is simply that genuine change is so radical that people around us will notice, and we will have "some 'splainin' to do." Pardon the Ricky Ricardo moment. We will be forced to give a defense for our rebellion against the status quo.

For instance, if I decide that following Jesus means I need to be more vocal in my testimony about Jesus, then I have two basic options:

I must begin to speak consistently to family and friends about Jesus and His impact in and sovereignty over my life. It doesn't necessarily mean I become obnoxious, but that I intentionally seek opportunities to turn most conversations to the topic of Who reigns in my life.
I can begin diligently praying about speaking to others, and can begin to do so in church and at home (presuming my family is Christian). Occasionally, I may even dare to speak to others about Christ when the door swings wide open or some visitors come to church.

If I decide that following Jesus means living more simply, then I can choose between these two options:

I will see the need to sell my over-sized home and move into a smaller one. I will buy a simple, used and more efficient car. I will sell much of my "stuff" and give the profits away to Kingdom projects.
I can begin to pray about how to live more simply. I may choose to unload the "stuff" I don't use anymore and the clothes that don't fit me or that are out of style.

If I realize that following Jesus means being more open to people who are different than me, I have two choices:

I will begin to have those people in my home for meals, and begin to actually share my life with them.
I can begin to say "Hi" consistently to those different than me, and sometimes even sit by them in church.

I could go on, but I thought about the areas in which I struggle to genuinely change. I've done pretty well at the #2 options above. The #1 options aren't nearly as attractive. If I changed in those ways, people would notice. My family would notice. They would think I've gone off the deep end. People in my sphere of influence would sympathetically concur with my family and pray for my "holier-than-thou" phase to pass quickly.

The convicting fact to me is that deep, genuine change should be the norm for us. If the Lordship of Christ is growing in our lives, and the Spirit is increasingly filling us, we should be consistently changing in foundational ways. Each year a new Dave should be evident. Instead, we can know one another for years and see virtually no change in basic behaviors, passions and attitudes.

When we do become convinced that change is best, we dip our big toe in first to test the water, then hope to slowly immerse ourselves. No diving in this end of the pool! And what usually happens? We end up wading into our navels and never truly immerse ourselves.

Is my life in Jesus Christ dynamic or stagnant? Is there a need for me to do a cannonball every now and then into the deep end? Maybe the splash will encourage others to jump in too.

Into what "deep end" do you find it hard to dive?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

2008-08-03T22:06:00.001-05:00

I can now endure the remainder of summer heat. I can see light at the end of the dark tunnel.

Football is back, baby!

The Story of Your Life

2008-07-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

In our Tuesday morning men's Bible study/breakfast we have been reading and discussing our way through Genesis. Whenever I approach the narrative sections of Scripture, the preacher mode kicks in and I look for the theological angle. I try to consistently ask,

What does this reveal about God and/or His Kingdom?

This strategy has been powerful for crafting sermons, sculpting lessons, and even for shaping my personal life. But our weekly discussions have helped me re-discover one gem-like paradigm. These are the lives of people.

No, you didn't miss something. I didn't accidentally delete a prophetic insight. That is it. In Genesis, and in so much of the Bible, I am reading the stories of men, women and children, much like me (minus ancient and eastern culture).

Between the slices of bread we call life and death, are the deli meats and condiments of everyday stuff. People dream, and they disagree. Greed erupts and, occasionally, compassion is the hero. Deception makes numerous appearances. Deals are made for goods and land and mercy. Families fight. They also relocate. With them, we celebrate marriages and births. And alongside them, we mourn betrayals and death.

The storyteller supplies us their names, their ages, their addresses (sort of), and even their conversations. He paints their joy, rage, doubt, fear, hope, confusion, anticipation, relief and fatigue. In those pages we feel the heat of the midday sun. We feel the breeze and see the dust. We smell the livestock and taste the honey. We blush at the sight of indiscretion. We hear the thunder and feel the tremors. Their story becomes our story.

And right in the middle of life, God appears. Sometimes visibly, sometimes audibly, often just cloaked in the mystery of life. But He is there on every page. While Isaac is scraping sheep dung from his sandal, or Joseph is marking another day off on the prison wall, God sits next to them with another invitation. Stories intersect. It is still their story, but it has been engulfed in God's story.

When I miss that simple point, I miss something huge. My life will never be filled with voices from heaven, descending angels, walking firepots, parted seas and giant-killing. My life-story will be fairly ordinary. But in the ordinary God is waiting. He is waiting for His story to be the context of my story.

Live your life. And pay attention. You have a featured role in God's drama.

The Essence of Nothing

2008-07-17T12:44:00.001-05:00

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

The beginning words of one of Scripture's most beloved and well-known passages - Psalm 23 - reflects the bountiful supply of our Creator. He creates to fill voids. He abhors a vacuum. "Fullness" is what he seeks. His two major movements of original creation were: 1) giving order to chaos, and 2) filling that which was empty. When any part of creation is lacking fullness, it is not just incomplete, it is "not good." When man's life was empty of a companionship which was adequate (animals fell short), the woman provided fullness, just as the Creator-Father intended, for He withholds from His children no good thing.

Because God is constantly giving fullness to the empty spaces, emptiness or the state of nothingness is a departure from His design and desire. We can see this illustrated in a number of ways throughout created reality. The lack of heat produces the state of cold. The lack of light produces the state of darkness. When love ceases to exist, the state of apathy becomes reality. And, in the ultimate display of the power of God's good and powerful fullness, when life is extinguished, death enters the room.

In William P. Young's book The Shack, the character Sarayu - a manifestation of the Holy Spirit - counsels the main character, Mack, about understanding the interplay between good and evil in the world.

"Mackenzie, evil is a word we use to describe the absence of Good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of Light or death to describe the absence of Life. Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence."

Light / Darkness

Darkness is paralyzing, denying balance by removing the textures of our physical environments. Darkness is a gradual stain, seeping into every crevice as light wanes. It curses with the damning power of shadows, but only at the abdication of light's force. When night begins to fall, the darkness invades like the cockroaches who tend to inhabit it. Bit by bit, bug by bug, the inky blackness crawls from ebony wombs.

Light and darkness is often used as a metaphor for good and evil. And as the lack of light creates the presence of darkness, so the lack of good creates the presence of evil. Darkness and evil are not divinely-created entities, which explains how a good God could tolerate evil in His creation. He has created all things "good," as the Genesis account repeatedly states. It is when "good" is ignored that evil is birthed into a tangible reality. We, rebellious creatures, "create" evil by pushing aside good and establishing a vacuum which becomes filled by the adversary of the good.

The lack of evil's substance is affirmed by the act of man doing good. When someone chooses to be benevolent, to speak with kindness, to offer love in any way, evil suddenly evaporates. Good has filled the void of evil. Thus, John's announcement in John 1:5:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Darkness/evil has no grip on light/good, for it holds no power and no actual presence. A match can devour it's cloak in an instant. It is a wispy shadow capable of nothing but deception, disguising good. It is impotent when good marches forward.

Love / Apathy

A-pathy is the lack of feeling. It is not just emotionless existence. It is the inability to bleed compassion for those in pain. It is a paralysis of the heart. When one possesses apathy he/she actually possesses nothing, for the God-heart has, then, ceased to beat within the soul.

Love fills the void. Love is the active reach of the God-heart into the existence of others. In spite of, or even in defiance of, our coldness, we choose to feel life's pain and to step into the misery of the suffering one whom we encounter along the side of Jericho Avenue.

Apathy wishes others no ill will. It simply wishes. . . nothing. Apathy is deaf to the cries of agony, and blind to the river of blood. Apathy is too distracted by self to extend compassion, for compassion requires attention, effort and sacrifice.

Love requires so much, because it is the fullness of God's compassion. Apathy is a much better bargain for the miserly soul, for it costs nothing and yields the benefit of personal peace.

Life / Death

When God took the dust of the earth and formed it, it was shell of dirt containing. . . nothing. It was not until He breathed into it "spirit" (literally, in both Hebrew and Greek, breath) that flesh was inhabited and the fullness of life blossomed. When a man dies, the soul vacates the shell. Death is the separation of spirit from flesh. Death is the state of non-life.

Life crowds out the hint of death. Breath. Beat. Flex. Blink. Rustle. Each is a harbinger of life and the denial of death.

Hope / Despair

If "faith is the assurance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1), then, if I may be so bold, I would say that hope is the assurance of things believed. To some people hope is a wish or a dream. Such kinds of "hope" are, at best, strong maybes. They are the things we anticipate with crossed fingers and held breaths. We will not be surprised if they fail to become reality.

Hope in the Kingdom of God is far greater. Hope in God's realm is simply waiting for the inevitable to be. It is the anticipation of absolute certainty. A trustworthy God has shown us the brochure and all that remains is the passing of time and the unfolding of events under His command. Then that for which we hoped is our possession.

But when we fail to believe the pictures in the brochure, we let our fingers slip from our grip on hope, and certainty flutters away. Despair fills the void, for despair only comes when hope flees.

And So. . .

Each of these dichotomies gives an additional hope. We are, first of all, assured that the enemies of evil, apathy, death and despair are empty specters. They hold no actual power, except the power to intimidate and paralyze by convincing those entranced by their stare that they are formidable and invincible foes. And they are, quite literally, nothing of the sort.

Secondly, placed within our hands is the power to send the empty foes packing by simply utilizing the God-controlled "weapons" of good, love, life and hope. The emptiness need not remain a void. The fullness of His remedy is available to those who, in faith, will grasp it and wield it amid the darkness, the dirges of apathy, the aroma of death, and the clouds of despair.

The Good Shepherd has filled us with all good things. It is only when we, like an obstinate child, push away the plate at the feast, will find ourselves lacking. We have created a vacuum into which rushes evil, apathy, death and despair. Instead, enjoy the feast from the Provider! Lay hold of it with both hands and make the foes of fullness scream with rage.

Choose good.

Choose love.

Choose life.

Choose hope.

Feng Shui with Jesus

2008-05-20T10:45:00.001-05:00

Before you think Dave has gone over the falls of syncretism, let me suggest that even in areas of disagreement we might discover some truth. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy which teaches that geography influences spirit and life. Learning to arrange our material surroundings in a certain way will allow our inner selves to be aligned with our outer world. Most of us are familiar with this terminology in regard to the design of homes, backyard spaces and work places.

I used to think this was a rather silly notion. And yet to do so is to become dualistic in thinking. Is there no connection to the material and the spiritual? Does our physical environment have no affect on our soul? Are we not flesh and spirit?

Granted, my application of this ancient philosophy is not "orthodox." But I have discovered that my relationship to the God who made me and saves me is influenced by the arrangement of the space in my life.

Robert Boyd Munger wrote a beautiful analogy over fifty years ago entitled "My Heart - Christ's Home" in which our life is depicted as a house of varied rooms into which Christ comes to visit as a guest. As He enters each room (symbolic of different facets of our life) we must be willing to surrender that "room" to His authority.

I'd like to take that basic analogy to a detailed focus. Imagine that Christ has been invited into the one room that is your life - for in reality we all live in a one-room cottage. In order for us to engage in a meaningful way with our Guest, we must have the room ordered in a certain way. The furniture must be set so as to facilitate smooth conversation. The sounds, aromas, and lighting - the very texture - of the room must be conducive to intimacy or we can become lost to each other despite our close proximity.

In the room of my life I have too often sought to have intimate engagement with my Lord-Guest while inappropriate pictures hung on the wall, or babbling music blared, or rotting garbage rested in a bag in the corner. Is it any wonder my time with my Guest is forced, uncomfortable and forgettable?

Hard as it may be to admit, there is a vital link between the arrangement of the room of my life and the spirit of relationship being established with God. Jesus cut to the core of it when He declared that worshippers must submit to worshipping God "in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) Here, ironically, Jesus argues that location is not important in worship, but the state of the heart. The state of the heart, however is the "decor" of the inner sanctuary. We cannot have lives resembling a brothel, a factory, a sports bar, or a movie theatre and expect them to also serve as a sanctuary.

For the most part, we meet with God in the sanctuary of our minds. If our minds dwell on pornographic images, greed-driven plans, bitter memories, grudges, or any number of ungodly pursuits, we have created a room which is in complete opposition to fruitful fellowship with the Father. A one-room cottage cannot serve divided purposes. We do not live in mansions which allow us to have rooms (or whole wings!) for activities and thoughts which dishonor the character of God, while reserving other rooms for "holy" interactions.

Feng Shui with Jesus urges me to pay closer attention to the material furniture of my material home as well. It is where I live. It is where my soul lives. I cannot remain unaffected by the space around me. I may choose to venture into places which are conducive to unrighteousness and be used by God to touch lives. But I can't live there consistently or I become disconnected from my Guest. He is near, but the distractions begin to drown His voice and blur His image.

I don't particularly enjoy remodeling a home, but I enjoy the results. The decor of my mind, my home, and my office needs attention. My Guest deserves the best.

What do you think?

Killer Caterpillars

2008-05-09T21:06:00.001-05:00

About twenty minutes is all it takes. I've seen it. A typical ranch-style home is reduced to a pile of rubble in about twenty minutes. I'm guessing it took at least three or four months to build. And it served as a home for a family for several decades. The only scar now is a dirt lot.

Our church building is situated next to a collection of lots purchased by a major drugstore chain. They are in the process of clearing the land to build. It has been amazing to watch these powerful man-made machines decimate houses, pull over massive oak trees, and remove home-size chunks of earth with so little effort. The power of these steel beasts is awe-inspiring. Tagging them "Caterpillar" seems bizarre. They are certainly not the tiny, fuzzy, docile, silent creatures of the forest that I have watched inch across my finger.

In the New Testament, James presents a similar irony. He compares the hidden organ of taste and speech - the tongue - to a destructive fire and deadly poison. It is so soft, so sensitive, so limited in its power. . . isn't it?

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

James 3:9-10a

About five seconds is all it takes. I've seen it. I've done it. A typical human is reduced to bitterness, or shame, or grief in about five seconds by a tongue run amok. Words ignited by some inner struggle blaze forth and singe innocent ears. The scar may not be visible. It is on the soul. And it never quite goes away.

I have seen the spirit of someone wither by the oppressive heat of scorching speech. Words, sharpened to a keen edge, slice into the heart. You can almost see life's essence flow forth from the wound. The victim is drained of dignity. They are left standing in a pool of shame. The verbal criminal wipes his feet with disgust and prowls away, looking for another potential casualty.

The wound heals in time, but restoring the dignity is like trying to return toothpaste to its tube.

The steel beasts at the work site are in transition. They are no longer destroying. They are manicuring the ground in anticipation of a new structure. They are becoming constructive. The two-faced machines are becoming redemptive in their work.

James tells us that the tongue has the power to curse and bless. The first comes more naturally than the second. Destroying things is so much more instinctual and fun. As a male I can attest to this. My movies can't have too many explosions and car chases. I am still fascinated by fire, breaking glass, and. . . well. . . those earth-shaking Caterpillars next door.

But I am becoming more fascinated with creating. Creating hope. Creating joy. Creating love. Creating grace. With God's help, of course. James closes the third chapter of his letter with an essential insight into steering the tongue toward the path of blessing. It only happens by the wisdom that comes from God.

the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

James 3:17

Remember, caterpillars can still turn into butterflies, reminding us that the earth-bound can soar into the heavens when transforming power reigns.

Someday

2008-04-25T11:40:00.001-05:00

The best thing about a calendar is that is allows us the gift of anticipation. No matter how hideous or fantastic today is, tomorrow holds the promise of something better. The calendar is the producer of endless somedays.

Someday, an eternal day will dawn. Everything that we know will be made shiny and new. Every sense will be heightened.

Lilacs will emit a sweetness that can nearly be seen.

Blues and greens will be vibrant enough to nearly hear.

Music will be rich and deep and nearly touchable.

Silk and sandpaper will generate sensations that can nearly be tasted.

The meat of a strawberry will be so robust in flavor that we will swear our tongue were one huge taste bud.

Someday, the feast will begin, and will never end. Our party clothes will be ever-clean, wrinkle-free, yet comfortable as well-worn flannel pajamas.

My gnarled fingernail that I have nursed since junior high will be smooth and manicured.

The air will be sweet, clear and stench-free. . . always.

Our scars (not His) will be erased.

Garbage cans will no longer be needed for refuse or for the poverty-stricken to find their daily bread.

Little children will no longer grow dim and die.

Weeds and biting flies will be no more, and never missed.

Someday, the Garden will be re-opened and we will once again walk with God in the cool of the day. We will be naked and unashamed. Walls will come down to stand no more.

It will rain exactly when it needs to rain.

I will not sweat or chill.

Our embarrassment will stem from being so blessed, not from being so stupid.

War and murder will be inconceivable concepts.

Blood will be the memory of our redemption, not the stain of our violence.

The voice of God will be heard unfiltered and unfettered, and in hearing Him we will hear one another clearly.

Someday, it will all make sense, even if we don't understand it. We may not have complete explanations, but we will have complete peace. Wisdom will become the living entity which Solomon depicted. Light will not merely come from Him, it will be Him.

The nagging of my conscience will be replaced by unclouded understanding.

Decisions will not be wrestling matches, but settled instincts.

Truth will be Him, not words in a creed.

