redefining my christianity

What Does "Come Into My Heart" Mean Anyway?

2010-10-09T22:43:00.003-04:00

The church norm for the past 20+ years has been to have an "altar call" at the end of services where non-believers are asked to raise their hands if they want to "accept Christ." If they raise their hands, they are led in a call-and-response prayer where they copy the Pastor's lead to "ask Jesus to come into their hearts."

Many people consider this a pivotal part of the service and get frustrated if the Pastor doesn't include this in every gathering. The number of people who raise their hands gets promoted; everyone considers it a great service if many people raise their hands. The success of the pastor or service is quantified by how many people raise their hands.

This has just been a normal part of my up-bringing and faith, but just recently I took a second look...I considered it instead of just accepting it as a norm. And I'm no longer sure if this is a healthy way to quantify the presence of the Holy Spirit, or the success of a Pastor, or even the salvation of a new believer.

I don't think conversion ususally happens in an instant. I in no way doubt it can, but I don't think it's the norm. I also wonder if saying a simple prayer, that's likely not even genuine or understood because it's just a copy of the Pastor's words, is the gateway to salvation.

I don't know if it's right to tell the person who's just prayed the call-and-response prayer that it was their official moment of conversion to Christ and to tell the congregation that if they miss the prayer, they'll completely missed their opportunity to know Christ. What's worse is when Pastors combine Luke 9:26 ("if you are ashamed of me...") into this tradition and tell the congregation that if they didn't stand up boldly in front of everyone to accept Christ through this prayer, that they are too shy to be God's child and thus they're not good enough to become one of God's beloved as well. I think this is a huge misunderstanding and misrepresentation of coming to know Christ and receiving His beautiful, unconditional salvation!

To begin with, this tradition immediately places emphasis on working for one's salvation. In the very introduction to church life and the Body of Christ, we're already misguiding people into thinking that they need to earn salvation. Pray a prayer and come forward or stand up boldy....or miss your chance to know Christ (until next Sunday).

Secondly, I don't think conversions usually happen in a single moment. I think conversion is, more often than not, a journey...a journey where the Holy Spirit begins working in our hearts and draws us to Himself gradually...peeling back layer after layer, wall after wall, concern after concern, and defense after defense...until we're open to fully believe and submit to our amazing God who works in us. I think this conversion journey is longer for some than others...taking years, a lifetime or just a few months or days. But I honestly don't believe that it all occurs immediately during the span of a call-and-response prayer.

Pastor Melissa Scott, a renouned theological scholar, has pointed out that the word in our English Bibles, "repent," is not a perfect match for the original Greek/Hebrew word used in Scripture. She says that "repent" is just the best English description, but really the pure Greek word for repent is actually more along the lines of "to change one's mind," "to decide," or "to have a new perspective." In other words, "getting saved" doesn't come about from a call-and-response prayer, but from realizing the truth about God and making that personal connection to self. I believe that to become a Christian doesn't require an official, one-time prayer but rather a conscious understanding and acknowledgement of God, self, sin and etc. Conversion is the process where, after a time of working through doubts and false truths, one realizes that the Gospel story makes sense, that it resounds with oneself and that one starts to change their perspective and habits and decides to live according to this new found Truth.

I do believe that a sermon in a church service can bring a person to consciously acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel because it resounds within them, but I believe that the process of conversion probably began long before ever entering the church doors for that service. The church gathering is likely just a connection point between the things God has been doing in their lives and understanding it was Christ that was prompting them all along. Again, I'm not saying an instant conversion never happens, I believe it does happen, I just don't think it's the norm.

I think it is right that Pastors bringing people to understand the conversion that is occuring in people's hearts, minds and souls. But I don't think the way we have done it for the past 20+ years is a good witness to what Christ is doing in people's hearts. I don't think the norms of our salvation alter calls are representing Christ correctly but rather misinterpretting the process of the Holy Spirit in people's lives.

This is perhaps why often we see "repeats" in the salvation prayer...where the same person "converts" over and over again at church. I think this is because we have taught them incorrectly what it means to be saved and how their conversion to Christ occurs. Salvation isn't a moment in life where a sinner prays and then instantly stops being him/herself. This romantic idea that during the call-and-response salvation prayer a person no longer finds need for old habits is not right. New believers have to deal with resisting temptations and developing healthy habits....which even old believers have to do. To understand the true word of "repent" would mean that they "decide to change their mind" so they work through their old habits and old mindsets to recreate them in the light of the Gospel and pursue a new understanding of life with new habits. Romans 6 commands us to not let sin reign within us...in other words, acknowledging that sin isn't just removed miraculously at salvation but it's a discipline we must engage in.

But our tradition of being saved in a instant often gives this idea that the new believer should be different, feel something new in an instant, never be the same again after the prayer. When in truth, it's a process, it's a journey. God doesn't come into our lives only when we're perfect...but the Holy Spirit was actually working in our lives a long time prior to the church service...when we first started being discontent with the lives we were living. Without realizing it was the Holy Spirit back then. Church services and etc just help us to see that it was Him leading us to Himself all along. The church service experience where people "get saved" is really just a fruition of the journey that Christ began in them quite some time before the simple salvation prayer that they prayed.

Love, Acceptance & Forgiveness: Enough Said!

2010-06-08T20:25:00.001-04:00

I read Jerry Cook's book, Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness, approximately 7 years ago because my pastor at the time, Jim Bolin, often referenced the book and I was so overwealmed by my pastor's love, acceptance and forgiveness of people.

Almost every week, he would so geniunely teach at the pulpit that we not judge each other because: "you don't know where she comes from or what God's doing in him." He would entice on a regular basis, "If you come around here, we're going to love you. No matter who you are, what you've done or how you look, smell or behave, we're going to love you." And he would explicitly demand, "We're going to love and accept people, and if you don't want to love people, you're in the wrong place. This church is going to love people." It didn't take me far in my reading to realize that my humble pastor was almost directly quoting Jerry Cook.

I came across the book again last week and heard he wrote its second edition last year. So I picked it up again and am flying through it. There are probably more sentences underlined and highlighted than not. And if I were to include a quote of every line I loved, I would probably end up typing out the entire book.

I highly recommend this book! Look out for an update of this blog entry for more quotes to follow.

Does it really matter?

2010-04-07T15:02:00.001-04:00

"Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of ~~failure~~ but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

Tim Kizziar

Worship in Motion

2010-03-17T14:19:00.011-04:00

It’s hard to get outside of your comfort zone. It’s hard to make yourself uncomfortable. It’s hard to put yourself out of your safety box and to actually see the world as it is. Go to the world. Instead of, I think sometimes…the church system as a whole, we like people to come to us, and you know, the thing…Jesus did, is He went out to the world… I think we, as being the light of lights, should be going to the world, and spreading hope in such a impacting and explosive way.

Daniel Bashta

Watch this awesome feature that 700 Club did on Daniel Bashta & how he's putting his worship in motion: http://cbn.com/vod/index.aspx?s=/vod/700Clubi_060209_WS'
(and keep watching even after the feature until 12:40!)

