God as our "life goal"
The very first time I came to visit Nashville was for a fundraiser. I was a college pastor at the time and one of the girls on our ministry team invited a few of us to accompany her to a benefit ball her friend was throwing. At the time I was still thinking that my future was as a recording artist and I planned on doing some ceasing some networking opportunities. The event was about as fun as I expected. Dancing, live music, horderves and so on. I was introduced to Phillip who is the manager for a few notable Gospel acts. But Philip is not the kind of guy you can scmoose. He’s just a normal guy from Indiana with a heart for the nation of Haiti.
Philip brought this passion to Darren. Darren used to lead a young adults ministry and was also a music industry guy. The passion grew into a mission and the mission into a bible study. Before long a group of penniless 20 somethings were making a substantial difference in Jacmel Haiti. They met once a week to study the word and decided early on that any money that came in would go directly to the people of Jamel. So all of the sudden, these musicians and singles we’re giving to something way beyond the scope of “normal” and it was adding up fast. To the tune of thousands of dollars.
That Bible study is now a church. A church that takes half a dozen trips or more to that little town in Haiti. A church that has given 100’s of thousands of dollars to begin changing a nation. It’s not a very large church less than 200 people and many of them or still penniless 20 somethings, only now they have spouses and families. It’s an incredibly boring story with incredibly exciting results. There was no big fanfare, no celebrity endorsements, no overnight mega church. Just a small group of people listening to the voice of God, being obedient, and changing the world one village at a time.
So much so that when the tragic earth quake hit in 2010 this church was there almost immediately. They had been there serving for three or four years prior and so those more intimately involved were able to use that familiarity to make things happen, dynamic things. This is what happens when we obey the voice of God, and do it for no other reason than because we love Him. And His heart is to love others and so as believers we start seeking to do the will and heart of God and it constantly brings us into the face of loving others.
When God breathed life into Adam, scripture says He literally blew into Adam’s nostrils. He you can’t do that unless you are intimately close. A pastor friend of mine put it this way, “It seems like God gets right down in the sand and blows into the nose of man, and so the very first thing man sees are the eyes of God. Man awakens to life staring in the face of Love.” And that is the gospel; awakening man to a new life that starts by being face to face with Love. Community is not sharing MY life with YOU, or YOUR life with ME, It's sharing HIS life with EACHOTHER.
My friend Ryan started this thing called “People Loving Nashville”. A few years ago PLN was a couple of friends making a few meals and feeding a handful of people. The last time I visited Ryan they had 30 or 40 volunteers serving 130 or so meals. And they were clothing people with a storage locker full of clothes, they were even in the early stages of rounding out their Gospel call by setting up times to visit the imprisoned and the widows. Ryan didn’t wake up with some huge vision of grandeur. He simply answered a simple call to love his neighbor.
Following God is simple it’s just not easy. But I truly believe as we allow Him to truly love us in all the wounded, broken, hurting places of our heart our souls will be restored and renewed and the desire to serve others will grow.
PHILLIPIANS 2
1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Monday, March 07, 2011
Red Bull; Flavored Jesus
God as branded by us
Day 12
I started working at Loon Mountain in the late 90’s first as a children's ski instructor and then as snowboarding coach. I’d work couple days a week in exchange for some extra cash and a season pass. Right around this time in history the U.S. was introduced to a new product in a tall, slim, shiny blue can. I’ll be honest, the only reason I started drinking Red Bull was because there were attractive girls, who were wearing not nearly enough clothes to be running around a ski mountain, handing the stuff out for free. I thought it tasted crushed up sweet tarts blended in a can with some carbonated water. But it was free and it worked, and eventually, like any good drink, I acquired a taste for it.
I still can’t drink one of those things or eat a Nature Valley granola bar with out thinking about cold days on a ski lift in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This no accident; marketing companies get paid millions of dollars to help companies create brand loyalty, so that we get warm fuzzies whenever we think about their product. This is something that Apple does really well. Making their customers feel like part of a special society of hip, tech savvy, consumers.
Have you ever heard the term “ambassador” for Christ? It’s usually something church people throw out when they are calling for some behavior modification. It’s often followed by a list of things that “God Hates” and believers “shouldn’t do”. And this is what Christianity has become known for; what it is that we are against and what we abstain from. I don’t know about you, but having my faith chalked up to arrogant moralism is not okay with me.
Those girls that run around handing out free cans of red bull are called brand ambassadors. They are strategically use to embody the image of the company. Young, hip, sexy, fun, and they work really hard to keep that message consistent. In marketing they call that cohesive branding and identity messaging. I’ve seen a lot of attempts by churches recently to “re-package” Jesus. They use words like relevant, and contemporary. The problem is when you try to mold Jesus to the culture as opposed to allowing Jesus to transform the heart of the culture something gets lost in translation. A songwriter friend of mine calls it the “sneaky Jesus” approach. It’s when you invite your friend to a “cool music concert” and then a pastor comes out from behind the guitar amps and tries to cram the message of the Gospel into a two min. elevator speech. And they walk out of the “7th Floor Jesus” concert feeling like they got hoodwinked while we got back to church to get our evangelism badge.
I do think our faith could use a serious image makeover. But it has to come from a real place. It has to come from people who are compelled to compassion because of the way the receive love and grace from the Father. Jesus was about His Fathers business; which involved caring for the sick, spending time with sinners, and showing culture a different kind of kingdom. Did he encourage them to live well, do make right choices, and seek after wisdom? Absolutely. But all of those things were based on our relationship with God and each-other.
1 John 4
19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
That term “first love” is less about chronology and more related to the idea of first fruits which in Hebrew culture was not just the first crop of the season but the BEST of the harvest. We love because God gives us the best of His love. So feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and all the other benevolent things we do are good things but when they are rooted in God as a response to love, they can dynamically impact the lives of servant and the served. Changing the “identity” and “public opinion” of Jesus and His followers wont come from a marketing campaign or an advertising strategy. It can only happen one life at a time. You and I have the opportunity to re-define who Jesus is in our friends, family and neighbors. Maybe this love heavy spirituality will taste like chalked up sweet tarts and soda water but I promise the more you give it away freely, the more people will acquire a taste for it; because it’s real and it works.
Also Read ROMANS 12
Day 12
I started working at Loon Mountain in the late 90’s first as a children's ski instructor and then as snowboarding coach. I’d work couple days a week in exchange for some extra cash and a season pass. Right around this time in history the U.S. was introduced to a new product in a tall, slim, shiny blue can. I’ll be honest, the only reason I started drinking Red Bull was because there were attractive girls, who were wearing not nearly enough clothes to be running around a ski mountain, handing the stuff out for free. I thought it tasted crushed up sweet tarts blended in a can with some carbonated water. But it was free and it worked, and eventually, like any good drink, I acquired a taste for it.
I still can’t drink one of those things or eat a Nature Valley granola bar with out thinking about cold days on a ski lift in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This no accident; marketing companies get paid millions of dollars to help companies create brand loyalty, so that we get warm fuzzies whenever we think about their product. This is something that Apple does really well. Making their customers feel like part of a special society of hip, tech savvy, consumers.
Have you ever heard the term “ambassador” for Christ? It’s usually something church people throw out when they are calling for some behavior modification. It’s often followed by a list of things that “God Hates” and believers “shouldn’t do”. And this is what Christianity has become known for; what it is that we are against and what we abstain from. I don’t know about you, but having my faith chalked up to arrogant moralism is not okay with me.
Those girls that run around handing out free cans of red bull are called brand ambassadors. They are strategically use to embody the image of the company. Young, hip, sexy, fun, and they work really hard to keep that message consistent. In marketing they call that cohesive branding and identity messaging. I’ve seen a lot of attempts by churches recently to “re-package” Jesus. They use words like relevant, and contemporary. The problem is when you try to mold Jesus to the culture as opposed to allowing Jesus to transform the heart of the culture something gets lost in translation. A songwriter friend of mine calls it the “sneaky Jesus” approach. It’s when you invite your friend to a “cool music concert” and then a pastor comes out from behind the guitar amps and tries to cram the message of the Gospel into a two min. elevator speech. And they walk out of the “7th Floor Jesus” concert feeling like they got hoodwinked while we got back to church to get our evangelism badge.
I do think our faith could use a serious image makeover. But it has to come from a real place. It has to come from people who are compelled to compassion because of the way the receive love and grace from the Father. Jesus was about His Fathers business; which involved caring for the sick, spending time with sinners, and showing culture a different kind of kingdom. Did he encourage them to live well, do make right choices, and seek after wisdom? Absolutely. But all of those things were based on our relationship with God and each-other.
1 John 4
19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
That term “first love” is less about chronology and more related to the idea of first fruits which in Hebrew culture was not just the first crop of the season but the BEST of the harvest. We love because God gives us the best of His love. So feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and all the other benevolent things we do are good things but when they are rooted in God as a response to love, they can dynamically impact the lives of servant and the served. Changing the “identity” and “public opinion” of Jesus and His followers wont come from a marketing campaign or an advertising strategy. It can only happen one life at a time. You and I have the opportunity to re-define who Jesus is in our friends, family and neighbors. Maybe this love heavy spirituality will taste like chalked up sweet tarts and soda water but I promise the more you give it away freely, the more people will acquire a taste for it; because it’s real and it works.
Also Read ROMANS 12
Christ Tinted Glasses
Day 11
God as deposited in others.
Have you ever had those people in your life that you kind of write off? Not in a harsh way you just sort of dismiss them as possible friend candidates. Michael was that person in my life. He showed up in a small group I was part of at the time seemingly out of nowhere. I never met him at church, bumped into him at a party, or even ran into him at Starbucks. He was just some guy, who was fifteen years my elder, and “not very cool” in my book.
You could say I wrote Michael off. That was until a few months later when I was leading a small group of my own. I was speaking on “loving the un-lovable” . It was a good message too. Well delivered and well received, and then I began thinking about Michael. I felt like God told me I should get coffee with him and listen to his story. Me and God got into a pretty heavy discussion at this point. But I knew that if I was going to preach it I had to do it. I knew that I was judging Michael on my standards of adequate and not Gods’ definition of acceptable.