Our minds will become the mind of Christ with no deviation.

IQ will be irrelevant.

Questions will have a place to rest.

Someday is coming soon. Not to a theatre near you, but growing within you. "The Kingdom is near" Jesus proclaimed, revealing that God was at that very moment beginning the transition to Someday. The Kingdom-seed had been planted. Slowly, but consistently, the seed sprouted, shot forth tendrils, bloomed, and flowered toward the day of a fruit harvest. It is Kingdom-Spring.

Someday is happening around us in the hearts and lives of Kingdom-people. Someday is emerging around us as God works silently (like leaven, mustard seeds and the like).

And one day, the final Someday will burst forth in full bloom.

Dreams, visions, prophecies, wishes and hopes will become precious diamonds.

We will see Him as He is.

He will mold us as we should be.

Joy, peace, love, grace, and light will become forever bold, underlined and capitalized.

Yesterday will be fitted for new clothes.

And Someday will become Today.

I live in today, but on my calendar I have circled Someday.

Cosmetology at the Funeral Home

2008-04-19T10:41:00.001-05:00

I am not the best sleeper, so I will often wake up at night and have these random thoughts which I think, at the time, are rather profound. The following morning I recall my insomniac insights, and generally discard them as unusable, wacky, or just plain moronic. You can decide to which category this one belongs. I apologize in advance for the negative and somewhat gruesome tone of what follows.

We have softened the enemy. In our quest to discover peace in our souls, we have convinced ourselves that even the harshest moments and circumstances of life have a silver lining.

I hear people say, "Everything happens for a reason." The implication is that there is some "hand" (God, destiny, the Force, etc.) which oversees every event and has caused it for a positive purpose. Sorry. I disagree. Sometimes things happen which are purely evil, disgusting, destructive and have absolutely no redeeming value. I will consent (and believe intensely) that God can take the worst mess and bring blessing and glory out of it. But some of the horrific things that occur have, at their core, the intent to decimate.

Last weekend I heard a veteran missionary clarify it. In regard to first-time missionaries entering the mission field, he said, "Satan will not simply cause you some problems. He will try to destroy you." The enemy is DEAD serious. Ask Job someday.

During one of my sleepless moments I thought about our attempts to soften the devastation of death. Every year two million American funerals, at an average cost of $6000, are held. Most of the expense has little to do with disposing of the body.

We have someone clean the body, restore (especially facially) the healthy glow by injecting fluids, filling voids, repairing cuts and scrapes, sewing eyes and mouth shut, and painting on makeup. We have the body clothed in his/her nicest outfit.

The corpse is laid in an ornate box, lined with fluffy, pastel satin with a pillow for the head. Surrounding the loved one we have beautiful floral arrangements (another huge expense), soft pink lighting and soothing music.

The cemetery in which the loved one is buried is likely one of the most beautiful pieces of land around - freshly mown, dotted with flowers, and adorned by polished and ornately engraved granite stones set in neat rows.

All of this is done to provide comfort for those suffering the loss. It makes death bearable.

I realize that these efforts help to calm our raging emotions. I have conducted and attended enough funerals to know how painful this time can be. Providing comfort is an important practice in which we must be engaged.

What we have done, however, is to soften brutal reality. In many other cultures, the corpses, probably due to a lack of financial means, are much more "natural" as they lie on the funeral bier. The injuries suffered or the signs of disease are unmistakable. The discoloration of death is gruesomely evident. Those who mourn are not duped. Before them lies another victim of the specter.

Have we, through our funeral technology, so softened the punch of death that we do not just provide comfort for the grieving, but we actually have begun to view death as a terrorist with which we can negotiate?

Have death and sin and Hell and Satan become so cartoonish that we accept them without crying out to warn their victims that they are the enemies of a conquering Kingdom?

How much more passion might we possess if we faced death in all of its ugliness? The shrinking of our world through worldwide media has helped us to see some of the horror more consistently and graphically, but we are still able to dismiss it with a click of the mouse or the remote. And the appearance of the enemy closer to home has been masked by soft lights and rouge.

The only One who is justified to soften the power of the enemy is Jesus Christ. He sometimes referred to death as "sleep." To the power of the Life-Giver, such a view is understandable. To we who are weak, death is strong. But praise to the Resurrected Lord that through Him we conquer.

At the same time, the destructive power of death was never lost on Jesus. At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus was "deeply moved" (John 11:33, 38) which has been understood as a physical manifestation of grief and/or anger. Jesus, knowing what He was about to do, nevertheless is emotionally stirred by the ugliness of death and its ability to devastate. Though He has come to conquer it, He does not underestimate its power and pain.

And so followers of Jesus Christ walk in the light of victory, but we can never lose sight of the darkness from which we have been delivered, or in which others are trapped. We walk in the light of hope in a land of darkness and death.

Bi-Focularity

2008-04-15T09:46:00.001-05:00

Probably not a word. But it occurred to me one night as I was driving back from Springfield. Isn't it amazing how such random thoughts can become fodder for stuff bloggers want to write about? Aren't we a pathetic lot?

Anyway, I have worn glasses for about 20 years. For my first 26 years of breathing I was always proud of my keen eyesight, boasting to those around me who had glasses/contacts that I was never encumbered by these devices, and I didn't even eat carrots (which, supposedly, are crucial for maintaining healthy vision). Then things began to get blurry.

I denied it for as long as I could, then went to an optometrist and was astounded at how much detail I wasn't seeing until I got my first pair of specs. Ever since, I have had to upgrade the strength of the lenses to keep up with diminishing ocular perception (just thought I'd try out a new phrase).

About three years ago my optometrist - who, by the way, always finds it necessary to tell me a ripping church/minister joke when I plop down in the exam chair - informed me, post-exam, that I was very close to needing bifocals.

How could it be? One so young and vibrant succumbing to the demons of the geriatric world. What was next, to be strapped to a gurney, shuttled to the nearest nursing home and condemned to BINGO hell?

As you might guess, I fervently resisted - which I should also do when he begins telling one of his painfully lame jokes - and he suggested that, as a temporary measure, he could either set the strength for near or distant vision. Which would I prefer? Being more interested in reading than bird-watching, I had him prepare the new lenses with the prescription needed for sharp "near" vision.

I've had him do this for three years. I am losing ground in the distance. I have not been unaware of this. I have intentionally avoided the optometrist's lair for nearly two years now because I know what is next. I'm also giving him time to bolster his cache of religious jokes. In the meantime, my current spectacles provide good mid-range and distant vision, but generally, when reading, I drop my vision and go it sans lenses.

On my recent night drive, to alleviate boredom, I looked at the road ahead first through my glasses, then above them. I was reminded of my need for vision at both distances.

And that is when I saw something else. My resistance to see clearly in both ranges is a metaphor for the resistance of so many (myself included) to see the distant layers before us.

Most church members are great as seeing the close things. We notice when things are not right in terms of our own life, our church's life, and the lives of those closest to us. In fact, we don't just notice, we focus on those areas. We schedule and navigate our lives according to those areas.

But my eyes and heart were not created to see just what is near. There are issues and people at a blurry distance which need to be brought into focus.

As I get older, in contrast to my physical sight, my bi-focularity has improved. I am seeing better both near and far. I continue to be introspective about my walk with God, striving consistently to honor Him by word, deed and thought. I also am fairly diligent about keeping my finger on the pulse of my church family, working toward strengthening the Body of Christ in every way I can. But I am becoming more aware that in the fuzzy distance are people and needs and issues that I cannot ignore. "Out of sight" is no excuse for "out of mind."

Often we have to squint as we look beyond the borders of our personal spiritual realm. The Christian community has not always been good at focusing on the issues and people of the world, though we claim they are the heart of our mission. Some of the issues we see dimly are the AIDS epidemic, the ravaged environment, family dysfunction, struggles for sexual identity, poverty, human trafficking and genocide, corruption and injustice in various arenas. Though the horizon may be blurry, nondescript souls cry out. I may not always see, but I can hear.

Loving and acting in love toward those in the distance is difficult. Those people and problems "out there" are not on my To-Do List. They make me uncomfortable. They make me wince. Sometimes they make me turn and run. But my running only enables an escape from the sight of the need, not its existence. I need new eyes and redirected feet.

Love the brothers? You bet. Love the others? A must.

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

Matthew 25:34-40

Consumer or Steward?

2008-04-15T09:13:00.001-05:00

A quick heart/mind check. When you receive your paycheck or are blessed by an unexpected monetary gift, what is your first thought?

How will I spend it?
How will I save it?
How will I give it away?

Just wondering. I am convicted.

Burp of Contentment

2008-04-08T10:47:00.001-05:00

Make no mistake. I am, and will always be, to a large extent, a Buckeye. But I was wooed years ago by a Kansas farm girl. I also lived for 8 years in Kansas, during which time my two sons were born. I am outnumbered in my home: 3 Jayhawks to 1 Buckeye.

It was during those years on the prairie that Kansas won a national championship under Larry Brown and the brilliant play of Danny Manning. I had no declared loyalties in regard to basketball and KU was an obvious choice. I was hooked. I have cheered and groaned alongside the Jayhawks ever since.

Last night was basketball paradise for several reasons.

Few gave KU a chance against the "unbeatable" Tigers.
A nine point deficit was erased in 2:10.
Mario Chalmers, my favorite hawk, was the ice man.
Digger Phelps (a coach who never won it all) has to shut up about how feeble KU is.

I'm not sure how much more my heart can take. Adding last night's achievement to the incredible conclusion of the NFL season and the Giants' amazing Super Bowl triumph, I am sated with sports excitement. I am so full I could not consume another portion.

Oh, yes. I almost forgot. My Buckeyes won the NIT too. Consider me well-fed. I shall be content to endure the sports desert (I am not a baseball fan) until football season dawns.

Profound

2008-04-01T16:07:00.001-05:00

What I have to say today is earth-shattering. Just kidding. Happy AF Day.

Loving the Land I Hate

2008-03-03T19:22:00.001-06:00

This one (probably my last poetic venture) stems from my experience which I wrote about a year and a half ago. See my post "Up North" to read more detail.

It was time again for a trip up North to the land of water and pine. So we loaded our vans with food and gear and began to drive the line. "Mid-October is the best of times to enjoy the color of Fall," Spoke a sage of the region, a man of the North, who was trusted to know it all.

The skies were bright, the air was warm, and the days, thus far, bode well; Oblivious, we were, on our paddling trip to the coming, raging swell. On a Tuesday morn we departed east for a day-trip to the Falls, But half-way there the white caps rose as the breezes turned to squalls.

Paddling camp-ward, heading west, we fought our way back home; With muscles aching, stomachs empty, we battled through the foam. As daylight faded and dinner simmered the winds did not relent. Instead, the gusts began to shift and drove us to our tents.

Through the night the mercury dropped as the northern breath beat down, And on our humble camping grounds a white coat cloaked the ground. All day Wednesday, blasted blasts beat harsh against our site; Instead of heading southward, home, we spent another night.

Huddled, hunkered, hibernating deep inside our sacks, We dreamed of heading home away from Northland's outback. On a frosty Thursday morning we were greeted with the sound Of nature's awesome silence, and we quickly scattered 'round.

The paddle, as we ventured south, slapped ice with every stroke, But the thought of seeing home again, in us, warm thoughts awoke. The journey back was ordinary, restful and serene, And later, thinking 'bout the North brought anxious thoughts to me.

A few weeks passed and as I sat in my reclining chair I looked for something new to read and saw it sitting there; A book I'd bought some months before explored the northern woods. It gave me pause to grab and look and think about what could Be quite a soul-enriching time if I would dare go back And seek to love the land I hated when warm air grew slack.

It's been more than a year now since I last encamped those shores, But I have firmly resolved, meanwhile, to visit there once more. Beware of seeing God at work where beauty is unmatched, For to these wild, wonderlands our hearts become attached.

Tucked neatly in the pages of Genesis' verse, God molds a man from simple mud, which later would be cursed. And ever since, the ties that bind man to the lowly dust, Lure him oft to journey wide and love lands cruel and just.

Restless

2008-03-02T16:25:00.002-06:00

I am trying my hand at poetry again, and I apologize in advance. It seems a fascination lately. It is very difficult, and the more I do it, the more I recognize the wisdom of sticking with prose. Any way, here's another stab at it.

Money in the bank and a big screen in the den Ensconces me in luxury and gives me inner peace. Regimen of good food, racquetball and sleep Promises the good life, but the portrait has a crease.

Working day by day, I erect a mighty wall Protecting and providing a comfort-life that soothes. But at times in waking hours the doubt clouds creep, Obscuring the horizon of my dearly held "truths."

My appetites, all natural, drum the cadence of my walk, Pull my heart along, and shape the rhythm of my days. A puppet on a string, I serve the master of the self, While looking far beyond to find a Lord of higher ways.

The purposes of life far transcend the urge of flesh, The hunger of the stomach, or the power of a throne. Within a man is spirit, a God-created soul; And calling him is meaning, far greater than his own.

The glory of the Father cries out from all that is. His majesty radiates from sun at rise and set, The lacework of the newborn frost that comes at winter's dawn, The call of loon, the roar of falls, the weave of spider's net.

And yet the God of splendor does not isolate Himself From man, who, in His image, He has crafted from the mud. He calls us to a partnership of ministry and life To reach out with compassion to hearts of flesh and blood.

Breaking through each morning, a new light burns through mist; A purpose slaying restlessness and resurrecting joy. Brighter still, each day a light shines forth from my life To show the world His power and love, His mercy and His hope.

War God - Part 4

2008-03-01T17:52:00.003-06:00

It seems like as soon as I finish one of these posts, a flurry of insights come from random sources. This is a learning point in itself: the discipline of study opens up veins of knowledge that you often are blind to before you start digging. You enter the "classroom" intending to learn about a fourth of what you eventually discover. It is more akin to planting a seed and harvesting forty, fifty or a hundred fold. Sounds parabolic, doesn't it?

Anyway, a few more thoughts on this issue of "justified violence." This comes from more of a philosophical/theological/ecclesiastical angle. I began to think about God's pursuit of discipline in the Church. Though the concept of church discipline is mentioned sparingly in the New Testament, it is clearly there, even discussed by Jesus before the Church in any official sense is established. See Matthew 18:15-20.

Paul, too, is insistent on discipline within the church body, as passages like 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 2 Corinthians 13:1-10, 1 Timothy 1:18-20 and Titus 3:9-11 reveal.

This emphasis, which exists within the very context of a community of peace, suggests that peace is never so highly prized that truth and corruption are compromised. "Peace at any cost" was not an acceptable slogan for the early Church. When required, some rather extreme means of discipline were exercised to establish truth, holiness and, ultimately, lasting peace in the Body of Christ.

"Discipline" indicates an aggressive move toward correction of the behavior/beliefs of a fellow Christian. This is a justified exercise because God recognizes that two ultimate concerns, perhaps inseparable, are:

the spiritual orientation of the human soul
the health of the Christ-community

Any enemies which come against these concerns must be dealt with quickly and decisively. Sometimes these acts of discipline might be considered "violent" in the sense that they are perceived as harsh and can be painful emotionally, relationally and spiritually.

Granted, this is a far cry from justifying military actions in the Old Testament, but some of the principles seem to connect. Is not the move of God in some of His actions in the Old Testament to bring discipline to creation and the Kingdom? Rebellious individuals are confronted and dealt with according to God's plan for all of creation. Thus we have the purging flood in the days of Noah, as well as military ventures led by God.

Consider these points (on both sides of the ledger) in relation to God's creation/Kingdom-discipline:

God's ultimate concerns are the souls of men and the health of His Kingdom-community. In His sovereignty, He moves to purify and possess both soul and community. Church discipline serves this purpose in the age of the Church, and for ancient Israel, in addition to internal discipline, external actions kept paganism from creeping into the Kingdom-community.
The military battles in the Old Testament were engaged against foes who declared their allegiance to other gods. This is true even in the case of periodic punishments brought upon Israel, for the wrath of God was exercised against them for trusting other gods or powers than the Living God.
Church discipline is less "severe" because it is not merely punitive, but disciplinary - the soul has the opportunity to benefit because the body lives. The "discipline" of violence is irrevocably condemning from a physical standpoint.
Discipline which touches human flesh does not necessarily condemn the soul.* In the same way, casting a wayward believer from the Church seems extreme, but it is not an eternal condemnation. It is a measure implemented to arouse the conscience to repentance.
The move from the Old to New Covenant marks a change in many respects on how God works. God never loses sight of His plans for creation as a whole, but His focus intensifies on His chosen people (Israel/Church) as the conduit of blessing to all of creation. Corollary to this shift in focus is His method of dealing with rebellion - from physical retribution to spiritual discipline (although the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is an interesting exception - verse 11 reveals that even this extreme act had a "church discipline" effect). God can reign in any way He chooses, and He chooses to move from war to discipline. God seems to choose to work with humanity to develop God-like thinking as history progresses. Moving from war-like to peaceful resolutions is a gradual learning process.

As in all these posts, I have few rock-solid conclusions (I just mis-typed "confusions" . . . how ironic), but am just hoping to get a clearer picture of the issue. Your continued comments are appreciated.