Here's this musician's website: http://danielbashta.com/. Check out his song, "Like a Lion" ...it's awesome!! David Crowder just produced his song on the latest Passion CD.

A few other great quotes:

There are all these dreamers in this generation and society has done a good job of trying to kill the dreamers….and in my life, I believe, in our lifetime, through the great commission, and to see the great completion happen, there’s gonna be a resurrection of dreamers. And my prayer is that I’m a part of that army and I truly see revival happen in my life first and see it happen in my community, my neighborhood and see it explode and echo throughout the world."

"God is looking for a generation that will be His army and put their worship in motion."

I think it's definitely true: we are a generation of dreamers. Church is evolving because dreamers are daring to dream bigger and beyond. I'm praying with Daniel Bashta to continue to see this resurrection of dreamers, to see our worship put in motion, to be a part of this army!

The Prodigal God

2010-02-26T14:39:00.009-05:00

I have recently discovered this awesome book: The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.

Timothy Keller uses the Parable of The Two Lost Sons (Luke 15) to show God's perspective on the church vs. unchurched. He points out how the parable wasn't to show the waywardness of the sinner but actually, the "waywardness" of the religious people even though they were living according to the Bible! Keller argues that the point of the parable wasn't to create categories between the prodigal son and the good son but rather to shatter our categories of who we think are the righteous vs unrighteous.

Keller says, "[Jesus] is on the side of neither the irreligious nor the religious, but he singles out the religious moralism as a particularly deadly spiritual condition."*

I like what Keller has to say. We need to not judge others' relationships with God based on the normal views of religious actions vs lack of religious activities. We do not know what God is doing in people's hearts, and simply the outward appearance is no way to determine one's salvation.

Is it even up to us to determine another's salvation??

I think it's truly only up to us to encourage others in faith and let God do the knowing.

Above judging others' spiritual conditions from afar, Keller challenges our view of Jesus. Similarly to the message Andy Stanley gives in the video I posted on 6.21.09 (in the blog entry titled, "Jesus Liked People Who Were Nothing Like Him"), Keller points out that Jesus often got along better the unreligious people of his day more than the religious people!

Here's an excerpt from the book:

"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus's life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the [religious person] does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders 'the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you' (Matthew 21:31).

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect! The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to [the liberal and unreligious], they must be more full of [the closed-off and piously religious] than we'd like to think." **

*Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Pengiun Group: New York, NY. 2008. p. 13
**p. 14-16

Holy Discontent

2010-01-05T14:50:00.003-05:00

“There are a lot of Christ-followers who haven’t taken the time to figure out what their holy discontent is, and so they’re doing a gradual slide into apathy and complacency—and that is unconscionable in a broken and lost world.”

Bill Hybels

Ted Haggard Interview

2009-11-30T10:56:00.008-05:00

I recently stumbled upon an interview Q IDEAS had with Ted & Gayle Haggard and just had to post it. Unfortunately I couldn't upload it, so here's the link:

http://www.qideas.org/video/people-of-a-second-chance.aspx#commentView
I think Ted Haggard handles things so humbly and his outlook is just right. I identify with so many things they're saying and think they've got "it"...the truth of the Gospel, the right message to preach that the world needs. Their message is important for the church to learn, a message that I think God is teaching to many in the church all over the world these days.

Some quotes:

"The Scriptures came alive so vibrantly in me as I went through this very, very dark tunnel. " - Ted

“The miracle of Jesus is that He connected with our humanity, the real us.” – Ted

“It’s a huge mistake in the church when we think that we’re all about our righteousness and that’s what connects us…because that’s not what connects us…it’s that we came into this thing as sinners…” - Gayle

“Before, as much as we tried to communicate everyone was welcome at our church and that we had compassion and mercy, what we didn’t know is what it felt like to be the people who needed it until now, and that’s what has changed us.” - Gayle

“Well, those who are saying I don’t deserve it are right, they are exactly right, that is the problem with believing the Gospel...is that people who don’t deserve anything get all kinds of wonderful things…so they’re right when they say I don’t deserve it, but I think that is the point of the Gospel.” - Ted

Short Video: The Prosperity Gospel

2009-11-25T13:49:00.005-05:00

Here's a really well-done short video by The Global Conversation of the magazine Christianity Today:

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/7196941

This clip so gracefully and pointedly shows the positive and the negative together in the Prosperity Gospel.

I appreciate it because I feel that there IS a negative AND a positive to this emphasis on the Gospel. When people trash "the prosperity gospel," I get very uneasy, but when people praise it, I feel uneasy too. I think the Prosperity Gospel is necessary and good...for a specific place and time....but I also agree that it's not for everywhere, everyone or for all-the-time.

A Moment in 2009 That I'll Never Forget

2009-10-25T23:37:00.003-04:00

At the Catalyst Conference this year, a man who had been sponsored under Compassion International since he was 8 years old came on stage to tell his story. To his surprise, Catalyst arranged for him to meet the man who had been sponsoring him. The moment they met was so powerfully moving!!! There wasn't a dry eye in the room!! And it just because so obvious how important it is to sponsor those in need. Those few US $$ really can change a life!! I am so thankful that this man, Jimmy, was unshamed to express how he felt in front of us. It helped us to understand his story and to perceive truly what an impact the sponsorship has been to him as we got to see his true emotions!

This is a beautiful moment that I got to be a part of (in the room) and will NEVER FORGET!

Jimmy starts to speak at minute 3:45:

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.

The video can also be found on Catalyst's website: http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/2009_catalyst_compassion_moment/

No Country for Sick Men

2009-10-01T16:04:00.004-04:00

I found a good article in Newsweek concerning healthcare, called "No Country for Sick Men" by T.R. Reid. I think it's got some good stuff that at least needs to be considered in the discussion of healthcare in America.

Read the article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/215290

what do you love?

2009-09-22T01:47:00.004-04:00

"He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A Sign

2009-09-19T04:06:00.003-04:00

One of the signs that you may not grasp
the unique, radical nature of the gospel
is that you are certain that you do.

Timothy Keller

To Be Yourself

2009-09-19T02:26:00.002-04:00

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Definition of Legalism

2009-09-10T12:55:00.001-04:00

Anything you do for God that did not first come from communion with God is legalism.

Damon Thompson

Just Ignore Them

2009-09-06T14:26:00.007-04:00

I really enjoyed this blog entry by Seth Godin:

Ignore Your Critics

If you find 100 comments on a blog post or 100 reviews of a new book or 100 tweets about you... and two of them are negative, while 98 are positive...which ones are you going to read first?

If you're a human being and you're telling the truth, the answer is pretty obvious: you want to know which misguided losers had nasty things to say and you want to know what they said. In fact, if we're being totally truthful, it's likely you're going to take what the critics had to say to heart.

That's a shame. The critics are never going to be happy with you, that's why they're critics. You might bore them by doing what they say... but that won't turn them into fans, it will merely encourage them to go criticize someone else. It doesn't matter what Groucho or Elvis or Britney or any other one-name performer does or did... the critics won't be placated. Changing your act to make them happy is a fool's game.

