Church, Motivation

The Church is not the center of Christian life

For a great number of Christians, the obligatory weekly service is the sum total or center of their Christian life.  We are good at gathering together to backslap each other and if we really in the spirit to give someone a hug.  But as they drive away from the congregation, there is no sense of mission.

Our mission is not found within the hallowed halls of some great or small building, it is on the outside.  The mission of the real church, the body of Christ, is in the marketplace.  From the preaching and life of Jesus, as he taught the twelve, and lived his teaching, look closely and you will find them in the marketplace.  It is the central location of want.  It was where the neediest were found.  The marketplace, the place where needs are most felt, is the place for the church.

It is not enough for the organization we call the church to hang a pretty sign upon its facade and call it done.  The world will not come to us.  We dare not wait for the grand influx of bodies to join us in our holy alcove. When we rub shoulders day after day with those who are lost we become the church to them.  People in need of the power and grace to get through the day, need Jesus.  When we go out and be one of them, but not of them we are answering the prayer of Jesus in John 17. We are the living and breathing answer to God.

 

Life, Personal, Theology

Micro and Macro, The Small and the Big

I have walked the walk for quite a few years.  I have lived in the hope of God and am justified by His grace.  But there seems to be a place in which struggle.  In my study of John 17: 12,13,15 my conundrum has raised its head again.  It is all a matter of the big and the small. It is struggling with the very nature of God.  I have a real and weighty respect for God, but I question at times whether God in His infinite glory and majesty would take any mind of my plight.  Jesus prayed that Holy Father would protect. And that is the issue of macro and micro.

I have a heavenly check-off list:

  • Grace – God’s unmerited favor to all freely offered and accepted
  • Forgiveness – God offering to wash them away
  • Calling – God offering to all a specific and perfect path to do His will
  • Salvation – A pledged promise to redeem us from the curse of sin
  • Love – An embracing sweet presence and concern.
  • Heaven – A promise for a perfected end and new beginning

But all these things are offered and spread out to all that would accept and believe.  This is God in the Macro or the big things. God the ultimate good, just, holy, Glorious, truth, revealed in His only Son, BUT IS HE INTERESTED IN ME?

I have lived my life with God in the Macro never in the micro. Big things “red sea, scribed tablets, burning bushes, Jesus, Cross, second coming, were all big things.  I have peace, I have fits of joy, I have a working relationship with God. But I still struggle that this infinite God would have the interest to care for me as an individual. Does God care about the individual? Does He care for me personally?
I look up into the starry sky I feel small. I am but a tiny speck among 7.6 million other small specks living on another speck amid an immeasurable universe.

But here in the final prayer of Jesus among his disciples, He prays to His Father that they will be protected.  I don’t see that protection, but it must be there.  The Father never denied the Son of any request.  I have to see it by faith and realize that He is an active force that has put His hand between me and millions of circumstances and problems.  Like a wreck that never happened when I was going down to the local Safeway, I have to accept it as his protection.

What do you think?

Motivation, Personal

Birthdays

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My birthday was yesterday.  I am feeling old.  My bones hurt.  Oh, for the days of jumping from rock to rock in a rushing stream to find an elusive trout.  It is the wear and tear of the daily living that seems to have ripped the desire to pursue my dreams and to shadow my hopes.

With repeated attempts, I find myself unable to reach my greatest intentions. I am not giving up, but I seem to be losing my grip on the things that seemed to matter to me so much over the years.  My greatest fear is getting to a place where I simply say, “what is the use.”  What is the use to continue my quest to help where I can?  What is the use to feed the next generation with my learned lessons of life, if they seem oblivious to the insight? When life was young there was an inner zest, or maybe a simple twitch toward the moral battle rightly engaged.  There was a foe to slay, a flock to shepherd and protect, but now, what am I to do?

All sorts of compromises have been made as practical adjustments to the world in which we live. Legitimate hopes and dreams have been lost in the fog.  Griefs settle upon me as I see myself more like Don Quixote battling windmills than King Arthur fighting the good fight. The struggle seems to have dulled my sword and now has become difficult to hold it up.

My bed beckons me each evening but I can’t sleep because of all the little naps taken to get through the day.  The question, “what is the use” seems more and more close.

This does not mean that I will cease battling.  I will continue to fight the good fight, I will finish my race.  Just because I can not run 100 yards does not mean I am giving up to self-indulgence and retire to the companionship of my easy chair.  I will, and I am doing my part to make a difference.  I have not lost the zest of the moral struggle.  I may hang on grimly to the end, but with the inner fire not quite as bright as it was back in the day, I will keep on keeping on.

The fire is still burning within me and even if no one comes by to warm themselves by it, I will keep it lit.

Your comments are requested.

Life, Personal, Short Quotes

Fathers and sons

Matthew 3:9 in the NIV says: Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones.

There were those in the times of Jesus who claimed a right to Heaven just because they were born into a family.  May I just say in no uncertain terms: God is not much interested in the lineage of parents than in the life of the children.