* The troubling factor here, or course, is that logistically, a person who is killed suddenly in battle is given little or no time to reflect on their position before the sovereign God of creation. This is where we cross over from "discipline" to "punishment" - discipline being an action which intends to lead to rehabilitation, and punishment being the inflicting of a penalty with little regard as to the reaction of the one punished.

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 3

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 2

GO TO WAR GOD (original)

I'd Rather Not Talk About It

2008-02-26T10:19:00.002-06:00

This morning a friend and I were talking about what I had planned (more correctly, what I had not planned) for preaching in the coming months. He mentioned the topic of homosexuality and that got our discussion moving in a range of directions. We began to brainstorm about an array of topics that most people must confront in one way or another in the course of life in this world, but don't like to discuss because they are such volatile issues. What does the Bible have to say about these issues? What do followers of Jesus Christ need to know about these issues? And, just as important, with what attitude should followers of Jesus Christ approach others about these issues?

I am considering the Fall of 2008 for this series, but would like your input on some of these issues. Since we don't often talk about these, let's start to talk about them now. My focus will be driven by two principles:

I will say no more and no less than the Bible says about these issues. Most of these issues do not have a "Thus says the Lord" passage to back them up, so any implications must be solidly based on Biblical truth/principle. If the Bible allows for diverging opinions on the issue, this must be admitted and allowed. Even this is difficult at times, but I seek to be as Scripturally honest as possible.
The truth only sets us free as we live in accordance with it. Therefore, as we discover the truth about each issue, I/we must always ask two questions, "How will this affect my lifestyle?" and "How should I engage with others who do not agree with or live according to the Biblical truth?" We are called to imitate Jesus Christ Who came "full of grace and truth." (John 1:14b)

So here are the issues thus far. Keep in mind that this is so fresh that changes in topics and the organization of the topics is bound to occur.

Sexual Beings - homosexuality, bisexuality, heterosexual promiscuity, transgender lifestyles
A Marriage Torn - divorce and remarriage
A House Divided - living with an unbelieving spouse/parents, dealing with abuse (sexual, verbal, physical, emotional)
Life Limits - abortion, euthanasia, genetic experimentation
Force Limits - war, violence, capital punishment
The Good Life - materialism, debt, gambling, workaholism
Mind-Bending - alcohol, drugs, mind-altering substances
Caesar vs. Jesus - is the Christian Right, right? / how political should I be?
Another World - escapism, entertainment/sports obsession, pornography, Internet addiction
Created Equal - roles of male & female in home/church/government
Ivory Towers - how far does the "unequally yoked" principle apply? (see 2 Corinthians 6:14) - romantic relationships, business, friendships, etc.

Even as I put together these thoughts I recognize that each one of these bullet points is huge in terms of related issues. At best, we can offer some general Scriptural principles that guide our thinking and actions in each realm. Please share your thoughts on these issues from a Scripture viewpoint and in relation to your experiences in a world seeking truth. Also, feel free to suggest other topics.

Seeker

2008-02-25T19:59:00.004-06:00

The following is my first-ever attempt at any kind of poetic creation. I have been letting this sit in my draft file for a long time, too timid to click the "publish" button, and too stubborn to delete it. I realize it is painfully amateurish and the rhythm of it could be rather annoying. For some reason, though, I feel led to share it. Here goes. . .

Ambling on a dark globe, Grasping for a new robe, Finding only vanity, Blindness and insanity.

Headed for the wrong place, Wandering in the sin-space; Darkness all around me Can create a mutiny.

Culture scratches itches, Leads to dead-end ditches. Ahead I see a bright light Opening up my mind's sight.

Jesus offers true joy, Foiling Satan's best ploy. I have found the new King, Everlasting Water-Spring.

Listen to the God-voice, Find the final real choice, Do away with soul-strife, Enter in to new life.

God's Voice in the Marketplace

2008-02-21T10:54:00.002-06:00

On some days I find it much more inspiring and relaxing to work part of the day outside the office at a place like Panera. One of the dynamics at work may be the fact that I am reading / studying / preparing things which are of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the systems of the world. Within the reverberations of that clash often come insights not gained in the pastor's study.

Into Panera came a guy wired to the hilt. He sat next to me and plugged in his laptop, had one ear attached to his iPod and the other to his cell phone via Bluetooth. Oblivious to the people around him, he engaged in conversations with beings in other realms.

A series of conversations unfolded, muffled to my hearing because of my focus on other things. And then a new conversation began with someone who was not a business contact. My attention was kidnapped by the passion of his voice. Some kind of friend or family member who had intimate knowledge of his personal life brought out his unprofessional side. In tones unmuted, he shared his opinion about "her" (an ex-wife, I assumed by the context) and laced his words with a string of expletives that short-fused basketball coaches would have found admirable.

As suddenly as it began, his tone shifted. He said, "Hi Baby!" and with tenderness spoke to his young daughter. Though his words were carefully chosen and not abusive, he was clearly letting his daughter know that she could not continue to carry stories to her mother that cast him in a bad light. Otherwise, she would not be welcomed into his home anymore.

(I realize I sound like the ultimate eavesdropper here, but I could hardly ignore this scenario which played out a mere five feet from me in such an unmuffled manner. I decided at this point to turn my attentions elsewhere, because I was forming a very unfavorable opinion of this man.)

I turned to some personal Scripture reading - Psalm 16 - and tried to close out the noise around me. I came to verse 4 and stopped cold.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.

My judgment changed to brokenness. Moments earlier I had become disgusted by the profane language and arrogance of a man at my elbow. I had quickly concluded that the miseries of his life were self-induced and he simply needed to wake up and grow up. God's voice changed my assessment in a split second.

Now, I paused to pray for a man with no name. Regardless of the reasons, the stresses of his life have come in ever-increasing torrents. A busted marriage, a broken home, a bitter heart are multiplied sorrows which come when other gods are pursued. Such souls do not need more condemnation. They need the life-giving message of God. I read further.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the LORD always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:5-11

I have discovered this joy. Will he?

Father, speak to the broken hearts who run after other gods.

War God - Part 3

2008-02-11T14:35:00.004-06:00

The question came up at a recent Tuesday morning men's breakfast/Bible study. What's up with the apparent schizophrenic God of the Old and New Testament? Why is He a war hawk in the OT and a peace lover in the NT?

I have slowly been sparring with this question, and you can read my first two musings on this (War God & War God - Part 2) if you'd like. More random thoughts appear below.

1. In 2 Samuel 24 King David of Israel conducts a census of his military might. A curious phrase occurs at the start of this account: "he incited David against them."

First of all, who is "them"? Earlier in the verse we are told that "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel" and the logical antecedent to "them" would be "Israel."
But then we have the troubling "he." Using the same logic, we would assume that the "he" is "the Lord," but this places God in the awkward position of being a meddling instigator.
In the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21 we are told that "Satan" (literally satan = adversary) moved David to count his warriors.
The only precedent for a God/Satan "cooperation" in the testing of a person is the story of Job. In both cases, Satan is permitted by God to test someone, but in Job's case it is to prove his righteousness. In David's case it is to determine if his ego can resist basking in his military strength. David fails and his nation suffers the consequences. According to both 2 Samuel 24:15 and 1 Chronicles 21:14 the 70,000 who died were "men" and seems to imply that they were members of David's army, not the general population.

While not a wholesale condemnation of military conquest, God does emphasize to David that hope for protection and victory comes from the hand of the Lord, not the number of trained troops.

2. Just following the account of the census conducted by David is a passage in which David, anticipating his death, plans for the building of the Temple under Solomon's reign. In David's charge to Solomon he says:

"My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.'
- 1 Chronicles 22:7-10

God declares to David, and David admits to Solomon, that because of his fascination with war, David is unfit to build a house of worship for God. David possesses a warrior's heart, while God desires a man of peace.

In view of the fact that David is recognized as a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), this seems hard to reconcile. Perhaps we can at least surmise that David, unlike those that God used before, was not willing to win battles by the Lord's strength alone, but enjoyed picking a fight, flexing his muscle, and being the military hero. Perhaps he was drawn to the act of war more than the victory of God's Kingdom. Like a dog who crosses the line and raids the chicken house, once David tasted blood, he craved it all the more.

3. One more David story that I find instructive is found in 2 Samuel 16. While David is on the run from his wigged-out son Absalom, he passes through Bahurim, the home of Shimei. Shimei was a part of the family of Saul, and as David comes near his home, he curses at David and throw stones at him in anger for David's defeat of Saul and his family. His words are revealing:

"Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The LORD has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood."
- 2 Samuel 16:7-8

What is more striking is David's reaction. It is as though Shimei hits a nerve. One of David's men, Abishai, says, "Let me go over now, and cut off his head."

David, understanding that to retaliate would simply validate Shimei's charge, instead urges his men to peace.

"Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to. It may be that the LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that the LORD will repay me with good for his cursing today."
- 2 Samuel 16:11b-12

In essence, David accepts the charge as just. He is a "man of blood." And, in David's mind, to be such a man brings the just judgment of God.

4. It seems that God desires His servants to understand the line drawn between being obedient to God in warfare and becoming infatuated with war. Considering the many miraculous ways in which Israel won battles, it would seem that God is free to exercise judgment as he chooses, but places limitations on how dirty the hands of Israel's warriors would be in the process.

5. As best as I can discern, the complicity of God in waging war is restricted to the period of history prior to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. Is this God's necessary action of preserving the purity of the vessel which would bear the Savior of the world (specifically, the nation of Israel)? Once the Savior has come, His war decrees seem to cease. Or at least the battles shift from the physical to the spiritual realms. No longer is flesh and blood a co-conspirator with Satan in opposing the Kingdom of God. Now human beings become victimized pawns, captives held for ransom, as it were, while the satanic general uses them/us for human shields and scapegoats.

The battle still rages, though on a different front.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this later. What thoughts do you have on this issue?

GO TO WAR GOD (original post)

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 2

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 4

Irony or Not?

2008-02-08T13:22:00.001-06:00

I just realized that giving up chocolate for Lent could be a risky venture. Smack dab in the middle of my chocolate fast is a holiday which idolizes chocolate - Valentine's Day. Coincidence or a demonic strategy? Better yet, it could be God's way of testing my mettle.

I intend to endure. But just in case any of you intend to wrap mischief in the glitzy paper of kindness, please refrain from giving me any chocolate until after Easter. Otherwise, you may be a co-conspirator with the Devil.

Oh drat! Easter is a Choco-holiday too. Wow.

Selfish Reading

2008-02-08T08:43:00.001-06:00

Reading so much. Retaining so little. I get frustrated that, as much as I read, I tend to forget most of it. I am not unfamiliar with the dynamics of learning - repetition is key - but it is impractical to re-read each book several times (except in the case of Scripture). Instead, I must become unselfish in reading.

So often a book becomes a conquest. Even Bible reading can become this. Read through the Bible in a Year can be a great goal IF one determines to do so with adequate time reserved for reading, thinking about what is read, and praying for the text to become fruitful in the reader's life. When I merely press forward to "check the box" I completely miss the point. I conquer the book/Book, but the book/Book doesn't conquer me.

Recreational reading is also a danger. I dare not read frequently as entertainment. It is akin to evening television viewing. I seek for some medium to simply carry me away to an alternate reality while my mind drifts along on a current determined by someone else. This is my problem with too much fiction in a literary diet. I wish I read more of it because the creative sparks it creates is good food for the mind and heart. But writing which is based on reality (and most fiction can serve this purpose if written thoughtfully) feeds the soul. Consider that Scripture contains a limited amount of fiction (parables), yet even it is grounded in eternal truth. Much of God's letter to us is story/narrative (truth, not fiction) and surrounded by myriad genres which develop the core truths of the main story.

Sometimes I read to make a point. Whether in the Bible or another tome, I seek written validation for what I think or hope to be true. Instead, as I dare to enter through the gate of a book, I should be willing to encounter the story of the author. As Eugene Peterson observes in his excellent work Eat This Book, the problem with books is that we become sovereign over the author. Because it is written, we determine when we will read and when we will stop reading. We can even, with pen in hand, emphasize, alter, or delete portions at our whim.

The tension lies in my ego. I want to read many books. I want to conquer many literary hills. And yet, selfish reading results in a superficial skimming. Instead of slowly climbing the mountain and enjoying each step of the journey on my way to the summit, I am content to fly overhead in a blur. I am, therefore, left with a hazy memory of its mass, and no recollection of the footpaths, wildflowers, burrowing critters and dimpled intimacies of the mountain's slopes.

If I read but two books before year's end, reading them unselfishly will nurture my life far better than the dozens I've read selfishly in the last five years. It is time to sit at the feet of masters and learn from their voice. Allow them to dictate the pace and the direction of thinking - not as mindless disciples, but submissive pupils seeking to understand.

What good stuff have you read lately? How do you stay intensely engaged as you read?

I Gave Up Non-Conformity for Lent

2008-02-07T19:57:00.001-06:00

Being raised in a non-liturgical tradition (is that an oxymoron? Sadly, no.), I have never observed the period of preparation leading up to Easter known as Lent. When I was little I confused Lent with the stuff that collected in the filter of the clothes dryer in the basement. Maybe it was the northern Ohio accent.

Lent is not specifically rooted in any Biblically parallel event or events, but is a period of forty days (probably modeled after a number of fasts in Scripture - Moses, Elijah and Jesus among them) in which the observant exercises the disciplines of repentance, fasting and giving. In recent times the days of Lent have become increasingly secularized, and pre-Lent festivals such as Mardi Gras (celebrating the conclusion of Carnival and ending on "Fat Tuesday") have been associated more with excessive indulgence than contemplative holiness.

Growing up in a faith system which eschews creeds, man-established liturgies and observances, and the like, has created a shell around my experience and, I fear, my soul. Like a college-bound teen looking for life experimentation, I feel a restlessness to explore the value of seasons which might strengthen the sinew of my spirit. The core of the Lenten season can be a valuable tool for sharpening the life of faith. For centuries Christians have observed Lent and found it to be a positive time of spiritual renewal.

And so, in spite of my almost total ignorance, I have decided to observe this season. Daily I am reading and meditating on pre-determined Scriptures arranged thematically. I have committed to give up candy, especially chocolate, for these forty days. Unlike a cat giving up baths, refusing to ingest chocolate for me is truly a sacrifice. I am more like the cat refusing to flinch as a mouse dances before its nose. I hope that these days will also become a time of healthy self-examination.

"What attitudes within me dishonor God?"

"What habits of my life destroy relationships?"

"What disciplines have I left neglected?"

"What Kingdom issues need to more consistently dominate my thinking and behavior?"

You are invited to journey toward Resurrection Sunday with the Body of Christ. Take time for silence and solitude, for fasting from those things which have addicted you to comfort, and for deepened times in Bible reading, prayer, confession and worship. What are you learning about God the Father, God the Son and your soul?

Super Tuesday

2008-02-05T21:06:00.001-06:00

Can you stand the excitement? Super Sunday followed by Super Tuesday? I must say that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the Super Bowl on Sunday evening. This is the first season of football (among many seasons which have passed before) that has left my appetite satisfied until the fall.

Super Tuesday has, however, left me in a spirit of relief and dread. I am relieved that the primary season is over (at least in Missouri), but I am dreading the looming and incessant mud-slinging, harassing taped phone messages, and television and radio ads.

As the graphic indicates, I have exercised my civic privilege and selected the candidate which, I believe, best represents my views on being our nation's leader. I am not, however, overly jazzed about any of the selections. In fact, I have become less and less convinced that elections make any major difference in my daily life. I realize that my cynicism sounds fatalistic and unpatriotic, but I have lived long enough to discover several important realities.

First, our nation, based as it is on a system of checks and balances (remember sophomore American Government class?) and held together by the Constitution, is fairly impervious to any major political coups. I am not unaware that incremental change can slowly move us away from the founding fathers' intent for this nation, and that, after some time, we could find ourselves suddenly at the mercy of a ruthless dictator or oppressive system. I am convinced, however, that our representative democracy provides enough balance that, as long as some basic systems are kept in order, the worst case scenario will never happen.

Second, the array of candidates made available to us are, practically speaking, indistinguishable. Those men and women who seem to hold great ideas for bringing about fundamental change, primarily by lessening the interference of government in so many areas of life in which they now have their claws and focusing on the few and major areas to which governments should, rarely gain a strong following. These rare breeds seldom have opportunity to rise to the top because developing a strong base requires numerous concessions and reduces their "platform" to a common stage. To gain support from one group, a limb is sacrificed, and another grafted in its place. To gain favor among another demographic, their mantra must be parroted. Before long, the candidates have been neutered of any meaningful convictions. Other factors, such as the importance of personal wealth, high social status, and indoctrination into the fellowship of politicos, usually insure that the collection of candidates are more professional power brokers than public servants.

Let me pause to say that once in awhile a stray evades the "insider" radar and actually gains a following, but wealthy opponents and the loud speakers of media are quickly able to discredit and discard the man or woman of integrity. I hesitate to name names, lest I become tagged, but there have been some leaders in recent years who have managed to rise above the fetid waters of political stagnation and be a blessing to those they serve. Unfortunately, I have seen few of those types lately.