Here's a surprising thought, though. You should ignore your fans as well. Your fans don't want you to change, your fans want you to maintain the essence of what you bring them but add a laundry list of features. You fans want lower prices and more contributions, bigger portions and more frequent deliveries.

So, who should you listen to?

Your sneezers.

You should listen to the people who tell the most people about you. Listen to the people who thrive on sharing your good works with others. If you delight these people, you grow.

*http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/ignore-your-critics.html

Less is More: Less Church Can Be More Too

2009-08-25T15:51:00.018-04:00

I really LOVE Tony Morgan's blog post: The New Traditional Churc h !!!(http://tonymorganlive.com/2009/02/27/the-new-traditional-church/)

He expresses what I have felt for quite some time now about church. I feel as though our Christian culture has placed way too much importance on church. Please don't get me wrong, church is very important and I fully support it. But I just feel as though we have placed it almost as high as salvation....as though our salvation completely depends on church.

These days is seems as though to attend church is equivalent to being a Christian. If you miss church, people start to wonder about your faith's strength. If you bring up the idea of not attending church EVERY SINGLE Sunday, many Christians around will respond as though you have just uttered complete blasphemy.

But church attendance and being Christian aren't irrevocably linked. And the person who lives and sleeps at church is not more holy than the person who only attends one program a week.

It seems as though the mindsets of most Pastors and most Church Leadership is that it's vital for the faith of the members that people become more involved in church activities...Sunday service, then Bible Study, then Small Group, then volunteering, the list goes on....the more the better. It seems as though the general idea in church offices is that one of their greatest responsibilities is to get more people to do more church stuff or to get them to replace "other stuff" in their lives with church stuff.

I don't think it ought to be this way. Church isn't equivalent to our faith. Church simply aids it. And church isn't life. Again, it simply aids it. I believe that too much church CAN hurt one's faith.

Often times if someone is good at something, such a softball, for example, and this person plays for a local softball league....its seems as though the general idea is that if that person started playing for the church softball league instead it would be better for that person.
Or if someone can play the drums really well and plays for a local band, church people seem to always want that person to spend less time playing "out there" and more time playing in the church.
Or if a teen is dedicated to a sport, say, cheerleading so that she has to go to practice after practice and event after event, it's not unlikely that the Youth Leaders will express frustration and disappointment that the girl can't attend more youth functions. While I appreciate Youth Leaders wanting to see discipleship in student's lives, I'm addressing a different issue...the idea that church is at all times of greater importance than secular activities, and the mindset that God is not being glorified unless people are in church.

Why do we put this type of pressure or thinking in people?
Perhaps God wants that softball player to stay in his secular league because he is a Light for God to his team members, and perhaps those team members will never know about Christ unless he is there.
Perhaps God wants the drummer to stay in his band and not play for the church because he can reach the world there, and God has a purpose for him that will not be fulfilled if he is at church every night of the week.
And perhaps God wants the teenager to excel at Cheerleading so that she will become a professional at it, and be a Light for God through it one day!

But we seem to think narrow-mindedly that church is the only place for Godliness to occur. We live in fear of the world, as though God can only impact us when we are involved in everything-church-related.

I spent most of my life, schooling and extra-curricular activities in the Church and I honestly feel a little gypped...that I never interacted with non-Christian people enough to be a light for God to them, that I missed out on opportunities to excel personally, and became narrow-minded staying so isolated...and thus missed out on opportunities to be a vessel that God could work through.

Jesus didn't just isolate Himself to the temple and to the "righteous" people. In Mark 2:16, the Pharisees questioned about Jesus, "Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?" In other words, the Pharisees noticed that Jesus didn't act like they did: only interacting with "good" people and spending most of their time at the temple. I believe that when we only hang out at Church and with other Christians, we're more like the Pharisees than like Jesus.

Jesus heard the Pharisees' question and answered, "...I have not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Jesus came for the sinners so He put Himself in a place to reach out to the sinners.

Please also note that Jesus didn't just use the method of "witness night" where He created fun events at the temple to attract people there so He could then talk to them. Nor did He first plan to meet a bunch of "righteous" people at the temple steps so they could all go out and do official "outreaches." No, Jesus simply lived in the world, allowed Himself to interact with the world, purposefully got to know people intimately, went to their houses, got involved in their lives.

He didn't just do this as "official" outreach, He lived His life this way. I believe we should too. We should not limit our interaction with the world to official church outreaches or to the "witness events" that we plan at church. We need to go to church, but then we also need to simply be part of the world and allow our lives to mix with the world, to know people intimately and eat, live, walk with non-members on a regular basis. This is what Jesus did. I believe we should too.

Not only did Jesus set this example, but He called us to the same Commission. To go into the world and make disciples. When all we do is go to church and live at church, we're not fulfilling the Great Commission. Just going once a month to do 30 minute "outreaches" on the street is OK but I honestly don't believe this is all God called us to with His Great Commission. He called us to follow His example and be members of the world, to live beside "sinners," and be a light this way. First and foremost. And then to ALSO go on outreaches. I believe that to follow Jesus' example is to simply be in the world and not spend ALL our time isolated inside church walls.

I would love to see a church only have services every couple of weeks.
I would love to see a church community explicitly encourage families to find the "best fit" for them with regards to how often and how many church programs they attend...a combination that honors God the most in their lives.
I would love to see Pastors and Church Leadership understand that church is not the highest good in the lives of their members.
I would love to see a Pastoral Staff promote that God be glorified through members being "sent out" into their community - ~~not by doing outreaches~~, but simply by individuals, families and friends joining in the community groups and activities that they're naturally inclined to - instead of through ~~church participation~~.
I would love to see a Church Staff that understood, fully, how God's work in people's lives extends beyond church activities and into every cipher of life. Not just that God needs to be in every cipher, but that God IS there, and that church is not the only source of God for the individual.
I would love to see church evolve with this type of mindset!!!!

Don't Assume

2009-08-24T01:29:00.010-04:00

I have read Jesus' "Parable of the Sower" hundreds of times in my life (see Mark 4:1-9 and Luke 8:4-8) and listened to numerous Bible Studies and Sermons on the subject as well. I always understood that the "good soil" was the Christian...and that the "wayside," the "stony ground" and the "thorny ground" were different levels of un-saved people out there who came in contact with the Gospel. Did you too?

Well, I got a new perspective. Every single one of the 4 types of soil can be attributed to Christians as well! (It can also be attributed to the same Christian over different periods in his/her life).

A church-going, Bible-reading, typical Christian can be the "wayside:" where birds eat the seeds up. A Christian can allow other influences to completely devour the Truth that God is trying to instill in us before it ever even takes root.

A church-going, Bible-reading, typical Christian can also be the "stony ground:" without much earth so the seeds grow a little but then die. A Christian can hear the Truth, meditate over it and apply it, but eventually forget or become callous again...so that acquired Truth takes no lasting effect in our lives.

A church-going, Bible-reading, typical Christian can be the "thorny ground:" where the seeds take root and grow, but thorns grow with them and eventually chokes the Truth to death. A Christian can receive God's Truth, apply it and live accordingly...but also have other habits/mindsets/influences that grow alongside God's Truth in us, and eventually overpower the Truth that has been in us.