The truth is we are all created with a unique deposit of God’s image, the “Imago Dei”. So when we discount someone, what we are really saying is, “I’m sorry the God in you is not good enough for me to care”. I realized that I needed to change my lenses. I mean who am I to decide who is and is not “cool”. Let’s be honest I’m not exactly The Fonz myself.
I finally swallowed my pride and called Michael. We sat down for coffee and he told me his story. It was a beautiful story, a tough story, with parts that are still unresolved, scenes that didn’t have a romanticized happy ending with a big red bow. But Michael was living through it one day at a time trusting God and it was incredible. After that we became friends, hanging out together more regularly, and though there are times when I still find Michael a little overwhelming, I love him like a brother. Why? Because God gave me the grace to see him through Christ tinted glasses.
1 John 4
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
God showed his love for us in this way that He sent his son to “get our backs”. If God can do this for us we can do this for each-other. The unique deposit of Gods’ love in me can build up and care for the unique deposit of Gods’ image in you and we can, as a community begin to change the culture of what is and isn’t accepted around us. The truth is, that while we are all created with a unique set of gifts, talents, abilities and qualities; we are all viewed as equal in the kingdom of God.
Collisions 3
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
There will always be seemingly unlovable people in our lives. But if we are created in the image of God and the nature of God is to go after those the world leaves behind...than maybe it’s in our spirits to go after those would soon to be forgotten by society. Jesus is all about instilling value in the unlikeliest of candidates. In the kingdom, adulterers, murderers, alcoholics, and prostitutes are made heroes. The least we can do is pray that God opens our eyes to see people as he sees them. Because you can’t “love your neighbor” if you have your window boarded up, and keep a lock on the door.
One of my pastor friends is constantly reminding me that in the story of life, I AM NOT the main character. That history is HIS STORY. So if it’s not about me and it is about Him than I should be about His business. And let me tell you my Father is in one business and one business only. Loving People.
God as deposited in others.
Have you ever had those people in your life that you kind of write off? Not in a harsh way you just sort of dismiss them as possible friend candidates. Michael was that person in my life. He showed up in a small group I was part of at the time seemingly out of nowhere. I never met him at church, bumped into him at a party, or even ran into him at Starbucks. He was just some guy, who was fifteen years my elder, and “not very cool” in my book.
You could say I wrote Michael off. That was until a few months later when I was leading a small group of my own. I was speaking on “loving the un-lovable” . It was a good message too. Well delivered and well received, and then I began thinking about Michael. I felt like God told me I should get coffee with him and listen to his story. Me and God got into a pretty heavy discussion at this point. But I knew that if I was going to preach it I had to do it. I knew that I was judging Michael on my standards of adequate and not Gods’ definition of acceptable.
The truth is we are all created with a unique deposit of God’s image, the “Imago Dei”. So when we discount someone, what we are really saying is, “I’m sorry the God in you is not good enough for me to care”. I realized that I needed to change my lenses. I mean who am I to decide who is and is not “cool”. Let’s be honest I’m not exactly The Fonz myself.
I finally swallowed my pride and called Michael. We sat down for coffee and he told me his story. It was a beautiful story, a tough story, with parts that are still unresolved, scenes that didn’t have a romanticized happy ending with a big red bow. But Michael was living through it one day at a time trusting God and it was incredible. After that we became friends, hanging out together more regularly, and though there are times when I still find Michael a little overwhelming, I love him like a brother. Why? Because God gave me the grace to see him through Christ tinted glasses.
1 John 4
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
God showed his love for us in this way that He sent his son to “get our backs”. If God can do this for us we can do this for each-other. The unique deposit of Gods’ love in me can build up and care for the unique deposit of Gods’ image in you and we can, as a community begin to change the culture of what is and isn’t accepted around us. The truth is, that while we are all created with a unique set of gifts, talents, abilities and qualities; we are all viewed as equal in the kingdom of God.
Collisions 3
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
There will always be seemingly unlovable people in our lives. But if we are created in the image of God and the nature of God is to go after those the world leaves behind...than maybe it’s in our spirits to go after those would soon to be forgotten by society. Jesus is all about instilling value in the unlikeliest of candidates. In the kingdom, adulterers, murderers, alcoholics, and prostitutes are made heroes. The least we can do is pray that God opens our eyes to see people as he sees them. Because you can’t “love your neighbor” if you have your window boarded up, and keep a lock on the door.
One of my pastor friends is constantly reminding me that in the story of life, I AM NOT the main character. That history is HIS STORY. So if it’s not about me and it is about Him than I should be about His business. And let me tell you my Father is in one business and one business only. Loving People.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Golden Udders and Family Mantras
Day 10
God the provider.
So there’s this scene in Hebrew scripture. The children of Israel have been slaves to the Egyptians for 400 years. Moses finally gets the go ahead to “let my people go” and the land is covered in locusts and smells like dead frogs and oh yeah the first born of all the Egyptian families had just been wiped off the planet. And then there’s the horses and chariots chasing the entire nation of Israel to the banks of the Red Sea. You have to wonder what’s going through their mind at this point. What kind of things are they praying? Dear God, please break the chariot wheels, kill the horses, or and get us the gahena out of here.
You know what they probably weren’t praying? “Dear God, please open up the sea, part it in the middle, let us pass through on dry land, and collapse the waters on our enemies”. I would love to hear the conversations, “Dude did you see that? That Moses guy just held up his hands and a stick and boom! … I didn’t even know that was an option!
And that’s what happens with God, when our backs against the sea and it seems like He’s lead us out of slavery and into our emanate demise, He blows the roof of our understanding of possible and does something completely amazing. Let’s fast forward a bit in the story. Moses, whose arms are probably a little tired from all of that staff holding, is walking down the mountain with a couple of stone tablets that were probably pretty heavy. His face is literally glowing from being in the presence of God. He’s making his descent, and as soon as he’s below the cloud level the first thing he sees is a bunch people dancing around a gold cow.
Sound familiar? No sooner does God do something amazing in our lives, something we didn’t even believe was possible, in way that’s so unique and creative, do we turn around and start bowing down before the golden udder. Yet Jesus when teaching the people how to pray said, “give us this day our daily bread”. Which is kind of an illusion to the manna that fell from the sky each morning while the Moses and the people were wandering around in the wilderness. The term manna literally means something like, “whatever it is” or “whatchamacallit”. Jesus after feeding the crowd with the loaves and fish was talking to one of the many who began following him. The follower was asking for another miracle and Jesus basically says, “you don’t need more bread to be multiplied or manna from heaven, I am the bread of life”.
Praying for our daily bread is kind of like saying to God, “I trust you to send a daily supply of “whatever it is” down to provide with just enough “bread of life” for me today”. I honestly think we are told to pray that way, not so we can remind God, but really to remind us. We have this saying in our family, we have many sayings in our family to be honest. But this particular one comes to mind. Whenever things get tight, and we’re trying to make it through, someone always says, “well it’s tough, but we’ll make it one day at a time.” So far we have.
Jesus is teaching the sermon on the mount and he goes through all this stuff about not worrying on tomorrow, even the lilies are clothed in glory, if God takes care of them He’ll take care of you...and so on. And then He says seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be added unto you. Knowing God, following God, Loving God, it’s all simple it’s just not easy. Saying we trust God and actually trusting God is like convincing a kid they love vegetables. We pinch your nose and go for it. And it's hard every time. But it’s always good for you and eventually you grow up, you mature in God and the things that were scary before aren’t so scary anymore. Sure there will always be new things that come along, but perfect love casts out all fear.
Trust with god is like trust with any other relationship. It takes time, and that’s okay. So one day at a time we get to know God more and one day at a time we learn to believe that He’s a man of his word. A man who loves us and has our best interest in mind. Even when it seems like we are leaving one miserable situation for another. Hold on. Love is patient, it believes all things, and hopes all things. Love God.
Stories of Red Sea and Commandment Exodus 14 and Exodus 20
John 6 (BREAD OF LIFE)
25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’c”
32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Matthew 6 (same chapter as Lord’s Prayer)
25“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27“And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28“And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
God the provider.
So there’s this scene in Hebrew scripture. The children of Israel have been slaves to the Egyptians for 400 years. Moses finally gets the go ahead to “let my people go” and the land is covered in locusts and smells like dead frogs and oh yeah the first born of all the Egyptian families had just been wiped off the planet. And then there’s the horses and chariots chasing the entire nation of Israel to the banks of the Red Sea. You have to wonder what’s going through their mind at this point. What kind of things are they praying? Dear God, please break the chariot wheels, kill the horses, or and get us the gahena out of here.
You know what they probably weren’t praying? “Dear God, please open up the sea, part it in the middle, let us pass through on dry land, and collapse the waters on our enemies”. I would love to hear the conversations, “Dude did you see that? That Moses guy just held up his hands and a stick and boom! … I didn’t even know that was an option!
And that’s what happens with God, when our backs against the sea and it seems like He’s lead us out of slavery and into our emanate demise, He blows the roof of our understanding of possible and does something completely amazing. Let’s fast forward a bit in the story. Moses, whose arms are probably a little tired from all of that staff holding, is walking down the mountain with a couple of stone tablets that were probably pretty heavy. His face is literally glowing from being in the presence of God. He’s making his descent, and as soon as he’s below the cloud level the first thing he sees is a bunch people dancing around a gold cow.
Sound familiar? No sooner does God do something amazing in our lives, something we didn’t even believe was possible, in way that’s so unique and creative, do we turn around and start bowing down before the golden udder. Yet Jesus when teaching the people how to pray said, “give us this day our daily bread”. Which is kind of an illusion to the manna that fell from the sky each morning while the Moses and the people were wandering around in the wilderness. The term manna literally means something like, “whatever it is” or “whatchamacallit”. Jesus after feeding the crowd with the loaves and fish was talking to one of the many who began following him. The follower was asking for another miracle and Jesus basically says, “you don’t need more bread to be multiplied or manna from heaven, I am the bread of life”.