Third, the role of government has become far too intrusive and has never proved itself to be an effective moral guide or social savior. At the same time, the Church has largely abdicated Her responsibility to be a river of compassion and a fountain of social justice. Government has its place to provide protection from violence, crime and foreign invasion. It is needed to maintain order and structure for the infrastructure of a nation, states and cities. But the usurping of authority in matters of morality and benevolence has strangled tax payers and done little to truly better the needy. I would far rather pour my energies, time and money into Christian ministries which have a track record of faithful stewardship and God-honoring results.

Fourth, and most important, the Authority is already enthroned. Nothing escapes His sovereignty. Man at his worst can never tarnish God's Kingdom pursuits. I rest in the governing power of God. Daniel noted:

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.
Daniel 2:20-22

And Solomon observed:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.
Proverbs 21:1

Forgive my negative spirit today. I will continue to be a good citizen and vote. But I will trust in Jesus Christ as I give more of myself to prayer and Biblical obedience. Jesus and His Kingdom is the hope of the nations.

Groundhog Day

2008-02-02T18:04:00.001-06:00

Today is the day they drag a sleepy rodent from his den and engage him in conversation about his perceptions of future weather patterns. Did he or didn't he? If he sees his shadow, winter's icy blast will last for six more weeks. If he sees no shadow, spring will arrive early.

Here's the official report from "Phil":

"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be!"

Of course, all of this is just a way to put Punxsutawney, PA on the map and find another holiday for the bleak months of cold in the north.

I have several problems with this whole scenario:

Is it ethical to harass a large rodent?
Can a groundhog really see his shadow on even the sunniest of days?
How does a groundhog communicate his findings?
Just how do we quantify an "early spring"?
What scientifically valid correlation is there between a sunny/cloudy day and the weather trends for the following six weeks?
Why is February 2nd the only day on which this meteorological discovery can be made?
What made Phil Connors so grumpy?

Frankly, I think it would be much simpler to have a human being do this. I, for instance, could, with my present girth, cast a shadow at night during a lunar eclipse.

I suppose the whole spectacle is important to Phil (the groundhog) because he discovers on that one day each year he has worth. He is substantive enough to cast a shadow. And that shadow has the attention of the world. . . well, at least the United States. . . okay, at least all of Pennsylvania. . . or at least people in Punxsutawney.

A shadow is the symptom of our existence and presence. It indicates that light will not pass through us (a post-worthy topic in itself) because we are. We exist. We leave a mark. We have impact.

This makes me ponder the shadows cast by my existence. People will never gather at Gobbler's Knob to discern my shadow-casting ability, but God observes all, and those along the Jericho Road of my life will either experience my compassion and humility, or not. My shadow becomes the proof of my genuine presence in a world in which so much is transparent and without substance. Unlike the Pennsylvania prognosticator, the lack of my shadow means that winter will last for a long time.

Theology of Thieves

2008-01-25T21:16:00.001-06:00

The area in which I live has seen a rash of burglaries (seven) in church buildings in the last week. It was front page news in the local newspaper, and as I read it, I was reminded of a break-in we suffered in May of 2006, and another "inside job" that occurred last summer.

And then, this morning, guess who got hit? You got it. When the secretary came into her office this morning it was obvious that someone had gained access to her office (and one other office) and had pried open every locked drawer looking for cash. The more we looked around, evidence of forced entry was all over the place. The police came, did the usual CSI stuff, and left us with their card in case we discovered any other signs. The only item missing thus far is our associate minister's mp3 player.

Whenever you are the victim of a crime like this, it is unsettling and makes the whole day seem darker and colder than a typical day in January is anyway.

Just as we were winding up our time with the detectives and trying to get back into the normal rhythm of a Friday, our noon Prayer Zone was upon us. We paused to read Scripture together and pray. As we prayed, we didn't pray for ourselves. We prayed for a variety of needs, but we also began to pray for those who had broken into our church building. God quietly drew our hearts to the lives of people who were desperate enough to commit this crime.

I've been thinking about these thieves most of the day. I am tempted to merely conjure up security measures for future intruders.

Church pit bulls roaming the halls at night
Motion detectors which immediately fill the building with mustard gas
Rabid wolverines kept inside lock boxes
Super-sticky door knobs
Razor-lined mail slots

But I am more intrigued by what it is that drives people to steal. It goes deeper than a need for drug money or the thrill of the crime. The thief arrives at a point of desperation so intense that he/she is willing to acquire the territory and the possessions of another by force. Accompanying this drive to acquire is a world view which is almost completely selfish. It is not just about acquisition. It is about entitlement. Laws are for other people, not the thief.

Please understand that I am not placing myself above being thief-like in some of my actions and attitudes. I can be selfish with the best (worst) of them. I, too, am seeking to acquire things in my life: comfort, sensual fulfillment and freedom from worry. And at times, I care less than I should about how I gain them.

As with most things, my passions are healthy in their strength, but unhealthy in their direction. If only the drive to acquire the glory of God were as strong as my drive to acquire personal success. If only I thirsted for the fruitfulness of God's kingdom as much as I do for personal comfort.

The thief is willing to concoct a plan, gather together tools, slip into the night when most other people are sleeping, brave the weather (it was brutally cold last night), risk unknown dangers and challenges inside the building they invade, test the skills of the police, and carefully devise a way to use their gained spoils without drawing the attention of law enforcement. The vast majority of thieves never escape prosecution, so you would think such slim odds would be a deterrent. Nevertheless, logic seems illogical in the face of the passion to acquire.

What thieves, like me, need to keep in mind is that an invaluable treasure is available to me at every moment of the day. I don't have to acquire it by force. It is not encased in an impenetrable vault. It is not guarded by pit bulls. It is not sealed away in an unknown cave deep in the earth. It is open to the seeker. It is God Himself. In fact, He is actively and constantly seeking us.

Thieves, search no more. All that you have been plotting to gain by cleverness and stealth is before you. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that anyone who trusts in Him will have life in fullness that never ends.

The Blessing of Labor Negotiations

2008-01-17T09:09:00.001-06:00

The Writers Guild of America strike, which began in November, has had a huge impact on the television, motion picture and news media industries. It is a serious issue for writers (who generally are middle-class wage earners), and is very revealing concerning the amount of money in flux. As the Internet increasingly becomes an alternative and major conduit for transmitting programming, executives in the media are unwilling to promise future income from such sources to writers. They are, however, assuring stock holders that the revenues to come in the cyber and digital media are substantial. You can read more at the Writers Guild of America website.

My heart goes out to many of those who have seen their craft exploited and disregarded. As one who likes to write simply for fun (even if those few who read it find it painful), I can only imagine how deeply it hurts to have what you love become a bargaining chip and become the source of your greatest discouragement.

I also, however, have not been personally impacted by the alterations to television programming as some have. I am not a viewer of any television programs which require the regular input of writers, except The Office and Late Night with David Letterman. I haven't found a any other sitcom or drama series that I felt was worth my time. Instead, I enjoy watching sports, Discovery channel features, or the occasional classic movie.

I can also say, with no trace of shame, that the elimination of the standard award shows has been a genuine blessing. I watched a few painful minutes of one of those studio-produced award shows (the Golden Globes, I believe), and could not believe how excruciatingly lame it was. A film devoted to the detailed examination of each line of Microsoft's annual financial report would have been an overwhelmingly victorious competitor.

I can only pray that this strike will help to purify the media water table. During TV dormancy, the viewer/consumer has the opportunity to examine what is truly worthy of his/her time. Do the re-runs reveal how good, or how sub-par those loved shows are? Are we genuinely missing anything by instead tuning to news, history, science, or sports channels? Perhaps you will discover a new world of information. Perhaps you'll pick up a book. Or converse with your family. Or get out of the house and take a walk.

I also pray that when the issue is resolved that writers will become engaged with a renewed passion to write well. Could there possibly be more interesting topics to dominate a thirty or sixty minute program than promiscuous sex? Could this unplanned layoff help to clarify what good writing is? Good, intelligent writing drives the listener/reader inward, pushing each one to think and feel to a deeper level. It is not content with superficial laughter or tears. Good writing sheds light.

And I pray that as the entertainment industry feels a financial pinch, the relative worth of cash and human beings is weighed. Every strike, hopefully, causes everyone involved, especially high-dollar executives, to recognize the interconnectedness of business. Writing is a major cog in media machinery. Guys like Les Moonves dare not forget that.

Labor strikes can be epiphanies, providing renewed glimpses of that which is really important. It is amazing how blinded we can become to allowing dollars and cents to supersede human worth and dignity. Whether you are in control of the money pile or simply trying to grab a few coins from it, that lesson is crucial. What matters in the long term is not the health of the digital or cyber media, or the bonuses and pensions of media moguls, but the lives of men, women and children who put food on the table by their work with media outlets, and the minds and lives of those who listen to and view the content of media outlets.

The Power of Truth

2008-01-14T20:51:00.001-06:00

Take two children, raised in the same small town, exposed to the same cultural influences, the same education, the same social circles. One grows to a genuinely trusting faith in Jesus Christ. He stays morally pure, seeks always to honor God, shares the story of Jesus with others, gives generously in a variety of ways, is faithful to his wife and raises children in the fear of the Lord.

The other child rejects Jesus and jumps from atheistic philosophies to agnostic ambivalence to cult fascinations. He wanders in and out of countless superficial romantic relationships, is sexually promiscuous, is consistently given to abuse of an array of substances, lies to maintain the appearance of integrity, betrays numerous friendships, and is bitter about life and people in general.

How do two people from such similar origins take such divergent paths in life? The classic debate over "nature or nurture" seems to be lop-sided toward "nature" in such instances.

Conversely, it is hard to ignore the evidence of those who are "nurtured" in similar circumstances and develop parallel world view and life behaviors. The mind and soul, therefore, must be more like a blank slate than a pre-programmed machine.

Wherein, then, is the power of truth? If the resultant heart and life of a person is truly impossible to predict - either because "nature" overrides "nurture, or because each one can, with complete objectivity, choose what to believe - then is the playing field for truth and error truly level?

A God-created tension exists between the freewill of man and the convincing power of truth. Scripture resounds with the power of God's Word to create, to execute judgment, to woo and to convict. But Scripture also records the timeless stories of individuals who seem impervious to the piercing sting of truth.

Do bearers of the truth have an edge over purveyors of falsehood? Or is the success of either merely abdicated to the whim of the listener?

One could argue that truth has the upper hand simply because God has deemed truth to have greater power, but the power of truth is more inherent than dictated. Truth is the presentation of reality. Falsehood begins the battle for minds with the handicap of disconnection. Only those willing to live in the realm of fantasy willingly receive falsehood as reality.

The power of truth becomes most effective when the realm of fantasy in which the listener lives is reconstructed, and a context for hearing reality is established. The world of Bugs Bunny, Santa Claus and monsters under the bed (so to speak) must be discredited so that the deceived person can place their feet on the soil of Earth in 2008.

This transition must be embraced, as well, by those of us who follow Jesus Christ. We must be rooted in the realities of our world as it is, not simply as we desire it to be or as we perceived it to be in the past. This can be tricky business. Assumptions about the "Christian" nature of our nation or world can be dangerous. Jesus understood well that, though immersed in a Jewish world, understandings about the Kingdom were widely disparate and often misguided. As followers of Jesus seek to see clearly and help others see clearly, truth can transform life.

Truth is light - light that opens the eyes to the way things really are and to the direction that God is moving. As we pray and faithfully tell God's story, He will illuminate the darkness and restore sight to the blind. Then we can see things as they are, then tell them as they are.

Christian Jew

2008-01-05T12:08:00.001-06:00

I've become fascinated with the Jewish-Christian tension over the last year. This is no political/international/diplomatic interest, but a fascination with the ways of approaching God that seem contrasting.

At the risk of oversimplification, the Jewish approach to God struck me initially as being rooted in discipline. The laws, the rituals, the feasts, and the way of life has such a firm structure that it seems to dictate rhythms which provide bridges between daily activities and seasons throughout the year.

The Christian approach to God has been driven "by grace through faith." Access into God's presence is not provided by our disciplined efforts. God allows us in. Grace. Everything we do is in response to grace, the outworking of genuine faith.

I term these "oversimplifications" because the more we peer deeply into the nature of each, we discover an actual merging. Grace is not unique to following Jesus (some of you smell heresy here). God's call on Abram and his descendants was grace itself. Though Abram may have been faithful and upright morally, God could have dismissed him for any one of a thousand flaws. Instead He extended to Abram an invitation which had no strings. Just believe.

Everything built on top of that grace-faith (disciplines, rituals, laws, feasts) enables the believer to grow in relationship to God and become more like Him in thought and behavior.

Christian faith is different in that Christ has now come and provided the missing element - the complete sacrifice for sin. Christ has inserted grace at the beginning of our God-relationship. While there is a certain element of "grace" to the call of Abram, it was not a saving grace. The grace of Judaism is a future grace. Someday, when Messiah comes, then grace will be complete.

For the Christian, Messiah has come. Grace is provided. And from the Jewish rhythms we can learn to grow closer and become more like our Grace-Giver.

The rituals, feasts and disciplines have been largely lost in modern Christian practice because the assumption is that "saved by grace" means to disregard all human effort directed toward God as optional. This misses the concept of our life being hidden in God and Christ. When we surrender to Jesus Christ grace is the only entry way. But a genuine faith will not stop at the door and live on the threshold. More of grace is waiting inside as we allow His rhythms to dictate the tempo of our lives.

I welcome learning to step inside grace. I welcome learning from Jewish discipline the rhythms of God's tempo. It will not diminish what Christ has done, but only open the way to seeing His grace grow in me (and you). It will be the continued answer to Peter's prayer:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18)

I hope. . . wait a minute.

2007-12-31T16:01:00.000-06:00

This very post is an illustration of its theme. Just moments ago I had completed my thoughts, which generally are recorded below. Read to the end for the punch.

At the close of 2005 I thought to myself, "Boy, I'm glad that year is over. I sure hope 2006 is better." And it wasn't. In fact, it was worse. Far worse.

Foolish me. I said much the same thing to myself following the struggles of 2006, and this last year was a train wreck.

I have abandoned the foolish practice of laying aside the previous year with gleeful relief and looking to the next year as a bright, shiny package of blessing. I have waded through too many personal and vocational struggles, and watched as friends and family have endured illness, injury, relocation and death (permanent relocation).

Don't get me wrong. I have in the last three years also experienced days of great blessing. But I have learned the lesson of Job's rebuking question.

"Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"

Life often presents experience in the form of non-identical twins - good and evil. Great joys and crushing defeats can happen within the moments of one another.

But I also have learned that much of the blessing of life emerges from the rubble of tragedy. God brings strength and peace and joy in the very face of our greatest moments of testing.

So I say, "Bring it on 2008! Give it your best shot! As God upholds me, this new year will be to His glory. I will stand strong by His might and wisdom." I look forward to '08, not because it will be better, but because God precedes me, indwells me, guards me, and guides me.

Now here is the funny thing. Just as I finished this post, feeling fairly good about its content and flow, I blocked the whole text to make a minor edit, and it disappeared. It was gone. It had not been saved anywhere. I was left staring at a blank editing box once again. I was exasperated. And then I had to laugh. God had allowed me to experience the very point of my rambling. The temporal never reigns over the eternal. Blogs and their posts may come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. God holds next year. . . and every year.

Amen.

Lamenting What Could Be

2007-12-29T09:45:00.000-06:00

This morning I took some time to catch up on my personal Bible reading. I'm almost done reading through the Bible in a year, and it only took me three years to do it! Anyway, today's passage was Lamentations. A more festive chunk of holy writ I could not have chosen. And yet it was very enlightening.

I found two powerfully engaging elements to Lamentations: 1) the riveting imagery painted by Jeremiah's words concerning the desolation and suffering of Jerusalem and her people, 2) the parallels between God's people in the Eastern World of 2300 years ago and those of us in the Western World today.

The prophet cycles through stages of self-pity, confusion, clarity and hope. He displays an acute awareness of the source of the suffering: God's hand has moved against His people because of her rebellion and callousness. As I read the judgments of God against His people, it spoke not simply of a people who, so long ago, defied God's heart. It reverberated through my own mind and heart as an all-too-real warning to the Church of today. Have we become like Judah of the mid-8th Century BC? A sampler of the charges against Judah strike a nerve:

Her violations are many - 1:5, 8-9
She has rejected the clear instruction of God's Word - 1:18a
Her religious charade was condemned - 2:6-7
She refused to speak and refused to hear the truth from God's spokesmen - 2:14
She acted unjustly and abusively toward other human beings - 3:34-36
She enjoyed wealth, but ignored the purposes of God - 4:5-8
She committed bloodshed while pretending holiness - 4:13-14

For a fuller picture of her rebellion read Jeremiah. Suffice it to say that the people of God had lost the heart of God. Namely, they had turned their backs on caring for one another. They had rejected the needy among them - the orphan, widow and alien. They had engaged in religious ritual devoid of genuine devotion. They had honored self above God. Due to their power and wealth, they had become comfortable worshippers, only giving the tip of a hat to God when the religious calendar dictated.

One of the most telling passages appears early on:

My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.

Lamentations 1:14

The very sins which were indulged by the evil heart have become the slave-master. How often has God allowed our wickedness to become a tyrant, ruling, not with pleasure, by with misery.

Though the reflections of Jeremiah seem little more than historical poetry, they can serve as an instructive warning for us today. The slow slide into spiritual complacency can become a full-scale rebellion and, ultimately, the catalyst for our exile.