I think that often times we, as Christians, read this Parable and never really see it as Truth for ourselves; we just apply it to others out there. But this Parable is a caution for us as well. What type of soil am I? What type of soil are you? This chapter applies very much to Christians.

As Francis Chan wrote in his book, Crazy Love: "My caution is this: Do not assume you are the good soil."

*Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwelmed by a Relentless God. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2008.

Profile of the Lukewarm

2009-08-24T00:32:00.014-04:00

The following blog is are excerpts taken from Crazy Love by Francis Chan:

It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hallow-hearted prosperity.

Frederic D. Huntington

"The feedback I received from other Christians reassured me that...I was good enough, 'godly enough.'

But this went against everything I was reading in the Bible, so I eventually rejected what the majority said and began to compare all aspects of my life to Scripture. I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don't swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That's for the 'radicals' who are 'unbalanced'...Most of us what a balanaced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering."

"The Bible says to test ourselves, so in the next few pages, I am going to offer you a description of what...lukewarm people can look like. As you read these examples, I encourage you to take a searching, honest look at yourself. Now who you want to be one of these days, but who you are now and how you are living today:

LUKEWARM PEOPLE attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe 'good Christians' do, so they go. ('The Lord says, 'These people come to near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lipsm, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men' - Isaiah 29:13).

LUKEWARM PEOPLE are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. They are quick to point out, 'Jesus never said money is the root of all evil, only that the love of money is.' Untold numbers of lukewarm people feel 'called' to minister to the rich; very few feel 'called' to minister to the poor. ('Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?' - Isaiah 58:6-7)

LUKEWARM PEOPLE are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God. ('Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything or our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.' - 1 Tim. 6:17-18)

LUKEWARM PEOPLE feel secure because they attend church, make a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America. Just as the prophets in the Old Testament warned Israel that they were not safe just because they lived in the land of Israel, so we are not safe just because we wear the label Christian or because some people persist in calling us a 'Christian nation.' ('Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven' - Matt. 7:21. 'Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation' - Amos 6:1).

LUKEWARM PEOPLE do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to. They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens - they have their savings account. They don't need God to help them - they have their retirement plan in place. They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live - they have life figured and mapped out. They don't depend on God on a daily basis - their refrigerators are full and, for teh most part, they are in good health. The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God. ('And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I will do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat drink and be merry.' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night you life will be demanded from you. Then wyou will get what you prepared for yourself?' Ths is who it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.' - Luke 12:16-21, see also Hebrews 11)

LUKEWARM PEOPLE probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren't very different from your typical unbeliever. They equate their partially santized lives with holiness, but they couldn't be more wrong. ('Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hyprocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.' - Matt. 23:25-28)

This profile of the lukewarm is not an all-inclusive definition of what it means to be a Christian, nor is it intended to be used as ammunion to judge your fellow believers' salvation. Instead, as 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, it is a call to 'examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.'

We are all messed-up human beings, and no one is totally immune to the behaviors described in the previous examples. However, there is a difference between a life that is characterized by these sorts of mentalities and habits and a life that is in the process of being radically transformed."

* Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwealmed by a Relentless God. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2008.

Modern Day "Den of Robbers"

2009-08-14T22:11:00.003-04:00

And Jesus found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned tables.
And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

John 2:13-16

Recently this year, God opened my eyes to this verse in connection to modern day times and every time I read these verses since then...my blood pressure rises and I get a little angry too.

Christianity, in sooo many places and ministries around the globe, has become a business, a way to make money. Compassion, love for people, and love for God comes in second place - too often - to the pursuit of business endeavors. And the biggest problem is that often, when this happens, those doing it don't even realize that God has moved down the rankings in their lives and ministries. All that is being pursued just becomes normal, without regard, and seems to "make sense" without ever once realizing God and His Design for the ministry is no longer foremost.

Too often I've seen (and I bet you have too) ministries that sell their sermons "for a love offering of $100 or more" and etc. Too often I've heard Pastors declaring that if a "love offering" is given, the giver will receive a blessing from God. Do I even need to explain how this is bribery?!

Jesus specifically said, "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Why are we selling the Word of God for a huge price? Why are we selling the Way, the Truth and the Life for a large amount of money...as though only the rich can afford to know God?? But the truth is, it's not only the rich who will pay the price. There are always hundreds of people in tough, tough circumstances desperate for God to work miracles in their circumstances who will desperately want to know God and find His Truth, and they will pay with money that they don't have or can't afford to use. Why are we hurting these people further?! Don't you think God is absolutely appalled by the fact that His representatives are working on the emotions of others, who are desperate for Him, just to try fund their latest building project?!

I fully support Pastors and Ministers getting paid. I fully support that the materials being used and other church staff working on the materials get paid for. But does it really cost $100 to copy a sermon onto a DVD?! Does it really need to be sold for large profits?!

Moses set up the Law so that the Priests get good compensation for their commitment to God, and this was still in effect when Jesus entered those temple doors. This is not what Jesus was getting angry about. Jesus was getting angry about the excess, about the greediness, about those taking advantage of people who were anxious to please God!! God's representatives in God's temple...the very people who were trusted as God's own voice and heart were leading people astray with their agenda-bent ways. It was appalling enough to Jesus that He created a huge scene! It should infuriate us this much as well!! (When the disciples saw Jesus doing this, they recognized in Jesus a quote from Psalms 69:9, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up." John 2:17)

This isn't even to mention the "love offering" that Pastor's ask for in exchange for a blessing from God!!! Again, who do you think will give these offerings? I can guarantee that most of the responses will come from, not the rich, but the desperate for God, who can't afford it but will do anything and believe anything just to find God! And this is how we're telling them they will find God?!!! It's so disgusting!! God can not be bought!!

And the worst part of it is that God cares soo much for that person who is desperate for Him!! God absolutely adores that person and wants to intervene!! And yet, that Pastor has cheapened God to that person, and told them that when their blessing from God does come, it only came because they "bought" God through their ministry!!! God becomes completely and disgustingly misrepresented!!

Yes, I believe that if we give, we will receive. Yes, I believe that if we give to God, He gives back to us...pressed down, shaken together and running over! 100%. BUT, this isn't the way to summon God into our lives. God isn't in a vending machine so that when you put a coin in, He comes out and you get a reward. We can not take those verses and assume God will work for money. There are definitely times when you give, you will get your blessing returned immediately. Other times when you give, your return will come much later, like a farmer sowing seed and reaping a harvest much later. And there are definitely times when God tells you to give in faith directly to a cause, and you will receive directly back.

But that does not give any Pastor out there looking to build a building the right to bring up that verse and pull on the emotions of the audience who are hungry for God to get that building paid for (or to fit their budgeting issues, and etc).

Oxen, sheep and doves were needed to make sacrifices to God. So they could and did justify the selling of these things, saying it was in the name of God. Just like these guys were probably so-called "innocently" using the Laws of God with regards to sacrifices to their advantage, Ministries use that verse to work to the their advantage, as well.