Just saying.

Personal, Politics

Yes is Yes

Decisiveness is a quality lost in the world we live in.  There seems to be a new art in being able to say yes and no to the same question.  We don’t want to offend anyone so much we simply end up saying nothing.  I was raised in a household of loudness.  No idea was out of bounds if it was bespoken with conviction and subsequently backed up with facts.  Loudness was the attention mechanism and the concept was the substance.  But today, the weakest voices are the ones we seem to be listening to the most.

It is the little voices that cry out, “it is not fair”. Case in point: The idea that the current president was not elected by the people because he did not get the most votes.  While at first blush we think this is a travesty; it was not fair. Never-the-less it is still the best mechanism in the election of our highest office.  If it were not for the electoral college, only the most populated states would have it there way, while states like Montana would just be totally neglected.  It would be like two wolves looking at a sheep and deciding a menu. Our system says an unequivocal yes to the method of checks and balances in our government.  It may not seem “fair” to some (probably because they voted for the other candidate) but it is. No wonder it takes a super-majority of the Congress and two-thirds of the states to change the constitution.

You may not like the outcome.  You may have wanted to come out some other way.  But in retrospect, the election was an absolute “yes”.  There is no maybe. There is no, not really president: he is president. If you don’t like it, raise your voice and be loud but back it up with facts.

Uncategorized

Is anybody out there?

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There is a therapeutic catharsis in the process of putting your thoughts into words. Sitting at a keyboard and placing phrases in an appropriate structure takes time and allows for introspection. But in the long run, there is a haunting, almost minuscule little voice that cries from deep down inside that is constantly asking, “Does anyone actually read this stuff?”

Personal, Ramblings, Sermon Illustration

Califorina Highway Patrol and grace

Way back in the day I owned one hot 68 Ford Fairlane two door.  It was a very special car and it had a lot of work done.  I had all the chrome and emblems removed and painted it with six coats of #44 black lacquer and it was buffed mirror shine. It was fast. It had a 428 cu in (7.0 L) Cobra Jet, developing 335 bhp. The largest tires that would fit under the wheel wells on the rear,  gave it a rake that looked mean.

I was employed in a small grocery store as a meat cutter and after work, I was always in a hurry to get home. The little town of Cottonwood was not a large anything and very seldom was there any traffic down the main street; the freeway had passed the sleepy town by.

Not being very cautious and wanting to get home, I pulled out from a blind stop sign in front of another black car.  I had cut that car off a little close and I stepped on the gas in response and left just a little bit of black mark on the road.  It was out of embarrassment that I had done this dastardly thing.  I had wanted to create some additional space between myself and the other black car just for safety sake.

I was well exceeding the posted 35 miles per hour and that other black car flipped on its siren and his Blue light, I had not noticed that trailing black car was a California Highway Patrol car. My turn to home was just a half a block away and wanting to be safe I turn quickly down the street and pulled over with just enough room to allow the officer to park behind.

The rapid turn took the CHP officer by surprise and he tried with all his might to follow but as he turned he realized he was too close and literally slid all four of his tires into the small space behind me with only one foot to spare in a great cloud of dust.

After, what seemed to be an eternity, the CHP officer who had been quietly sitting in his car trying to assume a posture of calm, opened his door and walked very slowly to my window.

Rolling down the window I stated with a large smile on my face, “Can I help you, officer?”

He replied, “I almost rear-ended you twice; the first time when you pulled into the street in front of me.  I could have let that slip, but when you sped up I had to turn on my lights.”  He continued to say with a small rivulet of nervous sweat coming from under his official brown hat, “Then you turned left abruptly and when I tried to follow, and the excessive speed I was making, my engine died.  I lost my power steering and my power breaks.  I almost lost control and came close to hitting you again.”

I came to the realization he was almost apologizing for coming so close to my car.

“I could well write you up for a number of things, but I came very near to hitting you the second time, that I just don’t have it within me.”  Please slow down and watch your turns.”  He walked back to his car and sat down.

I pulled out slowly with the appropriate turn signal as I watched the CHP just sit in his car. My actions as I pulled away were in response to grace.  My reaction to grace was not that I got away with something, it was that I had been stupid and I would be more careful, more attentive, and more obedient.

It is the same calling we receive by grace to act accordingly.  “The things I believe I do, all else is just religious talk.

GRACE….

Bible Study, Life, Theology

One that got away.

I am currently trying to teach a number of men in a weekly Bible study.  It is on John 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus.  Together we have looked at the perfect timing of Jesus’s prayer, the Glory of God in that prayer, the perfect knowledge of God, and last week the revealing of God to the world.  These men are starting to see the very nature of God displayed in scripture.

Jesus prayed because His time had come, He asked to be glorified, the Father gave Him authority over humanity, this humanity can find eternity in knowing the Father and the Son, all so that we can reveal God to the world.

But what about the one that got away?  What about Judas that allowed him to elude the net by the Greatest Fisher of Men?  Jesus during this three-year teaching and preaching period, cast a wide net, but not all were wrestled into the boat.