Praying for our daily bread is kind of like saying to God, “I trust you to send a daily supply of “whatever it is” down to provide with just enough “bread of life” for me today”. I honestly think we are told to pray that way, not so we can remind God, but really to remind us. We have this saying in our family, we have many sayings in our family to be honest. But this particular one comes to mind. Whenever things get tight, and we’re trying to make it through, someone always says, “well it’s tough, but we’ll make it one day at a time.” So far we have.
Jesus is teaching the sermon on the mount and he goes through all this stuff about not worrying on tomorrow, even the lilies are clothed in glory, if God takes care of them He’ll take care of you...and so on. And then He says seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be added unto you. Knowing God, following God, Loving God, it’s all simple it’s just not easy. Saying we trust God and actually trusting God is like convincing a kid they love vegetables. We pinch your nose and go for it. And it's hard every time. But it’s always good for you and eventually you grow up, you mature in God and the things that were scary before aren’t so scary anymore. Sure there will always be new things that come along, but perfect love casts out all fear.
Trust with god is like trust with any other relationship. It takes time, and that’s okay. So one day at a time we get to know God more and one day at a time we learn to believe that He’s a man of his word. A man who loves us and has our best interest in mind. Even when it seems like we are leaving one miserable situation for another. Hold on. Love is patient, it believes all things, and hopes all things. Love God.
Stories of Red Sea and Commandment Exodus 14 and Exodus 20
John 6 (BREAD OF LIFE)
25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’c”
32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Matthew 6 (same chapter as Lord’s Prayer)
25“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27“And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28“And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Grand Canyon Eyes
Day 9
God as Majestic
A few years ago I drove from Los Angeles to Nashville with a photographer friend of mine. If your a fan of Christian music chances are you have some of her work in your home, in the form of an album cover or poster. She flew to LA to buy a Prius and asked me if I would accompany her on her voyage back to Nashville. My schedule at the time was pretty flexible and the idea of driving across the country seemed pretty romantic to me. Enhanced by the fact there was a girl in LA I was interested in spending some time with.
We took our time, we stopped in Las Vegas to hang with a buddy of mine who builds and designs magic tricks. The artistic ability of human beings to construct these architectural monstrosities was fascinating to me. I mean the “bigger and better” mentality permeates the very fabric of Vegas’ history. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty impressive. Humans are clever. Adam the trick maker showed us the “other” side of Vegas. The art galleries, the fancy wine bars, and even the local greasy diner with it’s delicious heart attack sandwiches.
Beyond the bright lights of the Vegas strip just before you get to the Hoover Dam is this great little spot in the desert where you can pull of and take in the scenery. The photographer and I took a little hike through the foot hills around Lake Meade. It was something that I can’t fully explain in words but it was one of the few moments in my life where I really “felt” God. I have not yet been to Israel but this desert space seemed like the kind of place Jesus would hang out. We continued on through the beautiful flats of New Mexico where the stars were like sequins on a jazz singer in the 80’s. That trip also held some skiing in the rocky mountains and what seemed like an eternity in the endless monotony known as Kansas. I remember remarking to my companion something like, “I’m not sure why Dorothy and Todo were in such a hurry to get back here!” .
But the high light of my trip by far was this moment we had at the Grand Canyon. We were at one of the main viewing stations and my friend cut her finger on a piece of equipment. She asked me if I had a bandage of some sort, which I being the failure of a boyscout that I am, did not. Interestingly enough the people, complete strangers, around us jumped into action, offering napkins and tape, handkerchiefs, and one much more prepared traveler even had a butterfly band-aid. I remember thinking, “You can not stand in the presence of greatness and not be compelled towards kindness.” It was like the majesty of the moment, the scenery, the sheer magnitude of this natural wonder had everyone under a “nice” spell.
I began to wonder if this isn’t how God works. I mean if you have a true, honest, and real encounter with God, don’t you leave different than when you came? Isn’t that what happened to the woman caught in adultery? Who was likely naked and smelled like sex. He didn't rebuke her he didn't even make her ask for forgiveness he just loved her, saved her life, told the Pharisees to take a long hard look at themselves before they started stoning people,and sent her home. He basically told her, “Go home, and let this moment make you different.”
As I was leaving the park another man who was walking in, said something under his breath that was truly profound to me. He said, “All of this and not an inch of it made by human hands. Could we do any better? No! we would only screw it up.” Which is exactly what happens when like the Pharisees we try to play the roll of the holy spirit instead of letting the true beauty and greatness of God be the catalyst that brings change. Grace is Gods’ to give and change is Gods’ to bring. And I’m so glad he does. Our roll is to share those revelations with each other and encourage each other to keep walking in the “light of His goodness and grace”.
John 8
4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
God as Majestic
A few years ago I drove from Los Angeles to Nashville with a photographer friend of mine. If your a fan of Christian music chances are you have some of her work in your home, in the form of an album cover or poster. She flew to LA to buy a Prius and asked me if I would accompany her on her voyage back to Nashville. My schedule at the time was pretty flexible and the idea of driving across the country seemed pretty romantic to me. Enhanced by the fact there was a girl in LA I was interested in spending some time with.
We took our time, we stopped in Las Vegas to hang with a buddy of mine who builds and designs magic tricks. The artistic ability of human beings to construct these architectural monstrosities was fascinating to me. I mean the “bigger and better” mentality permeates the very fabric of Vegas’ history. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty impressive. Humans are clever. Adam the trick maker showed us the “other” side of Vegas. The art galleries, the fancy wine bars, and even the local greasy diner with it’s delicious heart attack sandwiches.
Beyond the bright lights of the Vegas strip just before you get to the Hoover Dam is this great little spot in the desert where you can pull of and take in the scenery. The photographer and I took a little hike through the foot hills around Lake Meade. It was something that I can’t fully explain in words but it was one of the few moments in my life where I really “felt” God. I have not yet been to Israel but this desert space seemed like the kind of place Jesus would hang out. We continued on through the beautiful flats of New Mexico where the stars were like sequins on a jazz singer in the 80’s. That trip also held some skiing in the rocky mountains and what seemed like an eternity in the endless monotony known as Kansas. I remember remarking to my companion something like, “I’m not sure why Dorothy and Todo were in such a hurry to get back here!” .
But the high light of my trip by far was this moment we had at the Grand Canyon. We were at one of the main viewing stations and my friend cut her finger on a piece of equipment. She asked me if I had a bandage of some sort, which I being the failure of a boyscout that I am, did not. Interestingly enough the people, complete strangers, around us jumped into action, offering napkins and tape, handkerchiefs, and one much more prepared traveler even had a butterfly band-aid. I remember thinking, “You can not stand in the presence of greatness and not be compelled towards kindness.” It was like the majesty of the moment, the scenery, the sheer magnitude of this natural wonder had everyone under a “nice” spell.
I began to wonder if this isn’t how God works. I mean if you have a true, honest, and real encounter with God, don’t you leave different than when you came? Isn’t that what happened to the woman caught in adultery? Who was likely naked and smelled like sex. He didn't rebuke her he didn't even make her ask for forgiveness he just loved her, saved her life, told the Pharisees to take a long hard look at themselves before they started stoning people,and sent her home. He basically told her, “Go home, and let this moment make you different.”
As I was leaving the park another man who was walking in, said something under his breath that was truly profound to me. He said, “All of this and not an inch of it made by human hands. Could we do any better? No! we would only screw it up.” Which is exactly what happens when like the Pharisees we try to play the roll of the holy spirit instead of letting the true beauty and greatness of God be the catalyst that brings change. Grace is Gods’ to give and change is Gods’ to bring. And I’m so glad he does. Our roll is to share those revelations with each other and encourage each other to keep walking in the “light of His goodness and grace”.
John 8
4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Campfires and war-zones
Day 8
God as a Dad
A few years back I went home to visit my parents. It was summertime and my Dad and I were sitting by the fire pit in our backyard. I was the kid who graduated early, left home a few months before I turned 18, and didn’t spend much time being “home” sick. The truth is by the time I left, that place didn't feel much like home at all. But you never tell that to you parents. You come in for a visit, put on a happy face and make it through the visit.
A few months before this trip I was having coffee with a friend who had recently gone through some pretty serious group therapy. This lead him to the revelation that a lot of the struggles he was having at work and in his marriage were subconsciously tied to this idea that the only time his Dad was ever proud of him was when he was involved in ministry. He had been doing ministry for years, often not even enjoying it at all. Which lead to personal depression, friction in his marriage, and eventually getting let go from his position. Why was he holding on to this thing so tightly? Because, in his memory, the only time his dad ever said, “son I’m proud of you” was after a random ministry event 10 years earlier.
After coming to this realization my friend decided he needed to confront his dad. Not in anger, just in honesty. He drove the six or so hours to his parents house, sat down with his father, and said, “Dad, this is how I have experienced you. whether you feel like it accurately describes you or not, I just need to share with you how i feel.”.
I’d like to tell you that there was a huge revelation moment between the two men. That there was lots of crying and some amazing testimony of redemption. But that’s not the case, at least not yet. What did happen was some honest discussion. And for my friend, freedom from the lie he had been holding on to for so long. Freedom to start a new chapter with his family, to pursue new work, and freedom from the pressure and fear of disappointing his father.
So sitting by the camp fire with my Dad, I began to tell him lovingly and honestly how I felt. I told him that growing up I experienced him as someone difficult to please. I expressed my frustrations with the fact that almost every compliment seemed to be braided with a humiliating correction. I told him that I appreciated him, showing me a good work ethic, and encouraging me to work with my head and not my hands, like he had. We talked about a lot of things. Some were hard, some were laughable. At the end of the conversation there was something in our relationship that wasn’t before. Mutual Respect, I had to let go of all my judgments and he saw me now as someone who stood up for himself.
Neither of us changed necessarily but our interaction changed. I realized my father did the best he could with the examples and life experience he had. It occurred to me that maybe when the bible talks about the sins of the father being passed on four generations it’s not always as spiritual as we make it. My Dad’s father had been an abusive alcoholic, my dad was distant and work driven, I have insecurities and hopefully by the time I have kids they will be free of the effects of that particular line of garbage in our family. But I’m sure they will have other issues, things they will need grace for, things that I’ll do wrong.