Have you ever sat in a humanities/history class and learned about the Selling of Indulgences from the Middle Ages? This is exactly what is going on today as well, just in a modern form!! Have you ever seen pictures or been to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome with Michelangelo's beautiful paintings inside?! Do you know how this beautiful Basilica and amazing artwork was paid for? Through bribing people who were desperate for God. Telling them that if they gave money to the Church, they would receive that which they were hoping for from God. It's in history books, laid our plainly and recognized as exactly this. Go research it. Sound familiar?!!

And let's be honest, the outcome is beautiful; amazing! We travel across the globe just to stand there for a few minutes and gasp in awe at the amazing architecture and intricate art. But are the funding methods justified? NO!! And this is exactly what we're doing today! Pastors want to build their beautiful church buildings, they want it to be a "place for God," just like the Basilica. But are the funding methods justified? NO!!

It's not right, it goes against the very nature of God: to use the goodwill of people for our own desires (regardless of the fact that the money is going to be used "for God").

I've mentioned the more obvious ways we take advantage as God's Leaders and of God's people for money. But let's look a little deeper, at stuff that might not be so obvious, but that I think fits this verse nonetheless.

Church buildings, new ministries, mission trips, church plants. They all sound positive. And they all are. But they all require money. And how that money is gathered can and often does, turn a good-willed Pastor/Pastoral Staff into business-minded, God-on-the-shelf-until-this-is-completed people without their even realizing it!! Too often in churches today, we start to put our church building funds, the ministries we're trying to build up, the mission trips and the church plants we're trying to fund at the forefront of our minds. And we get big organizations to help us with our funding...and all of a sudden these plans to "understand people better and the ways they give," to schedule the best funding sermons and events and calendars, (and etc)...all begin to make so much sense and we start to (unconsciously) believe these endeavors are (periodically) more important than the purpose for the ministries themselves. And the budget becomes bigger than God and God's intended Design for the Church...just for a few months. This is not right either!!

I'm not anti funding plans and approaches. But I've also seen how these plans can so quickly become the most important thing on the Church calendar, and the most important pursuit of the Pastoral Staff...above any other Church endeavor. And I don't believe it's healthy.

Let me add this in as a final note: I'm assuming that a lot of what I've criticized is seen on T.V. by you, as it has by me. And our minds automatically turn to trash Christian Television at large. So let me quickly add in here that I very much support Christian Television at large. Thank God for it!! Thank God for Paul & Jan Crouch (even with all their quirks) for taking those first steps to allow the Gospel to be preached in billions of homes with just the flip of a switch!!! It's an incredible fortune that we tend to take for granted. So please don't just read my blog entry and focus on Christian T.V. because it's everywhere, ~~not just on T.V~~....T.V. is just the most obvious place that we find these well-intending (or not well-intending) people who have allowed themselves to put business over God.

Let's talk divorce

2009-08-10T15:04:00.026-04:00

I think we've been misguided on the topic of divorce in the Church. We hold to the letter of the law without ever looking at the heart of God within the law. We see the big verses and get blinded to the surrounding verses and its context.

And the horrible thing about all this is that we marginalize so many within our churches and force many abused people to stay within horrible, Godless relationships that are completely dishonoring to God. And we tell these people that it's God's desire for them to remain abused and completely neglected (not in the slight, "Aw, shucks, I'm neglected" sense but in the intense truth that many people, specifically women, are utterly neglected in marriages and are told it's God's desire for them to be so!!). It's awful!

I love what Presidents Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter are promoting today in their new organization, The Elders: That religious leaders stop promoting that women be abused and discriminated against in the name of "God"!!(Read Jimmy Carter's article) I completely agree!!

I've re-looked at all the Scripture dealing with divorce and have found that what we teach in church isn't quite accurate. We're leading people away from God in the name of God.

I completely believe the truth that Malachi 2:16 states, "For the Lord God of Israel says That He hates divorce." It's true. This is by no means in question.

But please look a little deeper. Malachi 2:15-16,

Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
"For the Lord God of Israel says, That He hates divorce, For it covers one's garment with violence," Says the Lord of hosts, "Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously."

Twice, in the verse right before and in the sentences following, it says, "Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth." The "for" beginning the statement about how God hates divorce and the "therefore" after the statement link a cause and an effect.

These verses are not just about the divorce act but about the state of the marriage! It's saying take care of your marriage because God hates divorce. The point is to "take heed" and protect the marriage in these verses and yet all we get out of it is "God hates divorce." It's not the isolated act of asking for a divorce and signing a divorce that God hates. It's the state of the marriage that separates people that God hates!! Divorce isn't the ultimate sin in a relationship, it's the broken covenant that God hates...which begins long before a divorce is signed. The divorce isn't the ultimate problem, not living up to God's covenant standards in marriage is the real problem. The divorce is just the ultimate sign of these broken covenants.

It's the abuse, the horrible neglect, the callousness toward each other instead of fighting to keep God's covenant pure that God hates!! This is what breaks God's covenant between to people, not just the divorce papers. These verses aren't about rules and laws, they're about God's desire to fight for and protect our marriages, to uphold our covenants.

But instead all we do as a Christian society is focus on the sign. The divorce. And we hate and marginalize those who went there. We give no heed to the fact that there are thousands of horrible marriages out there that are completely and utterly dishonoring to God. We're OK with those because "at least they didn't sign the papers!"

This is so backwards!

"Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19:6) It's about the marriage here!! It's about promoting healthy marriages in which God's covenant is displayed, not about doing just about anything...living in an abusive relationship, sleeping for the past 7 years in separate rooms, etc....just to not have to sign those papers. No! God is more concerned about the marriage than anything else. The point here isn't to just live horrible lives so long as divorce is never mentioned! Do we truly know God if this is what we assume about Him?

This isn't to say that we can just give up on a marriage because after 2 years of fighting, it's not working out. We need to fight for our marriages more than what our general society would promote. Divorce, however, IS acceptable when the covenant has been utterly broken and the marriage relationship is in ruins...I'm addressing abuse, neglect, adultery, etc. This are not God's will for a marriage covenant! And I believe God HATES this...THIS is what He's addressing when He says He hates divorce...complete disregard for His sacred covenant between two people.

Let's go back to where Moses allowed divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1,

"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the later husband dies who took her as his wife, then the former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving as an inheritance."

Please immediately note here that these are not the same times that we live in today! Notice how the man dominates. It's not about an ~~equal relationship~~ here as is promoted in the 21st century. These relationships are about the man. When the man takes her in. When the man is no longer pleased with her. The man writes the certificate of divorce. The man sends her away.

We cannot simply apply these verses to today without some cultural filter! And please do note the cultural differences! Divorce wasn't put in place here because two people simply couldn't get along, they fought and fought, and decided it was better for the children to separate. No. That's modern day, while this Scripture context is no where close. The context here, instead, is that a man had many wives, used wives for his comfort, and to give him sons, to raise these children, to keep a household, and to help maintain a business (livestock, farming, textiles, etc).