Instead, the call to repentance in Lamentations 5 is a teacher brimming with hope and promise. Come to the Lord. Run to Him. Thirst for Him. Drink deeply of Him. Plead for His heart to become yours. You will find freedom everlasting.

Gifted

2007-12-25T11:59:00.000-06:00

I woke this morning in a warm house, a warm bed, and rose to look forward to a day of relaxation, feasting and being with friends and family.

I took a morning walk with my beautiful wife. Though it was cold, it was clear and just a stunning day. We enjoyed talking, looking around God's creation and breathing in fresh air.

After we got home, we wished our two sons a "Good morning!" and "Merry Christmas." We enjoyed hugging them and simply having them home.

We've spent the morning having a leisurely breakfast, sharing the goodies tucked in our stockings - even Molly, our dog, got some treats - and doing projects around the house in preparation for friends later in the day.

I reflect on a beautiful Christmas morning about the gifts that God has poured into my life. I am grateful, but this special day calls my gratitude heavenward, for the greatest Gift invaded our world 2000 years ago. He came "full of grace and truth." He brought forgiveness and "life to the full." And this Gift - Jesus Christ, the only begotten of God - makes every other gift precious and meaningful.

Had Christ never come and had I never said "Yes" to following Him, all the treasures I mentioned earlier become passing delights with no lasting significance. Because of Jesus Christ all the joys of this life and earth become fuller and richer. And all the struggles and sorrows of this life and earth are infused with hope because He will one day make all things new.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Better Weekend

2007-12-03T10:20:00.000-06:00

Nothing theological today. Just basking in the sunshine of football utopia. The Cowboys beat the Packers for the definite edge for home field advantage in the Playoffs. Because of the NFL network I, along with most of the nation, had to sit at my computer and track updates on a simulated football field. Not quite the same as HD on a bigscreen.

Thanks to the tanking of West Virginia and Mizzou, my Buckeyes are going to the Big Dance. They have the opportunity to redeem themselves from last year's drubbing by the Gators. The catch? They play an excellent LSU club in The Big Easy (practically home field). My prediction? I'm saying nothing, but silently hoping that Tressel prepares the Bucks well during this seven week layoff.

Converging Streams

2007-11-30T12:32:00.001-06:00

God does amazing things when we are attentive to the variety of ways in which He teaches us. I have discovered that, whether in preparing a sermon or lesson, or in just trying to get a handle on a certain issue in my life, that God takes seemingly random pieces of wisdom and knits them together to provide me an understandable image of His purpose or plan.

The other day I was thinking about how cool it was that this Sunday's message began to come together so easily. I was amazed because:

I often struggle to create an adequately comprehensible message
The text I chose is not at all a familiar one
The elements that created a cohesive unit were quite random at first glance

It is that last bullet that amazes me. I read through the texts surrounding my focus text (Isaiah 2:1-5). I had spent time studying the background of Isaiah's life, call and ministry. I read through some commentaries on the text.

Then I took some time for a lunch-study. At times I like to go and do lunch alone in the corner of a restaurant and read, study, ponder and write. I almost always find it very productive, though my sons think I'm a loser for sitting alone in a restaurant. They'll probably become just like me and I'll have the last laugh.

The message came together fairly rapidly, but it wasn't just because of the focused study. I found thoughts flooding my mind from previous studies, times of personal reading, past experiences, and a recent discussion in a Sunday School class. In the span of thirty minutes I had a fairly comprehensive plan for my message.

It was as though I was able to look back over my life and remember times in which I played in this little stream, waded in that one, threw rocks into another, and dabbled in a handful of others. At the time, they appeared as completely isolated streams, each existing exclusively within the horizon of my vision. But later I discovered a river, flowing strong and clean, and it was only then that it became apparent that those previously isolated and insignificant streams were tributaries to this mighty channel before me.

And so it happens with so much that God teaches. What seems to be a collection of random moments beside streams in different places and times are ultimately converging brooks of wisdom and refreshment for my soul. This means that I must not only pay attention to the grand rivers I discover during my trek. I must consider vital the myriad streams I encounter throughout my day trips.

Living in the moment, therefore, is more than just sucking the marrow from the bone of life. It is being a student of every encounter. It is being truly present when someone speaks, when someone cries, when someone laughs, when someone rages and when someone encourages. It is truly seeing the autumn leaves, hearing the north wind, feeling the sun's rays, smelling the lilac blossoms, and tasting the chocolate. It means not burying the pain, not ignoring the rebuke, not avoiding the work, and not running from the confusion. We face life in all its beauty and ugliness, because beside those many creeks God is waiting to teach us something that will, downstream, finger its way into other streams and provide a mighty flow of strength and wisdom in days when we least expect it.

God never wastes a moment.

Great-full

2007-11-22T10:05:00.001-06:00

It was a treat to awaken this Thanksgiving morning to a dusting of snow on the ground. This may be my favorite holiday and my favorite season of the year. Many of the reasons are purely personal, even selfish. They revolve around what makes me feel good. A warm home, great food, time off, loving family, good friends, and lots of football in HD.

This holiday/sabbath, however, is not about me only. It is about the God to whom all thanks and praise is due. I paused for a moment this morning to read the last five psalms (146-150) thoughtfully. The psalmist is not named. What is important is that God is named, and described, and honored. He is the focus of the celebration.

More than anything, during this season of the year, I ask for God to grow in me a grateful heart. I am to be grateful because He is full of greatness. His majesty and splendor reverberate throughout creation, and it permeates my life.

The last couple of years have been rather difficult in life and ministry. Even now there are some heavy thoughts weighing on my mind. But I can still be thankful because underneath everything a mighty Hand holds it all together.

Psalm 46 (English Standard Version)
To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
"Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

Good Weekend

2007-11-05T21:58:00.000-06:00

My two favorite football teams won this weekend.

Buckeyes beat Wisconsin, 38-17.
Cowboys beat the Eagles, 38-17.

Mmmmmmm. Must be a sign of something universally significant.

A Theological Leatherman

2007-11-04T20:37:00.001-06:00

There are certain doctrinal issues that we tend to treat as Leatherman tools. They become, in our hands, what we want them to become. If we desire pliers, then pliers they are. If it is a corkscrew we want, so be it. If we are seeking a can opener, a few movements and we have what we want.

For some reason, this metaphor came to mind as I considered the issue of baptism for the remission of sins. This issue generates such a diversity of opinions, so many of them based, not on what the Bible says, but on that with which we are comfortable.

Some see sprinkling as OK because it is more convenient or because their church has always done it that way.
Some validate infant baptism because of their views on original sin or their commitment to church tradition.
Others validate infant baptism as a sign of the parents' commitment to raise the child to love and honor God, not as any kind of saving action.
Some say that believers are baptized as a sign of what has already happened in their heart when they professed faith in Jesus Christ.
Some reject the need for baptism in any form, considering it an option. The argument is that, because we are saved by grace alone, baptism (considered a work) cannot be a part of the justification process.
Some refuse to discuss water baptism much because what matters more is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is simply an outward sign of the Spirit's work in us.

I suppose we could add more, but this gives us a few sides to view. Of course, I am now prepared to whip out my baptismal Leatherman, and defend it. In short, I would say it this way. From my understanding of Scripture, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the One through whom forgiveness of sins comes, will submit to water baptism (immersion), understanding that it is a part of the process through which God justifies us and pronounces us clean.

I do not consider our submission to baptism to be a mere matter of opinion, because the New Testament has too much to say about baptism to relegate it to the category of opinion. See Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38-39; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:26-27; Ephesians 4:3-6; Colossians 2:11-13; 1 Peter 3:21. To declare baptism a matter of opinion, basically gives us the option to embrace it or ignore its importance altogether. The latter does not seem at all consistent with the contexts of the passages in which this matter is raised.
The nature of the discussions surrounding baptism are never centered around baptism as a mere symbol. Instead, baptism (even in the pre-Pentecost references in the Gospels) is always implied to be a transforming event. It is depicted as a happening in which a line is crossed - from death to life, from unclean to clean, from impure to pure, from slavery to freedom, from sinful to holy, from old to new.
Baptism is not the only factor involved, however. Grace, the Holy Spirit, faith, confession, and repentance (and perhaps other factors) are included in this transforming process.
Baptism is not a work, in the sense that our efforts achieve God's acceptance. It is a work, in the sense that it is something we agree to do, or better yet, agree to have done to us.
Baptism is very compatible with grace, for its submissive nature depicts a dying to sin and a raising to life that is far beyond our control. Interestingly enough, the far less disputed commands of repentance and confession are much more works-like than baptism. Nevertheless, they are "works" which grow out of genuine faith. They do not earn grace. They merely act as out-reached arms and opened hands, ready to accept the grace that God offers.
Again, baptism is grace-compatible, in that it is so often associated with the "gift" ("grace") of life. It brings the new creation to us by washing us and bringing us the indwelling presence of God's Spirit - two acts that we can never accomplish for ourselves.

I refuse to display an argumentative spirit about baptism. This is my understanding of baptism from Scripture. I have come to the point where I will not entertain the inevitable questions that are posed: "Do you believe baptism is essential for salvation?" and "If a believer were on their way to be baptized and were hit by a bread truck and killed, would they be saved?"

I have my opinions on the matter, but I leave those hypothetical queries to God who judges justly. It is more important that I know what the Bible says and that I develop the mind of Christ and conform my behavior to it personally and in my sharing with others.

I'll fold up my Leatherman now and put it back in my pocket. I'll always carry it with me, but only pull it out when I need it. How do you see it?

War God - Part 2

2007-10-28T21:22:00.003-05:00

The solution is still evasive, but I have a few more thoughts on the tension which exists between the God of war in the Old Testament and the Prince of Peace in the New Testament.

I was listening to Dr. Greg Boyd speak (via mp3 during my Monday morning walk) as he discussed the purpose of Jesus' incarnation and sacrificial work on the Cross. He cited Hebrews 2:14 as a launch pad for discussing the warfare in which God is engaged. Some of the insights he shares are fabulous and are worthy of some elaboration. The number of passages in the New Testament which refer to the conquering mission of Jesus Christ on the Cross is actually quite impressive when you begin researching. My focus, though, is to simply reflect on the parallels between the literal warfare of the Israelite Conquest with the spiritual (yet, no less real) conquest of Christ.

The parallels are rather striking.

Both are led by a man with the same name, "Yeshua" - Joshua (Hebrew) / Jesus (Greek).
Both come after a time in the wilderness.
Both come after passing through the waters of the Jordan.
Both begin with a resounding victory - Jericho / Calvary & Resurrection - followed by a series of smaller battles.
Both begin the process of purging evil from a promised region - Canaan / Earth.
Both have as their primary objective the defeat of Satan's work.
Both simultaneously demand holiness to prevail and call the unrighteous to come to God to escape condemnation.

The contrast (which is the real crux of the problem) is that in the conquest of Christ, Satan is the conquered one, condemned justly for complete rebellion against God. In the conquest of Israel, human beings created in the image of God are the condemned, though they are, in reality, the victims of Satan's rebellion. How can we possibly draw a parallel between the defeat of Satan and the slaughter of pagan human beings? Were those ancient peoples such committed agents of the devil that they were evil incarnated? If this were the case, we could more easily justify their extermination.

It is true that the wicked influence of these peoples is so dynamic that, even in their decimated state, they cause the outnumbering and overpowering Israelites to fall time and again to practices completely abhorrent to God. Read Judges and the Divided Kingdom segments of the Old Testament (1 Kings 12-22; 2 Kings; 2 Chronicles 10-36, plus many of the writings of the Prophets).

But are any human beings so "far gone" spiritually as to be considered unredeemable and worthy of execution via warfare? Of course, only God can determine the spiritual state of the human heart, but it is true that even the children of some of these pagan hordes were not safe from their own, being offered as sacrifices to their gods. Still, is death brought by invading God-fearers preferable to death inflicted by their own parents at the sacrificial altar?

Another troubling question: Is a mandate from the Creator God for the extermination of a people group consistent with His character or a just treatment of even the most sinful of people?

The sovereignty of God establishes the authority of God's judgment. His method of judgment cannot be considered less "humane" simply because it is more graphic in nature to us. We are ALL sinners and due condemnation. Should God choose to exercise His wrath in a more physical way before we are condemned eternally, is He being unjust?

As sinners we are deserving of complete separation from God for eternity. Our rebellion is the cry of our evil heart. In condemning us to an eternal alienation, God is simply giving us our desire. Perhaps the issue with which we struggle is the public nature of His wrath in ancient times, and the lack of such visibility today. Invisibility does not negate reality. And visibility does not intensify the horrendous nature of what has been otherwise unseen. Sin, judgment and wrath are brutal realities created, not by God, but by our sin. We cringe at the thought of carnage done by the hand of God, but our hypocrisy betrays us. We seek grace for sin, but never wrath. God is not only love. He is also holy.

One more question that stirs inside me: What affect does this warfare have on those who are the instruments of such judgment (the Israelite soldiers)? Even though the mandate of God was unmistakable, actually being used by God to execute (an unfortunate pun) His judgment is a frightful thing. How does this scar the human soul? Is this a lesson for Israel as to the "bloody" nature of sin, one which would, hopefully, help to steer them clear of their own rebellion in times to come? If so, it failed miserably. They became as faithless and heartless as those whom they slaughtered.

I am raising far more questions than answers. And I am still pondering. Perhaps there will be a third installment.

GO TO WAR GOD (original post)

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 3

The Tree That Would Not Die

2007-10-07T21:20:00.001-05:00

Trees fascinate me. As a kid I loved to climb them, build forts up in them, enjoy their shade and fruit, marvel at their fall colors, and jump in their castaway leaves.

As an adult I still love them. They have a majesty that few other living things have. I'm not sure I can define why.

Trees play a role in God's story from the beginning. A tree was the first meeting place for Satan and man. A "tree" was the figurative term for the mode of Jesus' execution. A tree figures in the final scenes portrayed in Revelation.

The tree that is most intriguing is the "tree of life" which appears in both the opening scene and closing scene of the Bible. Besides God, it seems the one consistent presence.

Several questions are apparent as we consider this tree.

What was the purpose of the tree of life in the beginning of creation?
Was the tree of life more or less enticing than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Was the tree of life eaten from before the man and woman ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
If so, what affects did it have?
What is the purpose of the tree of life in the final scene in Revelation?
Why is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil absent in that final scene?

I have failed to give too much brain power to these questions in times past because they seemed rather trivial, but the reality is that the tree of life seems a major player in these two crucial scenes, both being scenes which are eternal in nature - i.e. the original creation was intended to endure for all time, and the final "new heaven and earth" will endure for all time. Be it literal or figurative in nature, it is indicative of something in God's design that cannot be ignored. It had a part in His original plan, and a it plays a part in the final/eternal phase as well.

In Genesis 2 greater detail is given as to the work outlined in Genesis 1. We are told that God "planted a garden in the east, in Eden" and stocked it with many trees, all of them "pleasing to the eye and good for food." These traits are God-created and come into play later (see Genesis 3:6). The center of the garden was a special spot in which two trees stood - "the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

The fact that these two trees stand side by side geographically and textually indicate that they are both created by God and intended to be central to God's plan. It is as though they are both to be considered either in comparison or in contrast to one another. Soon thereafter, God places man in this spot as the gardener and gives an important command: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.

This already prompts a question. Why? Why present an array of trees with similarly tempting traits and declare just one of them off limits? Is God simply providing man the opportunity of choice for the first time?

Consider the opportunity for choice in Deuteronomy 30:19-20.

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.

Should we view these trees as competing for the attention of man? Is God holding forth the options of life and death? A case could be made that the tree of knowledge of good and evil presents the option of man to seek to know and make moral judgements rather than allow God to be the arbiter of good and evil. This would actually make the statement of the serpent (Satan) true in Genesis 3:5. We should come to God to receive life, not moral authority.

Once this line was crossed, the tree of life became a forbidden tree as well (Genesis 3:22-24). To reject one, is to have the other withheld. To live forever in this state would be unbearable for man and for God.

This, too, raises a question. Was the tree of life some kind of elixir that would be needed periodically to maintain the unending life force in man's body? This seems to be a bizarre idea, for if God makes us eternal, why would we need some kind of supplement to maintain life? Is that why the tree of life appears in the heavenly in vision in Revelation 22 as well? We are given some more clues by Revelation 22:2.

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

The tree of life provides a "healing" power. But why would healing be needed in the perfect environs of heaven?

More on this later. I need help in understanding.

Slow Miracles

2007-10-02T10:16:00.001-05:00

I must confess that my prayer life has been rather sporadic and rather un-spectacular. At times my devotion to prayer has been extended and consistent. Many more times it has been the opposite. But even in the best of times, I cannot recall very many miracles being harvested as the fruit of my efforts.

Much of the blame falls to me, for I cannot expect great things to happen when I have allowed my devotion to falter. But you would think that amazing things might pop up once in a while. Even as I have prayed in concert with others for high and noble things, it has been rare that we have witnessed a "miracle."

My frustration stems from that lure of a "miracle around every corner" sense that the Bible conveys. I realize that we have, in Scripture, an extended account of peak events separated by many years of quietness and inaction. But still, would it be so much to ask for a resurrection or a parted sea every couple decades or so?