Many of us can relate to God as a “father” but it’s very difficult to engage him as a “dad”. I truly believe honesty is a big step in changing that dynamic. Go ahead. Tell God how you “experience” him. Tell him what you think, and why your frustrated and why you don’t feel loved. David did, heck! even Jesus felt abandoned by God on the cross.
Would a harsh, angry, judgmental, distant, and ambiguous God send his son, into a spiritual war-zone, to be captured, tortured, and murdered, in exchange for the lives of strangers who may or may not choose to engage Him in any way? The answer is in John Chapter 3.
The Father showed his love for the world, in this way, by sending his most prized possession out of perfection and into the dirt. So that the curse of sin could be lifted and we could have a loving, perfect, relationship with Him. The work of the cross is done. Jesus was dead, buried, and resurrected. God sees us as we should be, as we will be in eternity. There is no way to impress Him, no way earn His love or respect. We already have it. It’s ours, It is our inheritance. Do we sin? Yes. Must there be repentance? Yes. I’ve spent most of my life trying to perform for God. Trying to “do” enough to make him proud of me. I’m realizing now that's not how he works. I believe "repentance" is not a reaction to MY "badness" it is a response to HIS "goodness".
1 JOHN 3
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
God as a Dad
A few years back I went home to visit my parents. It was summertime and my Dad and I were sitting by the fire pit in our backyard. I was the kid who graduated early, left home a few months before I turned 18, and didn’t spend much time being “home” sick. The truth is by the time I left, that place didn't feel much like home at all. But you never tell that to you parents. You come in for a visit, put on a happy face and make it through the visit.
A few months before this trip I was having coffee with a friend who had recently gone through some pretty serious group therapy. This lead him to the revelation that a lot of the struggles he was having at work and in his marriage were subconsciously tied to this idea that the only time his Dad was ever proud of him was when he was involved in ministry. He had been doing ministry for years, often not even enjoying it at all. Which lead to personal depression, friction in his marriage, and eventually getting let go from his position. Why was he holding on to this thing so tightly? Because, in his memory, the only time his dad ever said, “son I’m proud of you” was after a random ministry event 10 years earlier.
After coming to this realization my friend decided he needed to confront his dad. Not in anger, just in honesty. He drove the six or so hours to his parents house, sat down with his father, and said, “Dad, this is how I have experienced you. whether you feel like it accurately describes you or not, I just need to share with you how i feel.”.
I’d like to tell you that there was a huge revelation moment between the two men. That there was lots of crying and some amazing testimony of redemption. But that’s not the case, at least not yet. What did happen was some honest discussion. And for my friend, freedom from the lie he had been holding on to for so long. Freedom to start a new chapter with his family, to pursue new work, and freedom from the pressure and fear of disappointing his father.
So sitting by the camp fire with my Dad, I began to tell him lovingly and honestly how I felt. I told him that growing up I experienced him as someone difficult to please. I expressed my frustrations with the fact that almost every compliment seemed to be braided with a humiliating correction. I told him that I appreciated him, showing me a good work ethic, and encouraging me to work with my head and not my hands, like he had. We talked about a lot of things. Some were hard, some were laughable. At the end of the conversation there was something in our relationship that wasn’t before. Mutual Respect, I had to let go of all my judgments and he saw me now as someone who stood up for himself.
Neither of us changed necessarily but our interaction changed. I realized my father did the best he could with the examples and life experience he had. It occurred to me that maybe when the bible talks about the sins of the father being passed on four generations it’s not always as spiritual as we make it. My Dad’s father had been an abusive alcoholic, my dad was distant and work driven, I have insecurities and hopefully by the time I have kids they will be free of the effects of that particular line of garbage in our family. But I’m sure they will have other issues, things they will need grace for, things that I’ll do wrong.
Many of us can relate to God as a “father” but it’s very difficult to engage him as a “dad”. I truly believe honesty is a big step in changing that dynamic. Go ahead. Tell God how you “experience” him. Tell him what you think, and why your frustrated and why you don’t feel loved. David did, heck! even Jesus felt abandoned by God on the cross.
Would a harsh, angry, judgmental, distant, and ambiguous God send his son, into a spiritual war-zone, to be captured, tortured, and murdered, in exchange for the lives of strangers who may or may not choose to engage Him in any way? The answer is in John Chapter 3.
The Father showed his love for the world, in this way, by sending his most prized possession out of perfection and into the dirt. So that the curse of sin could be lifted and we could have a loving, perfect, relationship with Him. The work of the cross is done. Jesus was dead, buried, and resurrected. God sees us as we should be, as we will be in eternity. There is no way to impress Him, no way earn His love or respect. We already have it. It’s ours, It is our inheritance. Do we sin? Yes. Must there be repentance? Yes. I’ve spent most of my life trying to perform for God. Trying to “do” enough to make him proud of me. I’m realizing now that's not how he works. I believe "repentance" is not a reaction to MY "badness" it is a response to HIS "goodness".
1 JOHN 3
1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Bright Futures and Blackberry Lies
Day 7
"God as our Rest"
One of the lessons you learn when writing and composing music is how how the space between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves. It can be the difference between a listenable and enjoyable experience and noise. In technical terms a rest is an interval of silence.
I think most of us could use an interval of silence now and again. As a culture we’ve found a lot of ways to fill up our schedule and we have six different electronic devices to keep track of that schedule. We hot sync one and mobile upload the other. There are status updates and push notifications and I’m sure google or apple is making some sort of announcement on some life changing system as you read.
So in a world full of things designed to make our life more simple and streamlined we’ve buried ourselves under a not so sweet pile of blackberry's, blue tooth's, apples, and things starting with the letter i. It’s funny how, for so many of us, rest is something we desperately need. And yet, when the concept of God commanding us to rest comes up we cringe like He’s asking us to spend on day a week at the dentist.
Hebrews 4:
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their [those who hear but do not obey the word] example of disobedience.
Rest should not be viewed as a weighty command but rather as a gift. It’s a “benefit” of being in the family. Of course you can only pause from what you are doing if you are in fact doing something. I’m not convinced God paused on the seventh day because he was tired. I like to imagine him sitting in an Adirondack chair, leaning way back, with His hands clasped behind his head, with a tall glass of lemonade. I like to think the Sabbath was similar to that moment when you finish eating an amazing meal, where you just pause and say, ah that was good.
What a challenge. When was the last time you stopped to appreciate the good in life?
Sometimes that rest is just for us, but true rest is always through Him. In Matt 11 Jesus says something to the effect of, “Come to me, and will give you rest.” There’s a give and take with rest. He is faithful to give it, but we have to come. And that’s the tough part. Learning to live in “awkward silence” with God. But the space between the "moments" can be just as beautiful for the story as the moments themselves. Part of embracing rest is learning to love the middle. Many I’ve found myself looking forward, with so much anticipation for what comes next that I totally miss out on what’s happening now.
Always looking forward to the next part of my life
I can not wait for moving on
Why does the future always seem to be so bright
I’m paralyzed by the dawn
I______I_I___I______II_________I____X
Here’s a little diagram of how I perceived life. The dashes represent things like;
birth, getting your license, graduation, marriage, promotion, retirement, and the x is death.
What I realized though, is that life actually happens in the space between the lines. Just a as music lives in the moments of rest between the notes. What didn’t click until years later was that my relationship with God is not really marked by the proverbial “Mountain Top” experiences (retreats, conferences, great worship nights, etc.) but in the quiet places. The times where I have to struggle to hear God. The times when he builds my character. It is in these moments I come to Him and he meets me with rest and with peace. If we wait to enjoy peace and rest until everything is perfect we’ll be waiting for Godot. I think it’s about slowly redefining stability as internal easiness amidst external difficulties.
MATTHEW 11
“O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26 Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
27 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
"God as our Rest"
One of the lessons you learn when writing and composing music is how how the space between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves. It can be the difference between a listenable and enjoyable experience and noise. In technical terms a rest is an interval of silence.
I think most of us could use an interval of silence now and again. As a culture we’ve found a lot of ways to fill up our schedule and we have six different electronic devices to keep track of that schedule. We hot sync one and mobile upload the other. There are status updates and push notifications and I’m sure google or apple is making some sort of announcement on some life changing system as you read.
So in a world full of things designed to make our life more simple and streamlined we’ve buried ourselves under a not so sweet pile of blackberry's, blue tooth's, apples, and things starting with the letter i. It’s funny how, for so many of us, rest is something we desperately need. And yet, when the concept of God commanding us to rest comes up we cringe like He’s asking us to spend on day a week at the dentist.
Hebrews 4:
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their [those who hear but do not obey the word] example of disobedience.
Rest should not be viewed as a weighty command but rather as a gift. It’s a “benefit” of being in the family. Of course you can only pause from what you are doing if you are in fact doing something. I’m not convinced God paused on the seventh day because he was tired. I like to imagine him sitting in an Adirondack chair, leaning way back, with His hands clasped behind his head, with a tall glass of lemonade. I like to think the Sabbath was similar to that moment when you finish eating an amazing meal, where you just pause and say, ah that was good.
What a challenge. When was the last time you stopped to appreciate the good in life?
Sometimes that rest is just for us, but true rest is always through Him. In Matt 11 Jesus says something to the effect of, “Come to me, and will give you rest.” There’s a give and take with rest. He is faithful to give it, but we have to come. And that’s the tough part. Learning to live in “awkward silence” with God. But the space between the "moments" can be just as beautiful for the story as the moments themselves. Part of embracing rest is learning to love the middle. Many I’ve found myself looking forward, with so much anticipation for what comes next that I totally miss out on what’s happening now.
Always looking forward to the next part of my life
I can not wait for moving on
Why does the future always seem to be so bright
I’m paralyzed by the dawn
I______I_I___I______II_________I____X
Here’s a little diagram of how I perceived life. The dashes represent things like;
birth, getting your license, graduation, marriage, promotion, retirement, and the x is death.