And the reason why divorce was allowed, was because of God's compassion and love for the woman. Men would take wives, then just send them off when they no longer were "pleasing." The woman would leave the man as was commanded her, and would try start a new life somewhere else. There was no government or regulation set in place that gave them marriage certificates and divorce papers. So when the wife was told to leave, and she found a new life...that old husband could at any point just pretend he never meant to end their relationship and force her back to himself. If another man took her in, the old husband could just randomly get jealous and demand that he still had possession of the woman.

So what Moses was doing was put in place a system that cared for the oppressed party. He made it a law that when men randomly decide to send their wives away, they had to make it official, write it down on paper. Set her truly free. So she could prove that he let her go and she was a free woman. So he could no longer dominate her and ruin her future every time she tried to make something new of herself. Divorce was a compassionate precept put in place to protect the woman from the man that didn't honor God's covenant with her. And God hated the divorce because he hated the way that men would just send women away: with no regard, with such dishonor to the woman, with no accountability to the other party, and with no respect for the covenant that they agreed to under God.

Then let's look at Jesus' words in Matthew 19:7-9:

They said to Him [Jesus], "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

Again, remove yourself from the modern day world and put yourself in their context. Jesus is confirming and explaining here that divorce was not allowed by God because God was somehow OK with their actions of 1) abusing/neglecting women and of 2) just giving up on the covenant they had made to their wives whenever they so pleased. And He is showing God's true intention for marriage instead: Healthy. Protected. Fought for.

And then Jesus added in a twist that they had not heard before (being in a society where it was still very common for men to just do whatever they wanted to their wives and send them off whenever they pleased). He added a level of respect to the marriage covenant that they did not commonly have. "Except for sexual immortality." And "commits adultery" in reference to marrying a women who was freed. These are not exclusive conditions. They were new ideas being presented showing the severity that it should come to before a man can just decide to give his wife up, and the serious consideration a man should make when accepting a wife.

These aren't intended to be exclusive rules and laws, but general moral guidelines. It goes in line with everything else Jesus talks about and promotes in His "new" and "revolutionary" teachings...such as how He says it's blessed to mourn; how He encourages the oppressed to walk with their oppressor extra miles instead of just the required; how He promotes that we love our enemies, and that the least is the greatest. Jesus isn't creating a rigid law system with all His teachings, but rather: He's raising the bar on how to perceive the world and how to apply morality. He is not instilling strict regulation but promoting a new understanding; He's teaching what it means to love God and how that looks when relating to others.

Finally, lets go to Mark 10:4-12. This is the same incident as Matthew 19 but just told from Mark's perspective. Here it's even more obvious that the point Jesus is trying to bring across is not divorce, but marriage! The state of the marriage. Jesus is trying to promote a new perspective to marriage that it be revered and held sacredly. Jesus is promoting that marriage is holy. His focus isn't on divorce and its regulations, but on teaching a new idea about marriage. (The perspective on marriage that we generally hold today, which this generation did not have).

They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her." And Jesus answered and said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of creation, God 'made man and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,' so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." In the house His disciples also asked Him again about this matter. So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

By this point in history women had gained a little more respect in society but still not what we see today. Marriage was still not as we understand it is today, which is - today - more in line with Jesus' teachings. But the focus of this chapter is not divorce, it's about the state of the marriage. Jesus is promoting the original idea God intended where marriage was a serious and sacred endeavour between two parties, and was honored before God and protected. The protection isn't merely just "avoiding divorce papers," but the mindset of loving and protecting the marriage so it will not get to the point of needing divorce.

The point isn't just to keep two people together under any circumstances no matter how horrible. That is not God's will for marriage...to be abusive and horrid but so long as they remain "together." Gosh! No!! God's will for marriage is that it is protected and honored, and that the covenant is pure between the two people in a strong, secure marriage.

Where both parties fight for its purity. Not where one party is dominating and abusive and neglectful, and the other party is just keeping it together just so that they don't "sin" through "divorce." No, sin is the abuse. Sin is the neglect. Sin is the adultery. Sin is the disrespect for the other. Sin is the callous way one just gives up on the other without fighting to build the strong marriage that God intended. Divorce is merely the ultimate sign of the inner brokenness. Divorce is merely the sign of what God so passionately hates!

We need to change our view on divorce as a Christian society. We need to stop marginalizing people when they find that they have gone through a divorce. And stop hating people if they believe that God promoted their divorce from their truly abusive relationship. God does not want abusive marriages to never end, and neglected people to remain neglected under ungodly, evil and dominating personalities! God hates divorce but it's because He hates the betrayal that it points to within the marriage. I believe divorce is acceptable when God is completely dishonored through abuse, adultery, neglect, disregard for His Covenant, etc. and God promotes the end to that dishonor and abuse.

The thing is this looks different in every different circumstance so we can't put a law to it. We can't truly regulate it. It's something we have to leave in the Hands of God and those in the marriages, and take each situation for what it presents.

Heresy

2009-08-06T02:33:00.007-04:00

"The difference between heresy and prophecy is often one of sequence. Heresy often turns out to have been prophecy—when properly aged."

Hubert H. Humphrey

Please be sure that I'm not promoting Godless directions with this quote. There have been many people who have turned God's people away with heresy and have led people down the wrong path, away from the Gospel, and into their own added teachings...entire religions have come from this often times. I'm not promoting that here.

The "heresy" here that I'm promoting isn't a deterrence from the Word of God but from the norms of religious people. Often times throughout history people stood up for what was right in God's eyes against the religious norms and were labeled heretics. This is what I'm referring to. Holding closer to the Word of God regardless of what the norms of the day are and regardless of how you are received. My favorite example of this is Martin Luther with the Protestant Reformation. Excommunicated, but completely changed the face of Christianity.

But we don't even need to search that deep to find other examples, just go straight to the Gospels: Jesus himself. Jesus' disciples who were murdered by the religious powers for their "false" beliefs: Andrew, James, Matthew, Bartholomew, Philip, Thomas, Simon, James.

We need this determination in our faith to live what we believe. To portray God the way we believe He would like to be portrayed, regardless of how we are received. I highly doubt that we will receive such extreme receptions from the religious people of our day the way the disciples were received by their community. So why are we so afraid to step out? We need to live what we believe about God and His Word, instead of just abiding by social norms that we don't agree with.

I want the glory back!

2009-08-05T14:28:00.013-04:00

I've become tired of people-pleasing "churchiness" where God is just the excuse (of our own ways). The Glory of God has left and we don't even notice because we're so busy "playing church." I want the Glory back!
Look at 1st & 2nd Samuel and notice throughout how God's people today, The Church, is sooo similar to God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites, in all of this!

Beginning with 1 Samuel 4: The Israelites are about to battle the Philistines and decide that the guaranteed way to win is to take the Ark of the Covenant (out of it's God-ordained location) to the battle field with them. They use God for their own desires. To their huge dismay and confusion, God let the Israelites be defeated that day and the Philistines capture the Ark.

When the Ark finally gets returned to Israel (not because they asked for it back or were even missing it), they just place it, to their convenience, in some random guy's house. God is put "on the shelf." (I Samuel 7)

The Israelites just keep doing their thing. Sure, they're following God's laws and doing life God's way...but they've left God out of the picture. They got the rules and boundaries down so they no longer need God. They become religious instead of God-led. Until they reach a problem, of course, then they go to God's prophet...but just for help in that one area, then they forget God again and just follow the laws and boundaries they know oh so well by heart.