As I write, I know several people in dire need of healing. Cancers, paralysis, emphysema, addictions, relationships falling apart, and on and on. In my estimation, each one could be so much more effective for God's Kingdom if they could be whole. And yet, no miracles.

On the other hand, my estimation is restricted by my vision and my very limited knowledge. Some of these lives are having greater impact in their affliction than they may have had in their full strength. Reminds me of someone else - see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

Some individuals for whom I am praying seem to be in the process of healing. Call it a slow miracle. No one expected them to be where they are at this point, and yet they are defying the hypotheses of medical experts. Only time will tell if in a month, or a year, or several years they may not be fully healthy.

Still, slow miracles aren't as much of a rush as those instantaneous "Rise up and walk!" wonders done by Jesus and His apprentices. But are they any less indicative of the power of God because they may take longer?

This morning in our men's Bible study group, we read through Genesis 15 and noted the repeated promise to Abram of a family that would emerge from his own flesh and would gain the land of Canaan and be a blessing to the world. He received the promise at the age of 75, but didn't have the son of the promise until he was 100. Twenty-five years. Was it slow in coming? By my clock, no doubt. Was it by God's power? No doubt.

Our frustration with slow miracles is probably largely culturally based. We live in an instant society, so God should be at least as efficient as we are, right? And maybe that is why God makes us wait for His power to be seen, because we are so prone to expecting the immediate. Folks living in ancient times were familiar with waiting because technology hadn't conditioned them otherwise. An instant miracle was eye-opening. The twenty-first century citizen would probably be far less amazed with the fast miracle than the slow one, eventually expecting God to keep up the pace of quick miracles. Instead, we learn through waiting that the goodness and the power of God is rich, especially after times of inactivity and doubt. His slow, but consistent, power comes as refreshment to souls who have been waiting. We grow in hope as we grow in patience. The miracle is not just the healing of the one for whom we are praying. The miracle is also in the transforming of our own hearts and the opening of our own eyes. We, too, have been made whole along with those on our prayer list.

Lord, may I be rebuked when I judge the majesty of Your miracles according to my timetable. May I have my cold heart warmed, and my cemented eyelids opened to the glory of Your restoring hand in the times when You work, no matter how quickly. May I never fail to hope in You.

The Swing of the Pendulum

2007-09-25T21:08:00.001-05:00

In my brief 46 years, I have watched as the pendulum of church "fadology" has swung back and forth. Actually, it is more like a pendulum which swings as it simultaneously orbits the central pole of God's ideal for the Church.

I am not an authority of church history in any regard, and the following observations are purely subjective, but I find it fascinating to see how various stages of church development bring out the best and worst of the body of Christ.

I can recall in the 70's the surge of Charismatic churches. Theological debates still reflect the tension between those who believe that the same miraculous gifts that occurred in the First Century are valid and should be experienced today, and those who believe that those gifts ceased to exist as the apostles faded from the scene and the Church became established.

Regardless of your stance, this phase brought a much needed resurgence of Holy Spirit awareness. A Church that had run on the power of business models, hard work, structured programs, and educated leaders (none of which are necessarily negative factors), was awakened to the need to surrender to the control of the One who made the Church the Church in the first place - the Spirit of the Living God.

In the early 80's the church growth movement kicked into gear, and we were bombarded with tactics, strategies, programs, etc. for making the church "user-friendly." I was working on my master's degree in the 80's and remember reading far more church growth books than I cared to read, and most of them saying the same thing. Most of it was fairly common sense.

This phase tended to swing the Church away from dependence on the Spirit of God for growth, but also provided church leaders some insight into practical ways to use our minds and abilities in tandem with God's Spirit to unleash the Church to impact communities and the world.

About the same time as the church growth movement was stirring the thinking of pastors, another wave began to rumble toward the shores of Christendom. The explosive popularity of worship and praise music not only renewed the worship of churches, but created an entirely new genre of music which became, and continues to be, highly lucrative. The long-lasting wave of praise and worship emphasis in the Church has not only enabled the creation of some great music (and a lot of sub-par stuff too), but has opened up much needed dialogue about the theology of worship. It has also driven us as the people of God to re-discover our Old Covenant roots. Ancient Judaism was a culture deeply trained in honoring the majesty of God in multi-faceted and creative ways. These practices are valuable for the modern church.

Over the last ten years the fascination with post-modernism has not only alerted ministry leaders to the change of our culture, but has lead to another phase of church development, specifically the birth of the emerging church. For some helpful insight on what the "emerging church" is, read this article by Gary Zustiak in a recent edition of the Christian Standard.

As I write this, debate rages (not an inappropriate term for some of the tense discussions) about some of the theological peculiarities of certain leaders and churches within the emerging church community. Some of those concerns are well-founded. But many of the themes of the emerging church are also helpful in regaining balance within the Church.

A renewed emphasis on pursuing social justice, caring for the environment, and discussions about topics like the relationship between the Church and democracy, and the myth of redemptive violence have been healthy movements toward giving attention to issues long-neglected in the Western Church especially.

I recount this brief, personal history of the Church simply to illustrate that:

Holding too tightly to any "fad" of ecclesiology is risky, for it will likely fade into obscurity when its weaknesses, or even heresies, are discovered.
The Church is an organism. Change is a part of our reality. Foundational truths can never be sacrificed without distorting the Church, but the flow of new ideas will help us explore areas of neglect.
The swing of the pendulum is a necessary movement, lest the Church become cemented to one extreme. Our human tendency is to be attracted to extremes. We discover an area of weakness, and, instead of seeking to restore balance, we completely abandon the previous extreme - including the worthy aspects of it - and embrace the new extreme. Most of the phases through which the Church has passed have been healthy, in that they have brought refreshing and needed correction in times of error.

I have been blessed by every wave of church thinking through which I have passed, but I am often tempted to think that the latest one is finally "it." I assume that the Church has finally arrived. Hold on. Another wave is coming. And it, too, will be a thrill to ride. Learn to enjoy the ride, but remember it is a merely a wave. The wave is a periodical ripple of the ocean. It is not the ocean itself.

War God

2007-09-24T22:52:00.002-05:00

If I had to list a Top 5 of theological puzzles, I would definitely include the challenge of merging the Old Testament God of military conquest and the New Testament Jesus, Prince of Peace. It seems fairly clear that God calls Israel, as a people, to engage in warfare (at times the complete decimation of people groups who seem to be minding their own business) while protecting and providing victory for them in the process, and executing judgment on those who refuse to do so to accomplish His purposes. It also seems clear that Jesus calls His disciples to live peacefully with all people, even those who personally, aggressively and violently stand against them. So which is it. Can we find a harmonious conclusion?

Obviously, I cannot and will not be able to provide THE answer to this gargantuan question, but I came across a text in my personal reading that may shed some light.

I was reading this morning in the Old Testament book of Joshua. In Chapter 5 Joshua and the Israelites are preparing to take possession of the land they have just entered. Early in the chapter the men are circumcised because none of the males have undergone this covenantal ritual since they were in Egypt. All of those men are gone at this point, having died in the desert. The new generation have not been so consecrated.

Near the close of the chapter, just before the attack on Jericho begins, Joshua has a strange encounter with a "man" described as "the commander of the Lord's army." He is bearing a sword and Joshua asks:

"Are you for us or for our enemies?"

The response he receives is brief, and Joshua does not question it.

"Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come."

I would have desired a little clarification on such a neutral response. But Joshua's reaction is to fall in worship before this being and ask what message from the Lord he has come to share.

"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy."

If that sounds familiar, see Exodus 3:5. Joshua honors the command, and we are ushered directly into the story of Jericho's fall.

This intriguing encounter provokes several thoughts.

The "commander" clearly reveals that God is not willing to take sides and declare any of the Canaanite people groups as enemies, at least at this point.
The issue for the commander/God is clarifying that God is present in this place, thus making the place holy. Something "holy" is something set apart for the purposes of God.
The question Joshua poses initially might well be one that God could ask of Joshua, the Canaanite peoples, and/or us: Are you for Me or against Me?
This encounter occurs before any of the Conquest takes place, almost suggesting that it sets the theological tone for the actions of Israel in each military encounter.

The account of Jericho's fall is quite non-militaristic at first, utilizing marching hordes, trumpets and shouts. Once the walls fall, the violence begins, Joshua commanding the people to totally decimate every living thing in the city (Joshua 6:17).

The exception is Rahab and her household. Because she aided the spies during their covert mission, she and all in her home were spared during the mayhem. This draws me back to the encounter of Joshua with the commander of the army of the Lord. God does not select people groups for violent judgment. He is looking for faithfulness among ALL peoples. Rahab is the remnant figure among the Canaanites, spared because of her understanding of the holy ground on which she stood. The destruction of those who continued to reject God is a judgment called and led by God.

Could it be that God was seeking, not the decimation of people groups, but the surrender of these people? Was the seven-day period an opportunity for the people of Jericho to open their gates and receive Israel and Israel's God? We may never know, but it is difficult to suppose that God ever moves with violence against people as His first tactic. It seems reserved for a people in complete rebellion.

I can't say that some of these insights I have gained from this section of the Scriptures solve the tension mentioned at the beginning of this post, but there are some clues here that might make a bit more sense of it all.

I hope to explore more of these issues as I continue through Joshua and generally explore this theological Gordian knot.

GO TO WAR GOD - PART 2

Sweatless Service

2007-09-05T08:46:00.001-05:00

The devastating injury of a friend recently provoked my thinking about the quality of life needed to serve others. It is amazing how the simplest of words can become bloated with implication. When I think of "service" I usually associate it with effort rendered which is mostly physical in nature. It is action that makes us use our muscles and sweat. It leads to physical fatigue because we are helping a friend move, or mowing a lawn, or cleaning a house, or preparing a meal, or changing the oil in a car.

I wondered, as I considered a friend who is unable to use arms and legs to do any of those things, if when we come to that kind of crossroads, our ability to serve is extinguished. I wondered it about myself. Would I still have the capacity to serve others? Would I sense that my purpose in life had been severely diminished?

Counter-arguments quickly came to mind:

"I can minister through speaking encouragement."

"I can serve others as I teach."

"I can have an impact through prayer."

The arguments made sense, but they still seemed a bit hollow. And then I was ministered to by a friend who was flat on his back and virtually unable to move anything but his eyes, lips and soul. I had physically gone to the aid of a friend to serve, and I emerged having been served. I was lifted up. My faith was renewed. I was made to think.

Attending to the needs of others through physical ministry is certainly an important calling for all of us who are able-bodied. But the power of ministry rendered through a prayerful spirit, wise words, and a caring soul is nourishing to the bone. I am ashamed that I do not care for others better in "sweatless" ways. The opportunities for ministry have multiplied before the eyes of my heart, now, for there are some needs the hands and feet can never meet.

Last Resort?

2007-09-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

When all else fails, trust God.

A church in our town has this message posted on its sign. With all due respect, is this warped, or what? I propose dropping one word and altering the punctuation.

All else fails. Trust God.

Believe and live this way to begin with and you'll find the peace of God much sooner.

Flow of Riches

2007-08-23T21:22:00.000-05:00

I have known people who are very generous in giving to others their time, money, and service. Their heart was evident to all. No sacrifice seemed too great when it came to soothing the pain of others. But I have also observed that those who are most generous are often very reluctant to receive help when they are in need.

I have also known people who are takers. They are not shy about receiving assistance from others, and may often ask for help before they are asked if they need it. Many times the takers are oblivious to the needs of others and can't conceive that they should reach out to offer help. They have become a swamp, consistently receiving, but never flowing outward to others.

As I ponder the reasons for such extremes, I am struck how rare it is to find someone who does both well. I am not sure that I know anyone who is equally comfortable with giving as they are receiving. And yet I believe that such a balance should be characteristic of Jesus-followers. Look at Jesus and you will find Him to be as adept at reaching out with healing power as He was at receiving the anointing of costly perfume. Neither act embarrassed Him. It was as it was intended to be.

What could it be that tends to keep us polarized to one extreme or the other? Could it be the same failure that causes both anomalies?

The heart of this issue is stewardship. When we properly understand who owns it all, the flow of riches into our lives should be as natural as the the flow of riches out of our lives to others. And vice versa. If I truly believe that nothing I have is mine, but ALL is God's, I will be as comfortable giving it as I am receiving it. I can give freely, because it is not mine to hoard. I can receive freely, because I am receiving the blessing which God ultimately possesses anyway. I freely receive air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, shelter to protect, relationships to nurture and comfort, and truth to guide. Why could I not receive $100 as a gift - not from his wallet or her pocketbook, really, but from God's treasure.

A misunderstanding of the sovereign ownership of God hinders the flow in either or both directions. A friend told me about a man he met who said, "What does it matter that God's money is in your pocket or mine?" The early church lived by that principle.

"they gave to everyone as he had need"

Some call it communism. I called it God-born stewardship.

This might seem harsh, but either extreme of flow presented above is a manifestation of selfishness. Those who receive, but rarely give, have become convinced that they deserve to possess. Their comfort takes precedence. If others have needs, they should find support elsewhere.

And those who give, but find it nearly impossible to receive, have become convinced that they are self-sufficient. The delusion is that they are in control. God can help them, they admit, but only in a way in which they approve.

Both conditions require a humble gratitude. Both require a conversion of trust. Both require a restoration of sight. We all come to God, beggars in need of bread, and God has created a community in which His riches are intended to flow in every direction through our lives, never to be collected in cisterns for the self.

Life with an open hand implies that my hand is open for both reasons: to give and to receive. And never can my fingers close to clench what is God's.

Elevator Muzak

2007-08-14T21:01:00.000-05:00

A few of weeks ago, as I was driving from Missouri to Ohio alone, I was listening to an array of CDs. I had brought along one of those compilation worship CDs and was enjoying the music as I drove and daydreamed, content to have spiritual melodies ensconce me.

And then a random thought struck me (maybe it wasn't so random - you be the judge). Is it proper for worship music to serve as a mere backdrop for my activities? Weren't these songs written with the express purpose of honoring God and calling the singer/performer/listener to do the same? Does allowing such a creative gift to become "ambience" demote it to little more than a fresh coat of paint on the living room wall of my life?

The thought nagged at me. What about other music? Is not music in itself a gift from God? The ability to write melodies and fashion poetic statements is beyond my talents. These are granted by the One who created us. Those who have this gift put forth their energy to create expressions from their heart about myriad themes, all that the human heart might be moved to think above and beyond itself. In music, we are called to interact with the work done by composer, artist, musician, and vocalist. Is not using music - any music - as a "mood-setter" a violation of its very intent? Is it a passive art, or a call to listen, think, worship, even act?

We have made this practice even more mainstream by technological creations which enable us to take our music with us anywhere so that we can fill the empty aural spaces with pleasant sounds. And yet we don't really hear them. I begin to see the point of those artists who are appalled at the thought of great music being sold to Wal-Mart or Chevy and used to sell a product. The gift of music was meant for more than this.

Before technology enabled our ears to hear music second-hand (recorded), it could only be experienced with great effort. The musicians and vocalists had to get together, tune up, rehearse, gather an audience - however formal or informal - and play as listeners did little else but experience the gift. The reason all were gathered was for none other than to give total attention to the message of the music. The music had become the center of the gathering. Now it often plays the role of a barely noticed seasoning in our soup.

This view of music has also robbed us of the significance of silence. We often reach for music (and, of course, TV) as a distraction from our aloneness. It is hard to be alone and quiet because in those moments you see yourself more honestly and that can be a difficult thing. Better to numb ourselves to reality by the soothing of soft tunes in the shadows.

We reveal a more organic understanding of music's beauty and power when we attend concerts. We sit, look on, and listen with complete attention to the tapestry of melodies, harmonies, rhythm and lyrics being woven together before us. It feeds the soul. We have been blessed and we have respected the work of the artists and the Artist. I remember a few years ago hearing James Taylor in concert and actually experiencing a worshipful mood, because the music was such a joy. Though it was from one who did not acknowledge God in any overt way, the gift could not betray its Maker. It was a divine gift.

I am a little more resistant to listening to music as mere filler for my activities now. I contend that we focus as we listen and really hear it. Turn it up. Give attention to it as you would a good book. I realize that habits die hard. I am still very apt to keep music at a semi-conscious level, but I hope to be more intentional about my involvement with it in the future.

I suppose the same could be said of other great pieces of art. Museums honor the purpose. We go specifically to look and experience the creative gift. To slap a copy on our walls merely because it matches the color scheme seems to cheapen the work. Creative gifts are intended to open up something within us as it scratches away at the crust of our life.

Perhaps this rant seems a little too introspective, but I suspect that if I give myself to more intentional music listening, I will find my discernment sharpening. Less of the stuff out there touted as art will be considered worthy of my ears. Music, like any gift from God, can be twisted into selfish uses. It may be time to thin the CD herd in my basement.

He/She who has ears to hear, let him/her hear.

Just Hot

2007-08-13T17:10:00.001-05:00

It has been blistering for the last two weeks and is supposed to be the same throughout this week. It saps your energy at almost every level. Severe circumstances test your metal. What holds me together when I am hot, thirsty, sweaty and generally miserable?