What I realized though, is that life actually happens in the space between the lines. Just a as music lives in the moments of rest between the notes. What didn’t click until years later was that my relationship with God is not really marked by the proverbial “Mountain Top” experiences (retreats, conferences, great worship nights, etc.) but in the quiet places. The times where I have to struggle to hear God. The times when he builds my character. It is in these moments I come to Him and he meets me with rest and with peace. If we wait to enjoy peace and rest until everything is perfect we’ll be waiting for Godot. I think it’s about slowly redefining stability as internal easiness amidst external difficulties.
MATTHEW 11
“O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. 26 Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
27 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
A Strait and Narrow Walk Down The Aisle
God "The Groom"
There was a time not to long ago when a lot of the songs being sung in churches on Sunday morning sounded like they should be sung by Barry White in a dim lit room. You know the songs I’m talking about. “I find I’m moving to the rhythm of your Grace, Your fragrance is intoxicating...”. I’ll be honest it kind of creeped me out. Can anyone really be that “in love” with God? Many of us have heard the sermons. The ones stressing the importance of having an “intimate relationship” with God. My brain working the way it does tried to find a formula for this intimacy. If I get on my knees, in a closet, with candles flickering and soft music playing, and I just close my eyes and wait for ”my lover” to come.That’s a great formula if your a disillusioned stalker, but it didn’t feel very spiritual.
As a song writer I can understand the poetic leaps one might take to write such sentiments. We the church are the “bride of Christ” and if you read about the bride in song of Solomon it gets pretty “intimate” and next thing you know congregations are singing “sexy Jesus” songs. But how do we as a people actually get there? Do we need to get there?
First of all let’s establish that the Church/Bride thing is in fact Scriptural. Ephesians, Matthew, and Revelation all cover the subject. The most pragmatic being in Ephesians.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Here’s the interesting part. If you read through this passage it’s mainly descriptive of how we are to receive love from the groom as opposed to prescriptive measures on how give to love the groom. Sounds like we’re getting the better end of the bargain. Marrying up as they say.
Sometimes I wonder if this concept ties into the whole “predestination vs. free will debate” A groom chooses his Bride, he courts her, pursues her, and then asks for her hand. So she’s been “chosen”. But the bride, in many cultures at least, can refuse the proposal. So she’s chosen, but she has a choice. So how then, other than “respecting” the Husband do we return this love? John quotes Jesus saying, “if you love me, keep my commandments.” . And if you remember Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, answered something to the effect of Love God, Love your neighbor. I’m going to do a little pop-corning here, but it kind of seems like Jesus is saying, “If you love me you will love God and Love others.”
Maybe getting intimate with God looks less like a romantic evening alone and more like taking an hour to listen to the stories of others. Showing them patience and compassion. Unpacking the goodness that’s in their unique deposit of God’s Image. I will say this. The presence of God is a real thing. The people who really “get” it, are the one’s who are not afraid of alone time with the groom. I am in no way discounting the importance and necessity of a “1 on 1” relationship with God. I am simply suggesting that the other side of the coin is being in community with other believers and having compassion on the poor, and poor in spirit.
Jesus was pushed on the technicality of the word “neighbor” in Luke 10
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, and ends it by asking a rhetorical question. “Who do you think your neighbor is?” I believe the answer is whoever God puts in your path that needs help. The sick and the dying are everywhere. There is hurt and pain all around. This can make compassion seem overwhelming. But Let me encourage you to 1. Know that you are on a path and 2. Not be afraid to see the need on that path. It is strait and it’s narrow and it’s paved with a love that comes from the Father and returns to the Groom.
There was a time not to long ago when a lot of the songs being sung in churches on Sunday morning sounded like they should be sung by Barry White in a dim lit room. You know the songs I’m talking about. “I find I’m moving to the rhythm of your Grace, Your fragrance is intoxicating...”. I’ll be honest it kind of creeped me out. Can anyone really be that “in love” with God? Many of us have heard the sermons. The ones stressing the importance of having an “intimate relationship” with God. My brain working the way it does tried to find a formula for this intimacy. If I get on my knees, in a closet, with candles flickering and soft music playing, and I just close my eyes and wait for ”my lover” to come.That’s a great formula if your a disillusioned stalker, but it didn’t feel very spiritual.
As a song writer I can understand the poetic leaps one might take to write such sentiments. We the church are the “bride of Christ” and if you read about the bride in song of Solomon it gets pretty “intimate” and next thing you know congregations are singing “sexy Jesus” songs. But how do we as a people actually get there? Do we need to get there?
First of all let’s establish that the Church/Bride thing is in fact Scriptural. Ephesians, Matthew, and Revelation all cover the subject. The most pragmatic being in Ephesians.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
Here’s the interesting part. If you read through this passage it’s mainly descriptive of how we are to receive love from the groom as opposed to prescriptive measures on how give to love the groom. Sounds like we’re getting the better end of the bargain. Marrying up as they say.
Sometimes I wonder if this concept ties into the whole “predestination vs. free will debate” A groom chooses his Bride, he courts her, pursues her, and then asks for her hand. So she’s been “chosen”. But the bride, in many cultures at least, can refuse the proposal. So she’s chosen, but she has a choice. So how then, other than “respecting” the Husband do we return this love? John quotes Jesus saying, “if you love me, keep my commandments.” . And if you remember Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was, answered something to the effect of Love God, Love your neighbor. I’m going to do a little pop-corning here, but it kind of seems like Jesus is saying, “If you love me you will love God and Love others.”
Maybe getting intimate with God looks less like a romantic evening alone and more like taking an hour to listen to the stories of others. Showing them patience and compassion. Unpacking the goodness that’s in their unique deposit of God’s Image. I will say this. The presence of God is a real thing. The people who really “get” it, are the one’s who are not afraid of alone time with the groom. I am in no way discounting the importance and necessity of a “1 on 1” relationship with God. I am simply suggesting that the other side of the coin is being in community with other believers and having compassion on the poor, and poor in spirit.
Jesus was pushed on the technicality of the word “neighbor” in Luke 10
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, and ends it by asking a rhetorical question. “Who do you think your neighbor is?” I believe the answer is whoever God puts in your path that needs help. The sick and the dying are everywhere. There is hurt and pain all around. This can make compassion seem overwhelming. But Let me encourage you to 1. Know that you are on a path and 2. Not be afraid to see the need on that path. It is strait and it’s narrow and it’s paved with a love that comes from the Father and returns to the Groom.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Dogma & Pony Show
God The Destiny Giver
Have you ever prayed for God to show you what His will is for your life? I have. Prayer meetings, day dreams, conferences, sermons and other spiritual “highs” all consumed by this burning question of “What is God’s great destiny for my life?” It’s like at some point in the late 80’s the American dream became homogenized with the Gospel and there’s a whole generation of Christians running around in desperate search for their “calling”.
It seems that while the ideal of “you can be whatever you want to be.” has remained, it’s application has changed. The dream used to be having land and a farm and raising a bunch of kids. If you were a homesteader you had arrived. For many it was trade labor. The dream was to be able to hang a shingle with your name on it. For others after the industrial revolution, the dream was to climb the ladder. Work hard for 25 years and retire on a nice pension. The cultural awakening of the late 60’s and early 70’s lead to a split in philosophy while many were still trying to climb corporate ladders, others were “sticking it to the man”. So by the time my generation came along, “You can be anything you want to be” Had drastically changed.
We all wanted to be rock stars, celebrities, rich or famous. Some of us wanted all of the above. I live in a town full of stardom seeking gen-x and now y-ers. All hoping to "make it". Most not even sure what "making it" means. Of course experts are now predicting this to shift again soon. Instead of rock stars they will want to be Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. But the point is most of us were told we could be “great”. Our parents “believed” in us. No one mentioned that for every “winner” there are thousands if not tens of thousands of people who spend their life in discontent because their not “living the dream”. Just look at the American Idol auditions. Stadiums full of people wanting to be on top of the world. Hoping someone will know their name. One of the Idol winners from early on is close with a couple friends of mine. They all played in a club, in town, not to long ago, for about 40 people. No media coverage, just friends happy to be playing music together. The idol winner was singing backup and introduced simply by their first name. Many in the crowd didn’t even recognize them. No one tells you that even if you “make” it, it probably won’t last very long. And chances are you might end up back where you started.
Paul said, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”
There’s this sense that contentment, as Paul describes it, has been sucked into oblivion by a black hole of ideals, and pop psychology self help dogma.
So then, is it any wonder, how so many of us in believerhood can be so lost as to what our “purpose” is? The problem is that we’re convinced there is a “great calling” in the first place. You know what scripture says about the “will of God”? Let me sum it up for you in three phrases.
1. Do Right
2. Do Right Continually
3. Continually Do Right as a member of the family of God
If you break down 1 Thess. 5 there’s a pretty good description of God’s will.
Appreciate those you work for, with, learn from, and have deep loving relationships with.
Live at peace with one another
admonish the unruly
encourage the fainthearted
help the weak
be patient with everyone
let no one repay evil for evil
always seek what’s best for each-other and for humanity
Rejoice always
Never stop communicating with the father
be thankful for everything
THIS IS GOD’s WILL
By the way does any of this sound familiar? It’s a lot like the “Love Chapter” isn’t it? One of my pastor friends often says, “if you want to know what God’s will is for your life, find something He’s already doing.”. Another pastor I know says, “Stop asking what God’s will is for your life and just ask for His will”. Allow me to add one thought of conjecture here. My goal is not to discourage you from having dreams and visions for the future. Or to have you loose all resolve for accomplishment in your life. I truly believe each one of us is designed with a unique deposit of God’s Image inside of us. That deposit holds gifts, talents, abilities, character traits and so much more. All of which must be explored and cultivated. As for greatness and fame, many will make an impact, few will leave a lasting impression. But it Christ we can show love to all that we might win some. I believe it's great to strive for excellence but maybe greatness belongs to God. And what of the stadiums full of people starving to be known. I'd say there is a God that is longing to know them. I've heard evangelists say there's a God shaped hole in the heart of every man. But have you ever considered the YOU shaped hole in the heart of God.