God raises up a man after his own heart, David. But it even takes David years before he notices that the Ark isn't in its rightful place. When he finally does notice, he doesn't go to God and follow God's ways on how to get the Ark back to where it needs to be...instead David just uses "common sense." They got God's vision but then left God out of the "how to execute" plan because they ran ahead with their own "practical" ideas. Well..."common sense" kills a man (2 Samuel 6:1-10) so they again leave the Ark in some random guy's house, and go on with their lives again, dismayed and confused. They didn't ever stop to think that God's way of doing His will might be different to their own ideas. And when their ideas and common sense didn't work, they just gave up and walked away.

Months later when they hear that the guy housing the Ark is getting extremely blessed they decide to try, one more time, to put the Ark in its rightful place. This time around they finally think to find out God's way and do it accordingly. And they finally get the right perspective about all this - this time they want to truly honor God in how they transport the Ark. This time their approach is right - after 6 steps of moving the Ark they stop in gladness and thankfulness to honor God through sacrifice and dancing before Him. They honor God with every step as they take the Ark to Jerusalem...it's on this trip where David is soo happy that He dances naked in the streets! (2 Samuel 6) This time they didn't just want to use God and try to have Him back simply "because it's just the right thing to do," but they honestly desired Him, and felt honor and joy to be in His presence. And finally, the Glory of God is returned to Israel!

Doesn't this just sound like what we do these days at church? We take the time to find God's will and ways, and work to make sure we do them. But once they become routine we forget God and keep doing churchy stuff without ever consulting God or really putting Him in the picture. We sell out, even, by completely dishonoring God - and without ever realizing it too. God is on the shelf even in the middle of all that we're doing to "abide by His ways." When we know what's right in God's eyes, we do it but we use our own "common sense" to execute God's will. We haven't really taken the time to know God or hear from him in months or even years and yet we assume our "common sense" will get the job done right. Then when we fail, we get sooo confused and question everything. We question ourselves. We question God. We question life. But even in all this, we never take the time out to really hear God or know Him.

And this is where I think we find ourselves at large today.

Enough relying on our religious routines! Enough churchiness! It's time we "know Him" again and bring His Glory back into our churches!!

*This was brought to light by Louie Giglio's sermon at Passion City Church's 2nd gathering on March 22 in Atlanta, GA, where Louie Giglio talked about God's Glory.

Salt Without Flavor

2009-07-28T17:35:00.011-04:00

On June 26 I posted a blog where I just wrote out Entry #22 from Erwin McManus' book Soul Cravings. There was one paragraph in his book entry that I quickly read over but when I read it again, it spoke volumes!! I never saw it at first because he just quoted a verse I had heard over and over millions of times in my life. But then I got it. I saw what Erwin McManus was really pulling out of the verse and it changed me.

So here is that paragraph that Erwin McManus wrote:

"You are the salt of the earth," he [Jesus] told them. But here there is a different danger. When salt loses its flavor, it has no value. It's thrown out and trampled upon. I think a lot of people listening [to Jesus] understood that. In fact, they had probably experienced it. In the sight of those who were powerful, they were considered worthless. It was easier to walk on them than to waste a good bag of salt. But they themselves may have been their worst enemies. If they did not recognize their own worth, if they relinquished the uniqueness of being human, if they denied their own value, they were like salt that had lost its savor.*

He is quoting Matthew 5:13:

"You are the salt of the world. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again? It's good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by people."

I'm not sure how you've interpretted this verse before; I'm not sure how I used to. But look at what Erwin McManus is pulling out of this verse:

God has put you on this planet with all your preferences, passions, hopes and dreams. Who you are is the salt. God equipped you, already, with what you need to be salt for Him. Your character, your personality, your passions...all those work together with God's purpose for His glory. When you live out who you are passionate to be, then you are being the salt of the earth that God works through.

When you remove your passions, your personality, your hopes and dreams...you are actually removing your very saltiness, your "taste"...your ability to be effective for God.

I think often times as Christians we think we need to give up our own preferences and characteristics and passions...in order to pursue, and only pursue, what we THINK is God's will. For example, isn't being a Pastor more Godly than a Office Manager? Or isn't singing in a choir at church more Godly than singing solo on secular radio? Isn't it more Godly to give up my membership on the local Friday Night Touch Football league in order to volunteer each week as an usher for the Friday night church service? Or Etc.

We have this idea that anything relating to Church or doing anything relating to the explicit titles of "God"/"Jesus"/"Christian" is more Godly than just pursuing our seemingly "worthless" passions, personality preferences, and etc.

But I love what Erwin McManus point out. When we give up the very characteristics that God Himself so specifically placed within us, we're actually THEN giving up our ability to be effective for Him in the world!!

When we try to look some way or play some part that is beside ourselves for God, perhaps we're just loosing our saltiness, however well-intentioned!

This isn't to say that God doesn't sometimes call us to step beyond ourselves and try something we're not used to, or give up a habit in order to serve Him in different ways, or etc. God does do this for sure. I'm just challenging the idea that this is ALWAYS God's way. I'm just saying the idea that anything that LOOKS more Godly because it's got "Christian" written on it, doesn't necessarily mean it actually IS more Godly!!

Be who God made you to be! Live your passions. Be yourself. Otherwise we're just salt that has lost its saltiness...good for nothing.

Think about it...

* McManus, Erwin R. Soul Cravings. Nelson Books: Nashville, TN. 2006.

Blue Like Jazz

2009-07-24T13:37:00.013-04:00

Here are some exceprts from Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. It's a good book for those "always been a Christian" or at least "been a Christian for so long" people like myself.

On interacting with the non-Christian world:

"I like the idea of loving people just to love them, not to get them to come to church." (135)

"…it wasn’t my responsibility to change somebody, it was God’s that, my part was just to communicate love and approval." (221)

On the Christian:

"I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil, but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

"…I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God’s love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return…by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey. (86)

On God:

"I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze."

Miller, Donald. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003.

Relevant

2009-07-16T01:26:00.033-04:00

I love the way church is evolving to be a much "cooler" place! Trendy interior designs, abstract graphic designs, retro clothes, modern music and even out-of-the-box locations! I think it's all great!! But in the middle of all these changes, I think it must be said that changing the worship style, the location or the dress does not mean we're necessarily becoming more ~~relevant~~ to our world. These are just tweaks of the things we usually do. We're just updating our style.

Being "relevant" is more about a disposition of knowing, of understanding, of being on the same level as another than it is about representing our decade in style.

I believe the church at large understands these days that we need to be more relevant to our world. Praise God for this awareness!!

But it seems as though (at large) the only way we're doing this is by changing the outward aspect of our church behaviors. We wear jeans. We flash strobe lights during worship. We meet in coffee shops. Some churches even go so far as to promote that we not use churchy words like "blessing" (etc.). Awesome!!!! I love all these movements toward being less "stuffy" and more "natural"!!!!!!! It's definitely a start...