Only the twelve men in all history have had the intimate, personal relationship to Jesus the incarnate Son of God.  Judas along with the other eleven has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth.  No other has had the crash course in experiential love.  They all were exposed in an intimate first-hand washing of God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness, and grace. No group of followers could come close to the very essence of God.  Yet through it all Judas escaped the net.  In the most indescribably precious, and blessed years the heart of Judas was not softened.

Judas defies comprehension.  Judas constantly and with persistence of mind rejected the very truth of God in the flesh.  And he hid it from everyone around him with skill.  The only one to see into the heart of this chosen fisher of men and see the wicked rebellion was Jesus.  And He called him a devil.

Judas did not escape from guilt. Just like the pain we feel as we accidentally burn ourselves, so guilt is an intrinsic and automatic warning of spiritual danger.  It was guilt that drove Judas to remorse which in turn led to his death.  Do not confuse guilt and remorse with the requisite answer to both. The answer to both is repentance.  Repentance is an act of the will. Judas was teachable but he was not willing to change.  And in the last moment of his life, his unwillingness to change is what condemned him.

Church, Culture, Preaching

Shock and Awe

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For thirty-three years, Jesus never tried to shock people.  Never-the-less, He was never afraid of shocking people.  As I sit back and examine the world in which I live, which includes what is called news and the prevalent excuse for entertainment, there seems to be a juvenile kind of thrill being exampled of just trying to shock people.  Every item tries to stretch the point to a point that would draw attention to itself.

Sometimes this effort to shock people simply comes from a desire to draw disinterested people to attention.  “I don’t have much breaking news, so I will just proclaim something shocking.”  At other times it is just a part of habit.  One person always must have the last word and if it is not extraordinary and shocking no one will pay any attention to me.  I think it is simply ego.

The sad thing is that this shock malady is dripping over into the church.  The title of the sermon must catch ones interest if it is to be effective.

But Jesus was not this way.  In his teaching and preaching, He did not purposely try to shock people into understanding. But when He did it was always with truth and not hyperbole.  I can imagine how a cautious adviser might have spoken to Jesus. “Now, Master, of course, your ideas are important, but please don’t say them so bluntly.”  “You can’t go around calling the religious elite a brood of vipers.”

Jesus was never deterred from His witness to God by asking, “What will people think about this?” or “How will it affect my safety or popularity.”

I believe the church is trying so hard to shock with a title they forget the awe of the message.

Just my opinion.

Church, Culture, Personal

I may be me…

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Church, I want you to step up and make this “love of Jesus” thing real and real to me.  I am here, in my flawed, screwed-up, wounded, shell-shocked, doubting, disillusioned personhood, ready for the full-on Jesus stuff.  Step up and show me the supposedly relentless and all loving Jesus; make it real.

Church, the word for today’s world is tolerance.  Tolerance for everything that can be accepted by the broad and wide way.  Right now, I need you to tolerate me.  For that matter, you need to tolerate those of us who, for hundreds of reasons, you may characterize as un-Christian.  I am so weary of feeling the only thing that goes on around here is a religious agenda, an argument to win, a point to make, a cause to defend, a soul to save.  You can’t promote your cause without accepting me as who I am.

I want to be more than a number on a tally sheet.  I want more than to be counted with those who “like” a Facebook site.  I want to be more than a prop in a baptism ceremony. I want more than applause and high fives when I show up and am soon forgotten when the music ends.

I am waiting for the time when you stop doing your thing and listen to my thing.  Stop evangelizing us, preaching at us, fighting us, judging us long enough to simply hear my pain, my garbage. I am fully aware of my own foibles. It is not your place to put up a mirror, that is God’s job.

Listen carefully church.  Even if we are all sinners like the woman with adultery, or the doubting follower, or the rebellious prodigal or even the demon filled man, there is little we can do about it.  It is all that we are.  Don’t value us because of what we could become but love us because we need simply to be loved.  I need, we need, the world needs, a church big enough, tough enough, and loving enough to look us in the eye and love us unconditionally. Not for what we may become but what we are now.

I am well assured you think you are what God wants.  You go about your ministries and try to be inclusionary to all.  You make every attempt to love and care.  In the shoes, I walk in, in the world in which I live, strive, struggle, question, feel rejection and try to just be me, it does not feel as though you care and love.  It feels more like space and silence.

If I am hurting, telling me it will get better does not help. It only adds to the distance and space between us.

If I share that my very soul is wanting.  If I voice my conviction that I don’t feel included, don’t ignore me. It is so frustrating for you to say it is not right to be hurt.  It is a conversation ender.

If I tell you I am starving for compassion, relationship, authenticity, the last thing I want to hear is that I need to be corrected for my hunger.

Oh, you may be doing your thing and it may be good enough for you.  But for me, it is just one more excuse to stay away.  By the way, if the problem is me, it’s me who you are supposed to be reaching.

The Study of God and Life