Have you ever prayed for God to show you what His will is for your life? I have. Prayer meetings, day dreams, conferences, sermons and other spiritual “highs” all consumed by this burning question of “What is God’s great destiny for my life?” It’s like at some point in the late 80’s the American dream became homogenized with the Gospel and there’s a whole generation of Christians running around in desperate search for their “calling”.
It seems that while the ideal of “you can be whatever you want to be.” has remained, it’s application has changed. The dream used to be having land and a farm and raising a bunch of kids. If you were a homesteader you had arrived. For many it was trade labor. The dream was to be able to hang a shingle with your name on it. For others after the industrial revolution, the dream was to climb the ladder. Work hard for 25 years and retire on a nice pension. The cultural awakening of the late 60’s and early 70’s lead to a split in philosophy while many were still trying to climb corporate ladders, others were “sticking it to the man”. So by the time my generation came along, “You can be anything you want to be” Had drastically changed.
We all wanted to be rock stars, celebrities, rich or famous. Some of us wanted all of the above. I live in a town full of stardom seeking gen-x and now y-ers. All hoping to "make it". Most not even sure what "making it" means. Of course experts are now predicting this to shift again soon. Instead of rock stars they will want to be Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. But the point is most of us were told we could be “great”. Our parents “believed” in us. No one mentioned that for every “winner” there are thousands if not tens of thousands of people who spend their life in discontent because their not “living the dream”. Just look at the American Idol auditions. Stadiums full of people wanting to be on top of the world. Hoping someone will know their name. One of the Idol winners from early on is close with a couple friends of mine. They all played in a club, in town, not to long ago, for about 40 people. No media coverage, just friends happy to be playing music together. The idol winner was singing backup and introduced simply by their first name. Many in the crowd didn’t even recognize them. No one tells you that even if you “make” it, it probably won’t last very long. And chances are you might end up back where you started.
Paul said, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”
There’s this sense that contentment, as Paul describes it, has been sucked into oblivion by a black hole of ideals, and pop psychology self help dogma.
So then, is it any wonder, how so many of us in believerhood can be so lost as to what our “purpose” is? The problem is that we’re convinced there is a “great calling” in the first place. You know what scripture says about the “will of God”? Let me sum it up for you in three phrases.
1. Do Right
2. Do Right Continually
3. Continually Do Right as a member of the family of God
If you break down 1 Thess. 5 there’s a pretty good description of God’s will.
Appreciate those you work for, with, learn from, and have deep loving relationships with.
Live at peace with one another
admonish the unruly
encourage the fainthearted
help the weak
be patient with everyone
let no one repay evil for evil
always seek what’s best for each-other and for humanity
Rejoice always
Never stop communicating with the father
be thankful for everything
THIS IS GOD’s WILL
By the way does any of this sound familiar? It’s a lot like the “Love Chapter” isn’t it? One of my pastor friends often says, “if you want to know what God’s will is for your life, find something He’s already doing.”. Another pastor I know says, “Stop asking what God’s will is for your life and just ask for His will”. Allow me to add one thought of conjecture here. My goal is not to discourage you from having dreams and visions for the future. Or to have you loose all resolve for accomplishment in your life. I truly believe each one of us is designed with a unique deposit of God’s Image inside of us. That deposit holds gifts, talents, abilities, character traits and so much more. All of which must be explored and cultivated. As for greatness and fame, many will make an impact, few will leave a lasting impression. But it Christ we can show love to all that we might win some. I believe it's great to strive for excellence but maybe greatness belongs to God. And what of the stadiums full of people starving to be known. I'd say there is a God that is longing to know them. I've heard evangelists say there's a God shaped hole in the heart of every man. But have you ever considered the YOU shaped hole in the heart of God.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Bad Theology Flavored Popcorn
God the Redeemer
When I first got out of college I started working for a PR firm in Nashville. Publicist are known for having a certain way with words. Which is why they sometimes get labeled as “spin doctors”. Taking a hard truth and covering it with sweet sauce to make it not so hard to swallow. It’s essentially the same thing we do when we’re six and get caught pulling our sisters hair.
“why did you pull her hair?”
“there was something in it” (she’s wearing a hair-clip)
“what was in it?”
“it looked like a bug” (it was shaped like a butterfly)
“what did you do with it?”
“bugs fly away” (true but totally irrelevant to the question)
And this is how many of us are trained to deal with sin. With some sort of sterilized substitute for honesty and transparency we “admit to being sinners” but we downplay the struggle. It often comes across as if the “struggle with sin” was in a far distant land many years ago, before we “arrived” at the solid impervious faith we now maintain. And this is the bullshit that passes for “bearing one anthers burdens”.
In retrospect, the “outside in” approach to discipleship I experienced early on in my life is almost humorous. Well meaning believers love to string along pop-corned phrases from verses and hang them on a tree of “accountability”. I know because I was “that guy”. For example, growing up going to the movies was frowned upon, especially if there was a rated R movie showing at the same time. The argument was that a good christian, “is above reproach, and should abstain from the appearance of evil”.
Let’s take a min. and used my over priced theological training to do a little apologetic for my contempt of what the nerds would cal a hermanutical leap (pop-corning). I’ll start with the, “appearance of evil” line. How curious that a line often used as “loving correction” (which is spin for playing the roll of what a pastor friend of mine calls “HOLY SPIRIT jr.”) is preceded by five verses admonishing the church folk to essentially love each-other and get one-anothers back. Secondly the term “appearance of evil” is in and of itself a debatabley weak translation for the Greek in that sentence. Most translations read something more like, “avoid all types of evil” Which is reminiscent of what Jesus prayed, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil/ the evil one”. And thirdly even if “appearance of evil” was the best translation the verses directly preceding that phrase are about prophecy and misappropriation of the gifts of the holy spirit.
1 Thess. 5
12 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. 14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. 16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit;20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.
All of that to say this. Look at the verses following our now over dissected verse 22. Who is doing the sanctifying? God. Who brings to pass the preservation of our soul, body, blamelessness and the coming of Jesus? God.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Besides all of this, who decides what does and does not “appear” evil. The answer, in case you missed it, is THE HOLY SPIRIT. You know who didn’t “abstain from the appearance of evil”? Jesus.
LUKE 7
33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Okay, so how about that whole, “above reproach” thing?
Philippians 2.
... work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
The tendency is to assume that “above reproach” means “do nothing wrong” or at the very least have no appearance of doing wrong. Another skill Publicist have is interview coaching. So when the president of BP goes on TV to talk about all the good stuff the company is doing in the communities affected by the oil spill people genuinely like and respond well. There’s a fancy “industry insider” word we have for these moments. It’s called acting.
Is it possible that being above reproach is less about being perfect and more about being honest. What if we just focus on, “esteeming each other highly in love” and “living at peace” with one another. What if we stop trying to play the roll of “Holy Spirit Jr.” and allow God with love, goodness, and grace to “do a good work” in ourselves and each-other. There’s a fancy word for that one as well. It’s called redemption.
When I first got out of college I started working for a PR firm in Nashville. Publicist are known for having a certain way with words. Which is why they sometimes get labeled as “spin doctors”. Taking a hard truth and covering it with sweet sauce to make it not so hard to swallow. It’s essentially the same thing we do when we’re six and get caught pulling our sisters hair.
“why did you pull her hair?”
“there was something in it” (she’s wearing a hair-clip)
“what was in it?”
“it looked like a bug” (it was shaped like a butterfly)
“what did you do with it?”
“bugs fly away” (true but totally irrelevant to the question)
And this is how many of us are trained to deal with sin. With some sort of sterilized substitute for honesty and transparency we “admit to being sinners” but we downplay the struggle. It often comes across as if the “struggle with sin” was in a far distant land many years ago, before we “arrived” at the solid impervious faith we now maintain. And this is the bullshit that passes for “bearing one anthers burdens”.
In retrospect, the “outside in” approach to discipleship I experienced early on in my life is almost humorous. Well meaning believers love to string along pop-corned phrases from verses and hang them on a tree of “accountability”. I know because I was “that guy”. For example, growing up going to the movies was frowned upon, especially if there was a rated R movie showing at the same time. The argument was that a good christian, “is above reproach, and should abstain from the appearance of evil”.
Let’s take a min. and used my over priced theological training to do a little apologetic for my contempt of what the nerds would cal a hermanutical leap (pop-corning). I’ll start with the, “appearance of evil” line. How curious that a line often used as “loving correction” (which is spin for playing the roll of what a pastor friend of mine calls “HOLY SPIRIT jr.”) is preceded by five verses admonishing the church folk to essentially love each-other and get one-anothers back. Secondly the term “appearance of evil” is in and of itself a debatabley weak translation for the Greek in that sentence. Most translations read something more like, “avoid all types of evil” Which is reminiscent of what Jesus prayed, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil/ the evil one”. And thirdly even if “appearance of evil” was the best translation the verses directly preceding that phrase are about prophecy and misappropriation of the gifts of the holy spirit.
1 Thess. 5
12 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. 14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. 16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit;20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.
All of that to say this. Look at the verses following our now over dissected verse 22. Who is doing the sanctifying? God. Who brings to pass the preservation of our soul, body, blamelessness and the coming of Jesus? God.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Besides all of this, who decides what does and does not “appear” evil. The answer, in case you missed it, is THE HOLY SPIRIT. You know who didn’t “abstain from the appearance of evil”? Jesus.
LUKE 7
33 “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ 34“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Okay, so how about that whole, “above reproach” thing?
Philippians 2.
... work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
The tendency is to assume that “above reproach” means “do nothing wrong” or at the very least have no appearance of doing wrong. Another skill Publicist have is interview coaching. So when the president of BP goes on TV to talk about all the good stuff the company is doing in the communities affected by the oil spill people genuinely like and respond well. There’s a fancy “industry insider” word we have for these moments. It’s called acting.