It is much like the testing we endure when fasting from something. When comfort is stripped away, you discover your true self. And yet, I am not overly willing to truly endure the testing, for I have clung desperately to my air-conditioned refuge.

Summer heat is my nemesis. Every since I was little I have detested hot weather and loved the cool and cold. I shall choose other "wildernesses" for times of testing and growth.

Heaven and Earth

2007-07-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

So the basic idea is that God lives in heaven, and if we believe/do the right thing(s) then we, too, can go there after we die. Heaven is eternal, perfect and beyond human comprehension. Earth is temporary, tarnished by sin and destined for destruction.

Is this in line with Scripture? Several questions stir in me.

When does the Bible first delineate a heaven/earth separation?

Did/does/will heaven and earth ever co-mingle?

Is the traditional interpretation (summarized crudely in the opening sentence above) correct?

I am studying, thinking and praying about these issues. I'll post more later. Any thoughts?

Convicted by Leviticus

2007-06-19T14:14:00.000-05:00

I just started reading through the Old Testament book of Leviticus. This is not necessarily a thirst that I am quenching, as much as a box that I am marking off in the journey of reading through all of the Bible.

Even though I was not initially excited about the venture, I became fairly passionate about this as I wrapped up 1 & 2 Chronicles and was looking for some new territory. I was determined to take this frequently ignored section of the Bible and slowly, thoughtfully comb through its message and see what recesses of my heart God might grab. I've only begun, and already I've been benevolently assaulted.

The first 5 chapters of the book give detailed instructions for burnt offerings, grain offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. Fairly mundane stuff. Or is it?

Imagine the ancient Hebrew's world - a world of hard work, and utter dependence on the one Lord Jehovah. The various offerings/sacrifices addressed a number of circumstances, but centered mostly on consistent worship (an acknowledgement of God's supremacy in all things) and penance for sin.

How often these offerings had to be brought, I don't know. But between the periodic offerings required for maintaining devotion to God, and the offerings required for sin, a lot of sacrificing was going on nationally and personally. The priests and Levites were engaged 24/7 in the midst of blood and fire. And each Hebrew household was consistently providing from their own means offerings for worship and repentance. Selecting a blue ribbon calf or lamb to be given away and slaughtered was a very real cost. And it was a cost that came around often and consistently.

Every offering was a reminder of the gap between God and man that must be mended, and that the remedy was no simple thing. It required literal blood, sweat and tears.

Would the cost of sin and the difficulty of reconciliation between Creator and His creatures not become deeply impressed on the lives of those ancient people? To imagine a day in which someone else paid the price and the sacrifice ceased would be a day of almost unfathomable celebration.

You and I have lived our whole lives in the age of Grace. Most of us have a very fuzzy impression of the true cost of sin. Unless we have seen some specific rebellion cut into life lethally and then become healed by God in a specific way, we don't quite feel the impact of sin. In my experience forgiveness has always been fairly easy. Believe a story. Pledge allegiance. When I screw up, say a prayer. It's covered.

But what if I had to spend one year offering a calf/lamb/ram/goat/pigeon/ephah of grain every Sunday and every time I sinned? Would grace suddenly become a more marvelous thing?

I can't wait to continue my reading in Leviticus. I anticipate a deepening understanding of sin, holiness and grace.

Simple Church

2007-06-15T11:53:00.000-05:00

Allow me to go Martin Luther King, Jr. for a minute. I have a dream. I have a dream when one day the church will become simple again. Not simple-minded, but simple. I become weary of administration, budgets, buildings, programming, and the like. I look at the early church - a mega-church - that thrived as a home-based people of God living together in harmony and turning the world upside-down for Jesus Christ. They had no buildings, no budgets, no programs, and no printed curriculum, but they had power.

This does not mean that they had no problems. And certainly as they grew they had to strive for some kind of organizational structure. Acts 6 & 15 shows us that some kind of structure had to come into play to deal with a variety of issues. But the community of Jesus-followers were much more organic than they are today.

Say the word "church" today and it is hard not to think about all the externals that consume our money, time and energies. And, yet, despite our sophistication, how does our impact compare with our brothers and sisters from AD 30? Ouch!

Let me be clear that I am not attempting an insurrection against organized churches. I pastor one. I was raised in one. I have seen them change people's lives. I think God uses and will continue to use them. But I have been challenged in my thinking to envision something different. I'm not the first. Organic faith is not original with anyone. Movements have come and gone which emphasize home churches, bi-vocational ministry, etc. I also don't want to see any kind of movement back toward "simple church" become a cult or a legalistic stance which considers all other ways to do church as opposed to the designs of God.

I simply have a dream.

How much better could we minister to one another if we focused, not on elaborate services and flashy programs, but on praying together, loving one another, and sharing life together?

How much more could we learn and grow if we became voracious in our Biblical appetite, meeting together to read, memorize, study and discuss God's truth with no additional curricula which has to create interest because people are not naturally hungry for God's Word?

How much more powerful could our light to the world be if our lives were truly transformed and, in the context of transformed living, we could invite people to walk with Jesus, not just attend a weekly service?

How much blessing could we extend to a battered and bleeding world if our money were not tied up in mortgages, utility bills, insurance, & salaries?

How much more time could we give to touching the wounds of marginalized people if we weren't occupied with board meetings and various forms of religious red tape?

My dream does not spring from naivete. I understand that as movements grow, organization at some level is required to facilitate further growth. Moses' dilemma in Exodus 18 elaborates on that. I also realize that the culture in which I am immersed would consider the "simple church" so freakish that it would be suspect by many and might not prove effective in reaching others. Our culture expects faith matters to be addressed in the context of well-organized and well-groomed frameworks.

And yet, I still have a dream of what could be. Much of it stems from my own restlessness. I cherish this dream and will continue to ask God to help me in pursuing it in thought and in practice. God is, after all, the one Who makes dreams come true. Especially if they are His dreams. And I wonder if He might be sharing His dream with me. Who knows?

Believe Anyway

2007-06-02T19:36:00.000-05:00

God’s ways are often not our ways. And our ways are often not God’s ways. That’s a good thing, but it makes for discomfort – ours, not God’s. The most dangerous four words are “If I were God…”

My agenda for governing creation and running the Kingdom usually come back to convenience. . . for me. Take faith, for example. I find it much easier to act on belief after I have the proof that what I am trusting will happen. God meets me halfway. He provides some proof upfront that He is a trustworthy God:

The consistent rising of the sun, enough air to breathe, and the general order I see in creation.

His track record of coming through for countless individuals – parting bodies of water to enable travel at crucial moments, providing food miraculously when food is desperately needed, defeating enemies when all seems lost, dying for sins and conquering death, etc.

His faithfulness to His story in the Bible. For instance, He tells us ahead of time when and how something will happen, and it happens just like He said. Or consider the flow of the Bible story, which stays consistent to the theme of renewal and life grace.

If we pay attention, we will realize that God can be trusted.

But that is often not enough because we want to know that He can be trusted in this next moment when I must do something that is rather risky. I’d like for Him to show me ahead of time how He is going to pull me through the next challenge. I’m all for faith steps if He will show me the rock in the water before I extend my foot.

“Do you trust me, or not?”

That’s the real issue, isn’t it? The essence of trustworthiness is that it is consistent. Otherwise, it isn’t trustworthy. If God proved to be faithful when Moses took faith-steps, He will be faithful when I take faith-steps. But, Gideon-like (see Judges 6), we want just one more sign before we move.

Part of the reason I falter at faith-steps is because God tends to be a little more creative than I’d like. He rarely does things the same way. The way He came through for Abraham or Joshua or Paul will be different each time. His faithfulness is sure, but His method varies. And that unnerves me a bit. What if He lets me sink a little when I step into the river? What if He lets me swim and gulp some water before he lifts me out?

Individuals and churches go through times of testing. Churches see finances get tight, attendance numbers dip, morale wanes at times, and the temptation is to reach for some deliverance besides trusting God. Instead of stepping into rivers, we begin to gather the troops and build bridges. God whispers, “Trust me.”

Of course, we must be aware of the partnership into which God has called us. We can step ahead in faith, but he may calls us to build bridges as a part of that faith-step. It is still a matter of trust. It is essential that we grow in our knowledge of God and His Kingdom so that we can continue in obedient trust. Though the future of our faith is uncertain to us, it can be trusted to God.

I have been tempted to withdraw and choose the sidelines when life and ministry don’t go as I plan. But something inside me (the Holy Spirit) prods me onward in faith. I must be faithful. Because God always is.

Grassroots Ministry

2007-03-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

As you take a look at most churches, you will discover a number of activities and ministry-opportunities which have emerged from the ideas of church leaders and members. These are opportunities that each body of believers has declared to be important enough to promote and pursue. But is that all there is to ministry in the local church?

If you think about it, proportionately, a very small collection of minds (I did NOT say “a collection of small minds”!) actually generate the ministry ideas for any local church. The assumption is that a select few are the idea people. They are appointed by virtue of their wisdom, savvy and connectedness to the needs of the world around them to develop strategies for ministry and create enough enthusiasm to gain supporters for the implementation of those strategies.

The problem with this approach is that a vast majority of God’s people - let’s say about 90% - follow the lead of others and are not specifically encouraged to be idea people. We don’t ask them to dream and they don’t expect to be dreamers. That’s somebody else’s job. This might provide at least one answer as to why it is so hard to motivate some people to jump on board with our “great” ministry ideas. . . it wasn’t their idea. It isn’t that those ideas generated by the 10% aren’t valuable. It is simply that those dreams have not been dreamed by the potential followers and become, to them, second-hand dreams.

What if the Church became a place where everyone was encouraged to dream for God? And what if the Church became a place where dreamers felt the freedom to launch ministries and call others to join them? The reality is that God has placed within each Christ-follower specific abilities and passions which He intends to use for the expansion of His Kingdom. The reality is that each of us spends our days in spheres of influence which consistently expose us to potential ministry opportunities, and God desires for us to see what could be done for His glory in those places and in the lives of those people. God dreams through us. And if those dreams are never allowed to emerge, and are never nurtured, and are never brought to action, the dreams of God are left dormant until someone else dreams the dream.

What dreams for expanding the glory of God and declaring His Kingdom do you have? If you keep it to yourself, it becomes a stillborn dream. But if you share the dream and seek to have it come to life, you may discover that a significant number of Christ-followers share your dream and are waiting for someone else to voice it and make it a reality.

Whenever someone comes to me with a new ministry idea, it is exciting to simply see them thinking and dreaming. I want to become better at encouraging those dreams and providing a way to see them become flesh and bone. Every dream won't become a hit, but we will never know what could have been done until we take the risk. When we seek God’s wisdom and trust Him to do something bigger than ourselves, we are never disappointed. We might be scared, confused at times, even doubting, but as we let God lead, His way is always strewn with joy and hope.

You have God’s permission to dream.

Do We Matter?

2007-02-08T17:18:00.000-06:00

How essential are we to this planet? Is the Church a nice garland that dresses up the drab existence of civilization, or is She more? And, if so, how much more?

Is She one of many indispensable tools to bring aid and comfort to a hurting world? Is She important for social change? Is She a leader in spiritual change? Is She the savior of families or broken-down economies? What role does She play?

I have heard it asked in this way concerning the local church: If our church were forced out of existence, who would protest? Is the body of Christ making an impact so indispensable to our community and world, that our extinction would mean a noticeable and detrimental loss to people who are not members of our congregation?

The Church is referred to in the New Testament as the “body of Christ,” and we as “members.” These two terms indicate attachment and action. We are connected to Christ. He is the Head and we are the “members.” That word “member” has been rendered so impotent through the ages that we have lost sight of what it truly means. The “member” of a body is an extension which receives its life from the rest of the body, and also is indispensable to the body to which it is attached. It is not simply a casual acquaintance. It is not a mere attender of meetings or a payer of dues. It is vital to the body.

The “body-member” image also implies action. There is a life to be lived which aggressively moves forward to the accomplishing of the Head’s will. To fail in this endeavor is to fail as a body.

We are in this together (you, me, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We have a tremendous responsibility and opportunity before us. It must be approached with passion, much prayer, full trust in God and complete joy. We have the potential of radically changing our community and world.

A drum-beat emphasis of Bill Hybel’s book Courageous Leadership is simple, but so true and important. He writes numerous times: The local church is the hope of the world.

Do we matter? You better believe it. Jesus died for us. And God is placing the destiny of creation on our hands. That overwhelms me. That inspires me. That means OUR calling is the highest of all, for it is divine in source and eternal in impact.

It is important that we confirm our calling as followers of Jesus Christ and members of His Body, the Church. Take some time to pause prayerfully in evaluation and re-commitment. What do you need to do to more completely fulfill that role? Who do you need to seek out to help you grow in that direction? What could your church be if its members fully surrendered to the Head? What could the Church be to the world?

Dream God-sized dreams. Those are the only kind God has. Dream with Him.

Martyrs at Panera

2006-12-14T08:14:00.000-06:00

Let me piggy-back to my last thoughts, specifically the third point concerning the American pursuit of comfort.

I ran into a friend this morning at Panera. You know the place, coffee shoppe/pastry haven complete with couches, wi-fi and an atmosphere which is intended to make it a place people love to hang out. And it works marvelously. The place is always hopping because it is so comfortable and relaxing.

Anyway, my friend comes here frequently in the morning hours to get her day started and read. Since I am a card-carrying bibliophile, I always inquire about her current tome. She is currently working her way through a book of collected stories about Christian martyrs. I have heard of the book before and, though I've not read it, assume it is an inspiring book. Our hearts could surely be stirred and our passions renewed by learning about those whose commitment to Jesus Christ meant paying the ultimate price.

All of sudden it hit me. Here I was in an environment which typifies the obsession of my generation with comfort and relaxation while a friend read about those who gave up all comfort for the sake of their Master. I am not casting any judgment on my friend at all, but instead reflecting on the delicate balance required of all of us who walk with Christ in "cushy" cultures.

I am sure that most martyrs had moments of relaxation and retreat before their days of persecution, but the lures of my environment are powerful, suggesting that R & R become my life goals. Seeking persecution is foolish. But worshipping the fantasy world of Panera is just as dangerous.

The word "martyr" is a transliteration of a Greek word which means "witness." This is the actual intent of a martyr - to testify to the God who is their Lord. If that means I pay with my life, so be it. But even at Panera I am to be a "martyr" for Christ.

Americanized Disciples

2006-11-10T15:17:00.000-06:00

NOTE: The following comments are not intended to be unappreciative of the way of life that many of us have enjoyed in the United States of America. They serve only as a warning to beware of allowing our "Americanism" to become a higher priority than our walk with Jesus Christ.

For whatever reason, last night I slept poorly and had a continual barrage of thoughts invading my dreams. These bullets to my grey matter centered mostly on the ways we have Americanized our walk with Jesus Christ. As Americans, we have come to value several standards:

The supremacy of success
The strength of individualism
The pursuit of comfort
The power of education

These traits have served us well as our country broke into the wilderness and turned a ruggedly beautiful landscape into a land flowing with milk and honey. These qualities have enabled us to establish an unparalleled culture of prosperity, freedom and opportunity. But each of these can become dangerous when asked to co-exist with the reign of Jesus in the human heart. Jesus is a Lord who will have no rivals.

Success is redefined by Jesus. It is not about personal greatness. It is not centered in material wealth. It is found in humble service to others and loyal obedience to God. Even the attitude used to achieve is transformed by Christ: a boldness and aggressiveness that is informed by gentleness and trust.

Individualism is cast aside in exchange for the interdependence of the body of Christ. I have only recently rediscovered the beauty of this analogy. We who have chosen to follow Jesus are called into a body. We are not like a body. We are a body - the body of Christ, with Him as the head. Like it or not, we are linked together and share life. We share pain and joy, conflict and peace, growth and death. There truly is no such thing as a disciple of Jesus who has no church family.

Comfort is found, not in creating our own havens of rest, but by resting in the Spirit of God. So many today view the goal of life to be retirement: the ultimate creation of a warm nest to snuggle into in the final years of life. I understand the desire to seek a place of rest. Every day, around 5 p.m. especially, that seems like a worthy goal. But this is not why we have been placed here. Our rest awaits in heaven. Read the first few verses of John 14 for more on that. We are not disciples seeking comfort, but providing it.

Education is viewed by many as a cure-all. Indeed, to move up the career ladder in our culture, a good education is a must. And I am one who has always enjoyed the pursuit of knowing more. But when education becomes the goal, we become intellectual stones. We are not called to merely know, but to be. Jesus came to provide transformation, not just information. Make sure that what you know has a Godly effect in making you more like Jesus.

Jesus said, "Seek first His (God's) Kingdom and His righteousness. . ."

The Morning After

2006-11-08T14:37:00.000-06:00

It is true that I am disappointed generally at the outcome of yesterday's elections. One issue which I hoped would fail (the stem cell initiative) passed, and some of the candidates which I supported were defeated. Nevertheless, I am not in mourning. Everytime I see the world around me making choices that I consider to be questionable or plain despicable, I turn my eyes toward the sovereign power of God and find peace.

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.

- Daniel 2:20-21a

His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?"