Is it possible that being above reproach is less about being perfect and more about being honest. What if we just focus on, “esteeming each other highly in love” and “living at peace” with one another. What if we stop trying to play the roll of “Holy Spirit Jr.” and allow God with love, goodness, and grace to “do a good work” in ourselves and each-other. There’s a fancy word for that one as well. It’s called redemption.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Nobility of a "mac and cheese" God
God as Defined by Love
“God is Love”...For many of us it’s a phrase we hear most of our lives. The confusion comes as to 1. why that’s important and 2. what does it mean? Agape, theGreek root used for this particular reference has connotations of benevolence and good will. But that still doesn’t feel like much of a personification. What about Paul’s description in His letter to the Corinthian Church? You know, the “love chapter”.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails;...”
And slowly this broader picture of love starts to get painted on the canvas of our soul. For me it’s very easy to turn it into a mathematical equation. If A=B and B=C than God = patience, kindness, and behavioral to do list. But it’s not a to do list at all. It’s more like a wittiness giving a description to a sketch artist. A sketch is really important, because it tells us what where looking for.
Here’s the interesting part. This “sketch” of love isn’t just so we can recognize God it’s so we can relate TO God. What I mean is this. The “two great commandments” according to Jesus are Love God and Love others right? Well is it possible that when interacting with God we should, “hope all things, and believe all things, and keep no record of “wrongs” (if you’ve never felt wronged by God you are a better person than I) and so on. This is what happens
in a relationship. It’s give and take. When being love is abstract and just sits on the shelf of happy Sunday school ideas it’s not very effective in changing lives, including out own.
Someone told me recently that the most import precept in scripture is not the cross but rather the love of the Father.
1 John 4
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has
been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
So the same God who is patient with us, who rejoices in the truth, and bears all things with us is the Father who gave up is most prized possession (his son). So that he cold have the opportunity to personally and intimately Love a human race that’s broken, dysfunctional, and so cautious with it’s spirituality it would rather keep God as “the big guy upstairs who blesses our mac and cheese”. The cost of grace is far greater than the price of our pride. and it is pride not nobility that keeps us from embracing HIS love fully.
“God is Love”...For many of us it’s a phrase we hear most of our lives. The confusion comes as to 1. why that’s important and 2. what does it mean? Agape, theGreek root used for this particular reference has connotations of benevolence and good will. But that still doesn’t feel like much of a personification. What about Paul’s description in His letter to the Corinthian Church? You know, the “love chapter”.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never fails;...”
And slowly this broader picture of love starts to get painted on the canvas of our soul. For me it’s very easy to turn it into a mathematical equation. If A=B and B=C than God = patience, kindness, and behavioral to do list. But it’s not a to do list at all. It’s more like a wittiness giving a description to a sketch artist. A sketch is really important, because it tells us what where looking for.
Here’s the interesting part. This “sketch” of love isn’t just so we can recognize God it’s so we can relate TO God. What I mean is this. The “two great commandments” according to Jesus are Love God and Love others right? Well is it possible that when interacting with God we should, “hope all things, and believe all things, and keep no record of “wrongs” (if you’ve never felt wronged by God you are a better person than I) and so on. This is what happens
in a relationship. It’s give and take. When being love is abstract and just sits on the shelf of happy Sunday school ideas it’s not very effective in changing lives, including out own.
Someone told me recently that the most import precept in scripture is not the cross but rather the love of the Father.
1 John 4
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has
been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
So the same God who is patient with us, who rejoices in the truth, and bears all things with us is the Father who gave up is most prized possession (his son). So that he cold have the opportunity to personally and intimately Love a human race that’s broken, dysfunctional, and so cautious with it’s spirituality it would rather keep God as “the big guy upstairs who blesses our mac and cheese”. The cost of grace is far greater than the price of our pride. and it is pride not nobility that keeps us from embracing HIS love fully.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Million Miles to Love
GOD THE PERSON
For many of us our ideology is rooted in God as a concept and not a person. At which point God becomes like a desk from ikea. There’s an instruction manual, a box full of parts, and a pretty picture on the front that shows us what the desk should look like. The problem is if we only read the instruction manual and look at the picture we’re missing out on the best part.
It’s when you actually begin unpacking the desk and utilizing the instructions, checking it against the picture on the box that the desk becomes real. You can interact with the desk, spend time with it and so on.
So is reading the instruction manual (Scripture) and studying the picture (Jesus) good? Absolutely! But there is so much more of God to unpack making God less and less like a concept and more and more like a person. You can be encouraged, enlightened, and uplifted by a concept But you can be consoled, comforted, and communed with by a person.
it's a constant process. So many times we get frustrated because we can't "see" God and so God gets mixed in with religion and it all becomes part of this whole cultural existence. The truth is we can "see" God if we are looking through the lens of the Holy Spirit...I can see Him in you, In the face of the poor and hungry, in the kindness of strangers, even in nature or unbelievers because they all carry traces of the Image of God
And the truth is getting to know God, and not just about God takes time. It’s like any other relationship. In the beginning all you have to build on are common interests, past experiences that are similar, and the weather. It’s fairly mechanical for a while. But then as the relationship progresses the “data” you’ve collected about each other starts to make way for a deeper connection. I cerebraly know you love sushi because we talked about it over coffee. I make us a dinner reservation at a Sushi restaurant and now we have a shared experience, which leads to learning more information and maybe that information touches the service of your emotions. And the cycle continues as long as the relationship does. So slowly but surely that concept of a divine being goes from being a million miles away to being The Father, Groom, Shepherd we know so well and so sweet we call Him by name “Love”.
For many of us our ideology is rooted in God as a concept and not a person. At which point God becomes like a desk from ikea. There’s an instruction manual, a box full of parts, and a pretty picture on the front that shows us what the desk should look like. The problem is if we only read the instruction manual and look at the picture we’re missing out on the best part.
It’s when you actually begin unpacking the desk and utilizing the instructions, checking it against the picture on the box that the desk becomes real. You can interact with the desk, spend time with it and so on.
So is reading the instruction manual (Scripture) and studying the picture (Jesus) good? Absolutely! But there is so much more of God to unpack making God less and less like a concept and more and more like a person. You can be encouraged, enlightened, and uplifted by a concept But you can be consoled, comforted, and communed with by a person.
it's a constant process. So many times we get frustrated because we can't "see" God and so God gets mixed in with religion and it all becomes part of this whole cultural existence. The truth is we can "see" God if we are looking through the lens of the Holy Spirit...I can see Him in you, In the face of the poor and hungry, in the kindness of strangers, even in nature or unbelievers because they all carry traces of the Image of God
And the truth is getting to know God, and not just about God takes time. It’s like any other relationship. In the beginning all you have to build on are common interests, past experiences that are similar, and the weather. It’s fairly mechanical for a while. But then as the relationship progresses the “data” you’ve collected about each other starts to make way for a deeper connection. I cerebraly know you love sushi because we talked about it over coffee. I make us a dinner reservation at a Sushi restaurant and now we have a shared experience, which leads to learning more information and maybe that information touches the service of your emotions. And the cycle continues as long as the relationship does. So slowly but surely that concept of a divine being goes from being a million miles away to being The Father, Groom, Shepherd we know so well and so sweet we call Him by name “Love”.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
break it to make it better
GOD OF THE BROKEN
FROM HEBREWS 12
"My son, don't take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives."
The God I grew up with did not like me very much. Every time I screwed up he was there with a spoonful of guilt and a tall glass of shame to wash it down with. My faith was centered on behavioral modification. What I could do or not do to avoid divine disappointment? The problem with experiencing God that way is making punishment and discipline equal. And honestly the reason we make this synopsis in our brain is that it’s the reality we lived through most of our lives.
When you’re late for work and it affects your pay, that's discipline. If someone cuts you off and you tailgate them 20 miles out of your way just to make a point, that's punishment. The difference between the two is that punishment has no redemptive quality and is abusive by nature. God is not abusive in nature.
Recently my mom injured herself while working with her horses. She did some pretty nasty damage to her shoulder. My Mother is anything but a wimp when it comes to physical pain. Living with Lupus and Fibromyalgia for twenty some odd years has made her pretty tough. Unfortunately this time her stubbornness caused more pain than it was worth. The injured area that went untreated covered itself in scar tissue and made her arm nearly immobilized. A somewhat immediate surgery was called for which involved cutting through the scar tissue with a laser. The goal is to alleviate the pressure and help her regain some mobility. The interesting part is that the bodies resilience and propensity toward fixing itself is actually works against the healing process in cases like this.So every day, for a season, she has to rotate her body in such a way that it rips, tears, and breaks any connections the muscles are trying to make with the damaging newly severed scar tissue. She has to break it to make it better.
That word scourge in Hebrews 12 also had cultural significance to cleansing and healing. Which is why the passage that says, "by his stripes we are healed" is not so out of place. There was this cultural connection between discipline and healing. Does sin have consequence? Yes. Is that consequence anger and disappointment from God? I don't believe it is. 1 John 4:18 reads, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
Fear has to do with punishment. Love has to do with discipline.
Sometimes the ripping, tearing, and breaking we feel are what's best for us. It's a way of keeping the scar tissue from immobilizing us. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt violently at the time. But it is redemptive in nature. Brokenness, believe it or not truly is an act of love. So if your feeling the "scourging" let me encourage you and say, “welcome to the family.”
Monday, December 27, 2010
Traveling South. The Culture of Tradition
INTRODUCTION
As I recall, in my younger years birthdays were a big deal. They usually had some type of theme based on whatever cartoon I was obsessed with at the time and a cake decorated with anthropomorphic reptiles or masked heroes. Looking back I still get a strong sense that my family tried very hard to make those days totally about me. Most parents don't wake up on their kids birthday and think, "I can't wait to have 15 screaming second graders in my house sticking tacks in my wall on through a cardboard donkey!" Nope, as a kid birthdays were all about me; the things I liked, the presents I wanted, the people I wanted around me.
Ironic that in the over indulgence of celebrating myself I would find my frustration with commercialized retail spectacle this generation has come to know as Christmas. Disenfranchised by the subjugating nature of holiday tradition I felt like it was time to hit the reset button and re-calibrate the ideology I associate with Christmas. Be it selfishness or an inward fear of being disingenuous I felt a deviation from the norm was necessary.