- Daniel 4:34b-35

I am confident that God will set everything right in the end. That gives me ultimate peace. By the same token, I don't consider living for Him aggressively to be unimportant. I will still live with integrity, pursue justice for others, and seek to shine for Christ in whatever way I can, but I will not become defeated in attitude when my culture steers further from God. I partially accept that as a matter of the reality of evil in a fallen world. At the same time, I recommit myself to the battle of bringing the truth of God to light in the darkness.

Political avenues of change are never my first priority. My first priority is to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness. Votes will never rival the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I value my voting power. I cherish, to a much higher degree, the power given me in prayer.

In November of 2008 the tide may completely turn and many of the issues and candidates that I favor may become validated at the polls. But even if they are, my attitude must remain the same. Even when the people I agree with are in power, they are still fallible sinners like me. We can never allow God's hand to be removed from the cradle of our existence.

God reigns.

Up North

2006-10-19T21:17:00.000-05:00

One week ago we came out of the wilderness and were never so glad to see the van which would be our home for the next 16 hours. For most of the last ten years, in late September or early October a group of men (12-18) from this region of the country get together and head north for a week in the wilderness somewhere. The group has gone to Voyageurs National Park, the Sylvania Wilderness area, the Flambeau river, Yellowstone National Park, the Upper Missouri River in Montana, the Au Sable River and the Boundary Waters. This year we spent a week (October 7-12) in the Boundary Waters (my second time) to catch the peak of fall color. What we didn't know was that the color would be white.

The week began fairly seasonal, then slowly got colder and windier. Because of Boundary Waters regulations, our group of 12 had to divide into two groups during our time there, and both groups got a little more windy winter than we desired. The group I was with got stranded for a day longer than we planned on an island just south of the Canadian border on Lac La Croix. One of the guys who'd been in that region before said we were on Bear Island. The wind began blowing from the north on Tuesday evening and didn't stop until early Thursday morning. The lakes were definitely not navigable for canoes during that time. We just had to put on enough layers, spend a lot of time in our sleeping bags and tents, and pray for the wind to stop.

I learned several lessons during that long Wednesday.

I've taken my last journey into the north woods for a while.
You can actually wear 7 layers of clothing and still paddle a canoe.
Canoes can actually break through ice when they have enough speed.
Food and clothing are not all that are essential to survival. Shelter cannot be overrated.
Our forefathers and Native Americans who faced the wilderness without the high tech gear we have at our disposal were way tougher than I'll ever be.
I love being home with my family.
God will protect and provide, but always in His timing.

We emerged from the wilderness on Thursday afternoon, about three or four hours later than we intended. The other group made it in before us, but, were also late. Considering the long day we had to put in, we were elated at our progress. We packed up in the blowing snow, made our way back into Ely, Minnesota, and pulled into Pizza Hut for a warm meal. Pizza never tasted so good. Even an ice cold root beer held me in its spell.

This trip was one of the most thought-provoking we've taken. Usually the discussions center on the fish caught (or that got away), an unusual wildlife sighting, a memorable moment (like the year we were dazzled for nearly an hour by the Northern Lights), or the joy of camraderie. All of us were a little more somber this time, truly grateful to be on our way home. It's hard to respond positively when people ask if I "enjoyed" the trip. It wasn't necessarily enjoyable. But I'll never forget it.

One more thing. Each year we go through a particular Bible study during the week. We've studied the life of David, the life of Daniel, facets of prayer, the prayer of Jabez, 1st Peter, a passage in 1st Timothy 6, and stories about fish in the Gospels. This year's study was the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis. The title: Trusting God. Enough said.

98.6

2006-09-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

While in prayer yesterday with some friends, the unchanging nature of God was referenced. We paused to give praise to a God who is stable though the world is ever-changing. And during that prayer time we also called upon God to make us like Himself by changing us.

Praying for life-change is a common theme in my prayers. I believe that God desires to have His followers be transformed into the image of His Son. You see, God is working a restoration plan. Since sin shattered that image we shared with God when creation was untainted by sin, a part of God's Kingdom dream is to restore the harmony between His character and ours.

I paused during our prayer time to consider that paradox. We come before an unchanging God and pray, not for our nature to be unchanging, but for change - consistent, rapid, obvious change - to become a reality in our lives.

Nothing overly profound here, for if God is perfect and we are not, the obvious optimal plan is for God to remain perfect and for us to change until we become complete/perfect too. That stopped me in mid-prayer-step, however.

Do I fully appreciate the unchanging nature of my Creator?

Do I truly want to be transformed in every aspect of life that I might become like Him?

My body (and yours) has an internal thermostat. Our body is constantly working to maintain a body temperature of 98.6 degrees. When I am too cold, my body works harder through blood flow, shivering or goosebump-raised hairs to bring warmth, and if that doesn't work my brain usually has enough capacity to formulate a plan for warmth (build a fire, turn up the thermostat at home, put on more clothes, rub my skin, drink hot tea or hug somebody - not just anybody however. . .). When I am too hot, blood flow helps cool me down and sweat enables me to cool by the evaporation of moisture from the surface of my skin. If that proves inadequate I may shed some clothes (some, not all), drink icewater, run for the A/C, find shade, fan myself or jump into water. The ideal is 98.6. My life is a constant flow of adjustments to draw close to the ideal.

God is the 98.6 of my total life. He is the Pinnacle of perfection. I will never hit the mark before my heart stops beating, but the thermostat of my soul should be set to that notch. As a point of spiritual survival, I must allow my soul to sweat and shiver. I must be willing to have my blood run fast or slow as the circumstances dictate. I must do the things that need be done to draw closer to the 98.6 perfection of my Lord.

"Father, place in my heart the impulse of your holy ideal that I might always strive for the supremacy of your character."

Clipped!

2006-09-06T17:18:00.000-05:00

Our dog, Molly, is a full-blood mutt. She was picked out of a litter of pups huddled in a cardboard box in the parking lot of Wal-Mart ten winters ago. The lady who owned the box and the canines within charged us $0.00 for the purchase. Molly's been worth every penny.

Actually, she's been a great dog, still playful and even-tempered. She only teeters off the edge when one of three things happens: when she gets her hair clipped, her nails clipped or when she gets a bath. That's why I usually try to do all three in one swift series of events. Not because I love to torment her, but because I suppose the agony is lessened by having it all occur in a short span of time. It's no picnic for me either (her barber, manicurist and hygienic specialist). After it all, I feel like I've taped a special edition of "Dirty Jobs." I'm ready for a nap.

Monday (Labor Day) was the day. In the matter of 60-90 minutes the torture would be over. After all was said and done she looked great and smelled great. But every time I walked near her, fearing I might impose another diabolical injustice on her, she scrambled under the bed.

It amazes me that after nearly eleven years she still shakes like Jello in an earthquake when the clippers begin their ominous buzz. She knows she will live; nevertheless, it freaks her out.

Doesn't she realize how important this grooming is? Doesn't she recognize how much more comfortable she will be and how much more willing we will be to pet and hold her after the deed is done? Apparently not.

And I'm not much smarter when it comes to being under the hand of God's grooming. The discipline of His correction, the practice of prayer and attention to the Bible seem chore-like at times. I wonder if there is any gain. I wonder why I can't simply be hooked up to a spiritual IV and have His Spirit pumped into me. Oh yeah, I hate IVs. . .

I don't always like the process of becoming more beautiful in Christ, but I like the results. And that is why I press on. Unlike Molly, there are many times that the process is a joy, even a feast. But for those days when I stand shivering in the shadow of His grooming, I look forward with hope to what He is making of me.

Anorexic God

2006-08-30T16:12:00.000-05:00

A great statement from David Wells in his book God in the Wasteland:

It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He had lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God's existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative that their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgments no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers' sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness. It is a condition we have assigned him after having nudged him out to the periphery of our secularized life.

God created us in His image, but humanity has constantly engaged in a reversal of the creative act: man creating God in his image. The gods of ancient Greek and Rome are alive and well as we develop concepts of deity which reflect our own depravity and weakness. It makes us feel more comfortable about "religious" things.

We have created an anorexic God, malnourished by our starving imaginations. It is no wonder that we have lost the concept of the glory of God. He is not truly awesome. Feats accomplished during the X-Games are awesome. God is awesome in that vein. Cool. Fun to look at. But not jaw-dropping in majesty. His wrath is not terrifying. He does not drive people to their knees.

Once we rediscover that God, we will rediscover genuine faith and the God of truth.

Turning Heads

2006-08-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

I have been reading through John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life lately and find myself underlining a lot of the text. Reading this work is a painful pleasure. The truth he proclaims convicts me and reveals my shortcomings. Nevertheless, I can't stop reading it. I have some general differences theologically with Piper, but this book nails me to the wall because it deals with the practical nature of my faith. It moves from theology to biography.

The latest chapter has to do with living in a way that conveys our commitment to the centrality of Christ. Everyone is hypocritical to a degree. But most of us have a glaring disparity between what we say we believe and how we actually live. We might claim to have given our lives (lock, stock and barrel) to God, but we seek the path of comfort and least resistance more often than not. Our actual credo is unearthed as we live 24/7/365.

Piper writes, "if we look like our lives are devoted to getting and maintaining things, we will look like the world, and that will not make Christ look great."

A couple paragraphs later he discusses the explosive truth hidden in 1st Peter 3:15:

"Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you."

I have often wondered why that opportunity didn't come around more often. Piper explains:

"Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do."

OUCH! Now you are getting personal, John! But thanks, John, I needed that. Giving glory to God means that I display the character of Christ so radiantly that people notice and inquire. Glorifying is shining. It is turning heads. Not toward self, but the Creator.

Cheap Joy

2006-08-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

It is not at all surprising, in a culture of instant gratification, that we reach out rather indiscriminately for fulfillment. When we are tired, we grab coffee or a high-caffeine soda. When we are bored, we mash on the remote and surf through 96 channels of nonsense. When we seek mental stimulation, we take a seat before the keyboard and screen to glean the wisdom of cyberspace gurus. When we are anxious for something sensual, we settle for pornography or indiscriminate sexual liaisons. When we hurt, we numb ourselves with alcohol or some other substance.

We were created with a thirst for joy. But we often settle for the cheap version. It is not joy, but happiness. Happiness is a temporal fix, a momentary trickle of satisfaction that is based on happenings, not on a lasting, inner reality.

The tragedy of seeking cheap joy is that we cheat ourselves more than we might imagine. Consider the trade-off. Rely on a substance, an electronic image, or an uncommitted tryst to satisfy and the "joy" is instant, but short-lived.

But do the hard work of investing time in meditating on the things of God - reading and chewing on the words of God in the Bible, speaking to God in prayer, giving time to serve selflessly, pausing to worship the Creator - and the joy is delayed as we learn and deepen, but when it comes it is substantive, lasting and more dynamic than anything which costs less.

When I am tempted to take the easy route to joy the next time, I plan to turn off the TV, to log off the Internet, to ignore whatever other happening that promises instant peace, and instead, reach for something that satisfies for the long haul.

Life without technology. . . what a concept!

Wanting Your Needs

2006-08-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

I remember reading some years ago that Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry defined his coaching strategy as getting a bunch of grown men to do what they don't like to do so that they can achieve what they have always wanted to achieve. I think about that philosophy more every year. It came to mind again yesterday.

I was in discussion with some other church leaders about the difficulty of motivating people to walk more closely with Christ, especially in the areas of service and spiritual disciplines. It is a culture war. The self-imposed demands of schedules and the obsession with comfort and a consumer mentality have made it excruciatingly difficult for potential disciples to sacrifice time and energy for the mission of Jesus Christ. The problem is exacerbated by the difficulty of motivating people to take even a first step. If I am willing to just begin the journey of walking closer to Christ, I will discover the joy inherent and be moved to greater exploration of the adventure of discipleship.

Several areas seem key:

Start small: take the 2 or 3 willing Jesus-followers and nurture them. God can use even a small band of devoted followers to turn the world upside down.
Focus on the basics so that disciples are nurtured over the long haul. The development of discipline in attention to the Bible, in prayer, in fellowship and in worship is essential to spiritual health.
Draw followers of Christ into service that challenges them. The inadequacy they experience at first can be a powerful motivator for them to learn more in order to thrive and survive.
Exercise truth and love. Those you lead must feel assured that you have their back and want them to succeed.

This "back-to-the-drawing-board" viewpoint is refreshing to me right now.

Oh, yes. . . one more essential. Pray like everything depends on God, because it does.

Understanding Icebergs

2006-08-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's our culture. Make a statement with any kind of bite to it, and watch the fur fly! Before the words have had time to sink into our brain cells, we snap back in response. I see it too often.

Communication is a two-way process and listeners rarely have the patience to do their part. The very concept of "understanding" is working to discern what "stands under" the words we have heard uttered. Each tongue is the tip of an iceberg or the peak of a mountain that is undergirded by a massive history of life experiences, cultural perspectives and genetic predispositions. Often the only way to comprehend the genuine intent of a statement is to ask some questions and do some biographical archaeology. It is easier for most listeners, though, to engage in a instantaneous, bizarre transplant, replacing the life experience of the speaker with our own- our assumptions crudely sewn to their tongue. A deadly mix, indeed.

Good communication is vitally linked to empathy. We will never understand the bitterness of certain people until we learn to appreciate the pain they have suffered. We will never understand the innovative bent of some people's suggestions until we learn more about their personality or their experiences with stagnant processes. Life experience shapes speech more dramatically than we might suspect.

I have several friends who will periodically call on the phone and say something like, "So, how was he feeling today?" or "Well, what did she say about that?" That's actually how the conversation starts. They give me no clue as to who or what they are talking about. I will be stunned in silence for a moment wracking my brain to comprehend what scenario is playing on the video screen of their mind. Sometimes I'll figure it out before the silence goes too long. Sometimes I'm at a loss and I'll just have to say, "Who/What are you talking about?"

What stands under our words is so important for comprehension. I have tried hard to listen slowly and respond even more slowly, asking as I go what lies beneath the message I've heard. I don't want to just talk. I want to communicate.

One More Step

2006-08-16T09:17:00.000-05:00

Today I turn another page. Forty-five years old and still feeling like I'm in college. I can't kid myself into feeling as physically fit as I did at 20, but I'm not falling apart yet. I had my spirits lifted yesterday morning when the owner of a local cafe and I were engaged in conversation about kids going back to school. Yesterday our youngest began his senior year in high school and our oldest returns today to begin his second year in college. The owner remarked with astonishment "You don't look old enough to have kids that old!" How right she is! My fantasy world continues. . .

Occasionally life provides epiphanies concerning the past and the future. They come as clarity is provided to pressing questions:

"What can I look back on with pride?"

"What have I left undone?"

"What will the next 10 years hold?"

"How can I become an even better learner and achiever?"

I have some regrets (I don't believe that anyone goes through life without at least a few, despite what they say) and I have left plenty of things undone, but I can count more than a few accomplishments of which I am proud. And the blessings of God in my life are too numerous to list, so many of them in the form of relationships.

As for the future, I see great potential ahead as God helps me through some of my weaknesses and gives me His wisdom. Each year seems to clarify the things that really matter. It is as though my mind and life is impure gold ore placed on a slow heat from the time of my birth. Each year a little more dross rises to the surface and is skimmed away. The contents of the cauldron draws closer each year to gold of great value.

I suppose my greatest struggle is marrying wisdom with lifestyle. I see clearly how my life and the lives of others should be, but the current of the world usually runs counter to that direction. It is an intimidating challenge to paddle upstream. After floating so long in one direction, my paddling muscles are weak. Some days I merely hope to be able to turn the canoe around and at least be pointed in the right direction, even if the current pulls me backwards.

And then I remember, I don't paddle alone. The last half of my life could eclipse the joy of the first half.

Portable Memorial

2006-08-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

While using the walking trail in our town the other day I took some time to notice the array of trees planted along the way specifically in memory of someone. Each tree has a post before it topped by an engraved plate. The plate bears testimony to the memory of a loved one.

Memorials are so prevalent in our world that we almost become blinded to their presence. Living memorials like trees are a great way to remind others of the value of life. Memorials fashioned from granite declare the enduring legacy of someone from the past.

And then I thought of the memorial that I stop at each Sunday morning. It is the proclamation of a Man and His gift to the world. By the simple act of drinking a bit of grape juice and consuming a unleavened wafer, I am reminded of the sacrifice of God's Son. I am reminded of supreme love. I am reminded of the cost of sin. I am challenged to evaluate my life and go deeper in my walk with God.

That memorial is also unlike most others in that it is not locked to a certain spot on the earth. Although the sacrifice of Jesus Christ happened on a hill outside Jerusalem, every week (probably every day) people gather in memory wherever they are, inspired and grateful. The memorial is portable because it transcends geography. It finds us. And it changes us.

What Was and What Is

2006-08-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

The older I get and the more I observe followers of Jesus, the more critical I seem to become. Not of individuals as much as the "system." I sense a growing disparity between the way the Church was and the way the Church is.

Following Christ has a simplicity about it that we tend to complicate. Christ came to give new life and so transform life in every dimension. A change of mind should alter attitudes, habits and, eventually, character. It's not about attending this session or completing that course. Those are tools that might help on the way to maturity, but the core of the Christ-life is a revolution of the soul. To love what God loves and hate what He hates. And ultimately to pursue what He pursues.

I am struggling to be the disciple He desires me to be. I am seeking to lead God's people to become the community He wants us to become. It is simple. But it is not easy.