PART 1 - The Road Trip Begins
I got a call from my friend Mark about a week before Christmas, "Hey man, I'm in Memphis you wanna hang out?" It's about a three hour drive from my house to Memphis and I really did want to go however, I had just thrown out my back a few days before and was right in the middle of a series of chiropractic and message therapy treatments. I also had a few meetings I really couldn't get out of. I declined his invitation regretfully. The next day I received a call from a close friend of mine who lives in Dallas. She informed me that she would be meeting Mark in Louisiana later in the week. This timing was much better, the only problem was getting to Texas. As it happens my roommate was leaving the next day for Mt. Pleasant which just a couple hours east of Dallas. I worked out the rest of the details as best I could, packed a bag and headed west.
PART 2 - Natchitoches
Mark asked Lore and I to meet him in Natchitoches La. A small town a few hours North of New Orleans. Initially we were under the impression that Natchitoches was just a town chosen with utilitarian motives as a central meeting point. A good part of the day was simply spent attempting to figure out how to say Natchitoches, each of the locals had their own interpretation it seemed. It's a place known for many things including meat pies, racism, the set location for Steel Magnolias and an it's "World Famous Festival of Lights". Which as it turns out was the reason for our trip there. Mark is a photo journalist and works for a number of major publications in New York. He was working on a story there. The light show was a mix of religious iconography, Santa centric imagery and athletic axioms like "Who Dat!" and "Go Saints". And I that's what the Holidays are about right? Raindeer landing on the roof of the manger where baby Jesus is met by the three line men. "Who dat kid be in that krib? Who Dat? Who Dat?
PART 3 - Camping
Mark and I parted ways with Lore and headed for the state park. It was a perfect evening for camping. At least it was for mark. With his sleeping bag and bed mat and optional tent in case of a early morning rain. I had not really planned on camping and thus my plush pillow and down blanket were supplemented by a small tarp and extra cover that happened to be in the car. We built a fire. I played some music for a bit trying to finish a song I had been working on. Mark and I caught up and drank beer. Remember those back problems I'd been having? I admit sleeping on the ground wasn't the greatest exertion of wisdom I'd had of late but it worked as well as it could. We woke up early covered in due like a lawn in spring, packed up, and headed for New Orleans.
To be continued....
Photos Courtesy of Mark
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Finishing Strong. A great season comes to a close.
Thirteen months ago, I sat at a coffee shop with a lady who had better options.
Options of stability, timelyness, comfort and so on. And, as was expected though our
interaction was pleasant she chose the more practical solution.
God had a different plan in mind. The woman was Becky Hicks and ten days later
Becky called me and said, "J. I know this will sound crazy, but I didn't feel comfortable with
that family living in my house, I really feel like your supposed to be the one who lives there."
And so in July of last year I moved in to 222 5th Ave. S. I told Becky I had heart to love people
and help out those in need. She told me she loved the idea of her grandmother's house being
used in that way. She has been gracious every step of the way. Flexible with payments, time,
and always stuck to her guns that she felt I was supposed to be there.
Thanks largely to her heart for me, 222 housed numerous missionaries, pastors, bands, homeless,
broken, depressed, hungry, and amazing people. It wasn't always perfect, we didn't always all live in
complete harmony and unison; but overall it was an amazing season.
In late july we got word that through a chain of events the city did some investigation into our ministry.
They infomed us that what we were doing was breaking a city ordinance and we weren't zoned properly.
We were given until the end of the month of August to clear the house and cease operations.
And so this chapter has quickly come to a close. It was good. It was right. And now I want to finish strong.
There are some expenses that have built up over the last 13 months that I have been paying off bit by bit.
Including, some final utility expenses, and some rent payments from early on, with some of our early guests
took advantage of the situation in a negative way.
I would really like to bless Becky for taking a chance on me, and this ministry. I would like to show her that
it's worth it to trust people, and believe in them. The total ammount remaining in my debt to her is $966.
If there is any way you could come along side me in this last push to finish strong, I would greatly appreciate it.
Anything over the remaining balance will go as a gift for her. Becky's had to pay for a lot of damage that came after
the flooding we had in nashville, and she spent a month out of work earlier in the year with an injury.
Any donations can be made out to conduit mission
and mailed to:
J. Morris C/O John Ross
524 OverView Lane
Franklin TN, 37064
Thank you all for being with me this year.
Your love has gone farther than you can imagine.
Blessings.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
I got stuff. You got stuff. Now What?
It used to be the only thing I worried about when attending a wedding was if my mom ironed my shirt and if my game boy had fresh batteries. I didn't have much vested interest in the actual marriage. They were my parents friends or my aunts and as long as I got some pigs in a blanket and a few cups of punch I considered the whole thing a great success.
Twenty years later I'm not sure my success standards are much higher. I'd prefer chicken marsalla to mini hot dogs and a glass of wine to punch. That being said, my connection to those getting married has increased substantialy. Now they're my friends, people I've shared life with in some form or another.
Even more odd is when these married couples come and ask my advice on something. Everything is so clear when your single. Or it seems to be. I have often thought things like, "why can't they see how they speak to eachother?" and "dude your not listening to her!" I nievly wonder how it could be so hard for married couples to just talk through things and come to logical reasonable solutions.
The truth is I know better. I've read a dozen or so books that tell me things like, mens ears are blue, and womens brains are like spaghetti, and they're both from different planets. Logical solutions don't really work though, not usually. We like the idea of a formula but when the equation is altered by sex, emotion, baggage, and hormones it gets pretty difficult to "solve" anything.
I was talking to an older married couple once about their "sucess" and how they achieved it. The man told me ,"you want to have a good marriage, get the first two out of the way." We laughed for a minute and then he leaned foward in his worn recliner and said, "If you always put the other person first you can't lose".
This sentiment has stuck with me for most of my adult life. I wonder if maybe it could be that simple. This idea of selflessness, or atleast an attempt to go in that direction. Two people putting eachother first, one day at a time. Because we all have baggage right? I got stuff. You got stuff. Now What?
j.
Twenty years later I'm not sure my success standards are much higher. I'd prefer chicken marsalla to mini hot dogs and a glass of wine to punch. That being said, my connection to those getting married has increased substantialy. Now they're my friends, people I've shared life with in some form or another.
Even more odd is when these married couples come and ask my advice on something. Everything is so clear when your single. Or it seems to be. I have often thought things like, "why can't they see how they speak to eachother?" and "dude your not listening to her!" I nievly wonder how it could be so hard for married couples to just talk through things and come to logical reasonable solutions.
The truth is I know better. I've read a dozen or so books that tell me things like, mens ears are blue, and womens brains are like spaghetti, and they're both from different planets. Logical solutions don't really work though, not usually. We like the idea of a formula but when the equation is altered by sex, emotion, baggage, and hormones it gets pretty difficult to "solve" anything.
I was talking to an older married couple once about their "sucess" and how they achieved it. The man told me ,"you want to have a good marriage, get the first two out of the way." We laughed for a minute and then he leaned foward in his worn recliner and said, "If you always put the other person first you can't lose".
This sentiment has stuck with me for most of my adult life. I wonder if maybe it could be that simple. This idea of selflessness, or atleast an attempt to go in that direction. Two people putting eachother first, one day at a time. Because we all have baggage right? I got stuff. You got stuff. Now What?
j.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Fall in Love with YOUR NIEGHBOR
the story of Turntable 222.
Fall, for many, is a time of new beginnings, some spend 12, 16, and even 20 years with fall as a transition into something new. A new grade, a new school, a new state or even country. Transitions don't stop however, when you receive a diploma or begin a career. They just cease to be scheduled.
When we are young seasons change with excitment. There are "back to school" sales, and winter vacations. Unfortunately, in adulthood, Macy's doesn't have a sale when a company downsizes; and there is no winter break from the responsibility of payment and process.
Over the course of my life I have shared space with many hospitable strangers, friends, and "makeshift family". In my time of need people have brought me in, given me a floor, bed , a comfy couch nestled by a window in a family room some where. I have poured out my soul over coffee and had my soul restored over tea. I have been taught how to learn and showed how to love well.
Transitions don't always come with a warning, and for many they don't come with support. It is this realization that has brought me to where I am now. Writing this letter from a donated couch in my living room. Picturing my house full of people who are leaving one season and transitioning or "Transferring" to the next.
The way I'm wired, the best way to connect with people, is to meet a physical need first and then if the opportunity arises, meet the spiritual or emotional needs as well. And often the three happen at once. This, along with all that I have said above, is the vision and heart of what is called "Turntable 222". A mission statement might read something like, "changing seasons, sharing life."
The hope is to give people a place to stay for little or no money, to have some time to collect their thoughts, stir up their soul, and feed their bellies. There's most definitely a need in this area. Within hours of signing the lease, I had a local pastor send me a guy who is trying to fix his marriage, strengthen his faith, and get his business off the ground. He was sleeping at the church and we were able to give him a roof, a shower, and a place to wash his clothes. And the calls keep coming.
So in case you haven't figured it out by now this is a support letter. I'm not going to build a well in Africa, or play soccer with orphans in Honduras.
I'm staying right here, in my small town and pouring into my community. I hope that you will partner with me in this endeavor. I know times are tight for many, money may not be an option. I understand. Or, maybe you just don't feel connected to this cause. St. Paul, the Apostle, told the early church that if they ever felt like they were giving out of pressure, they were not required to give.
Here are some practical ways you can help;
We are building some bunk beds, and
making some furniture for the dining room; which is to be set up like a cafe with room to seat about 16. we need money for materials.
Donations of furniture ie couches, coffee, tables, rugs whatever would be appreciated from local partners.
Food. soups pastas etc
Supplies, soaps, sponges, paper products
gift cards. Wal mart, Home Depot, Good Will
Financial donations will help cover the overhead cost and will help us provide for the needs of our borders and guests during their time of transition.
Or, a super practical way to help support the mission is to support my trade, refer someone you know who needs a website or print material done to me, and you will create an opportunity for resources to be put back into the house.
Thank you so much for reading this letter and letting me share my heart. Please contact me if you want more information.
Love well and be blessed.
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