But we need to recognize that just because we wear jeans now instead of suits does not mean we're now automatically attracting the world to Jesus. It doesn't mean we're automatically now being more Christ-like in our approach.

...if you think about it, all these tweaks are very likely to only affect church-members (Christians now get to enjoy church more and get to feel more comfortable there)...but is the world really affected any differently??

A church can meet in a bar, play rock music and have its members only wear jeans...but still make anyone not like them feel uncomfortable; they can still stick their noses in the air to people who don't quite act like them. Church members can have tattoos all over their arms...but still make non-Christians feel as though God doesn't love them where they're at. Just because the church starts to look more natural to the world doesn't mean that the church actually now understands what the non-religious world perceives, feels or needs. And it doesn't mean that Christians are now treating non-Christians any differently than before.

We need to realize that going from suits to jeans is only a change in style. Adding strobe lights is only tweaking the worship. They alone don't transform the church to true relevancy.

A church that is considered super boring with only white walls, slow music and old fashioned suits can be more "relevant" than a state-of-the-art church with all its whistles and bells. A little, under-funded, old church can reach more unchurched because it takes the time to really perceive where the non-religious are coming from to know how to relate, than an ultra cool church with millions of dollars to fund its activities.

Relevancy goes so much deeper than just these outward expressions! Making a church relevant means changing the atmosphere between people. It means understanding the perceptions of the world we live in. It means changing our perspective to one that can think on the same level as others...so that when the unchurched is around us, they perceive that they are...

...understood and comfortable.
...allowed to be who they are.
...loved and respected, even when our differences are obvious.
...treated as equals, instead of being talked down on.
...empowered.
....valuable in and of themselves, (and I dare say) even without their changing to be who we would like them to be.

...free to find The Way, Truth and Life in their own way and in their own time (like we found The Way, Truth and Life in our own way and at our own time).

THIS is relevancy! (And becoming this way doesn't occur by creating a greater sense of "community" in church or by promoting the need to love others more, or etc. That's different. This list above is less about being "nice" and more about changing the way we view & think about the non-religious person. We can smile and sit beside a non-religious person every week at church but if we have a silent bias about who that person is, it will undoubtedly be perceived by the person. THIS is what I'm talking about...)

Being relevant is more about the abstract, internal character of the people in the church and how this affects the non-religious than it is about the external characteristics of the church services. Becoming relevant is changing our thought-processes. It's changing our disposition. ~~Not just updating what we already do.~~ If that's all we're doing - updating - then we should take the word "relevant" out and call it what it is: modernizing our style. Because being relevant to the world goes deeper...

Be the change!

2009-07-14T18:31:00.017-04:00

"It's dangerous not to evolve. If you want to ensure your extinction, cease to evolve."

Jeff Bezos

The church is not a ~~stagnant~~ object but a living, organic being. It's not a ~~building~~ or a set of ~~rituals~~, it's people. People were created to change and grow, so the church needs to also. It needs to continually change in order to stay vital.

We are the church. So if we think the church needs to change, that means WE need to change. It starts with us. You and me. If we have ideas and thoughts of what "should be" in the church, it's up to us to start to develop those things. No one else is going to do it. If it's in your heart, it's because God called you to it. The very passions within you are the very things God has created you for. So if you're thinking it "should be" this or that, start by simply being it.

"We need to be the change we wish to see in the world."
Ghandi

Let me put this in local terms: We need to be the change we wish to see in the church!

We can complain all we want to that our pastor and our fellow church members aren't promoting the right kind of church atmosphere, but unless we're promoting those perspectives and passions ourselves, we're not helping either. We're just staying part of the problem too. We're just delaying the change as well.

Stepping out isn't easy. But it's a must.

Seth Godin, best selling author, marketing expert and agent of change, says, "You have to do something people can criticize! Don't play it safe."*

If we're not living what we believe because we know we'll get criticized for it, then we're just whimping out of the purpose God has for us. God never said it would be easy, He just said it would be worth it. The church needs people who are willing to be called heretics if that's what's needed. People who are willing to live what they believe!!

"Become a heretic. A heretic is someone who's willing to challenge the status quo because they so passionately believe something. They seek out a rule and break it on purpose. They keep their faith and break the rules to keep it further.

...push back against the standards...not just to be rebellious but because it's what you believe."*
Seth Godin

Jesus was a heretic to his generation. He was willing to live what He believed regardless of what the religious authorities had to say about Him.

Martin Luther was a heretic with his 95 Theses. And look at the Reformation he ultimately created! The church as we know it would not be without him!

Martin Luther King Jr. pushed back against the standards. And thank God because where would we be today without him?!

It's time we start to live what we believe instead of just wishing it were acceptable in others eyes to do so. It's time we start, humbly but very directly, not caring what others think and start showing Christ in a way that we passionately believe He wants to be portrayed!

You know, there will always be someone out there that will resound your voice. Someone out there that will be glad you spoke up. It might not come in a powerful, supportive force, but it's out there.

Our passions are needed in this world! God is waiting for us to be all He's called us to be. Step out in what's been swelling deep within your heart for so long. Live what you believe!

I know I'm defnitely being challenged to do so...

*Godin, Seth. "Tribes." Lecture. Catalyst Conference. Arena at Gwinnett Center, Duluth, Georgia. 9 October 2008. For more info on Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/about.html

Superstitious: Part 2

2009-07-13T19:00:00.009-04:00

The one thing we definitely tend to get superstitious in our faith about is when things in life go wrong. And if things go wrong consecutively...oh my gosh...then we definitely read into every last detail to try figure out why!

We assume that if things go wrong, especially consecutively, then God must be trying to speak to us. "Something is probably not right in my life and I need to figure out how to fix it."

Why do we assume this?! Why is it our first reaction?!

We live healthy, prosperous lives where life is pretty good. And when we bump into a little trouble, we all of a sudden assume because life isn't easy sailing this week, like it was last week, then something must be wrong with our faith walk! God must be trying to talk to us!

Have you ever considered what this type of mentality says about people out there who live much tougher lives???? If a kid was born an orphan, got adopted by pedafiles, ran away from home only to live homeless for the rest of his life...what are we saying about him? That God is allowing that to happen to him because He's trying to speak to him about something that's wrong? OF COURSE NOT!! We would NEVER say that!! So then what's the difference?

A kid who grew up in a poor community with no food, no shoes and no education...we would say that's just the way life is...perhaps "after sin entered the world."
But me, who lives in a thriving market ecomony, where I eat like a king, spend money like it grows on trees and enjoy a very, very abundant life...now if my coffee spills and my boss gets mad and my car runs out of gas on the highway...all within one week...then God MUST be trying to speak to me! "Why's all this happening to me, God?! What's going on?!!"

Perhaps it's just life. Perhaps we're just humans going through life's natural occurances. Perhaps life was intended to have good days and bad days. Perhaps it's true when the Bible says, "In this world you will have trouble, but be courageous, I have overcome the world." John 16:33

I'm just trying to bring a fresh persective to our typical thought processes.

Now I'm assuming many will blame this approach on the "Health and Wealth Gospel" so let me just put in my two cents further (since my mind wanted to question it's connection). I fully believe the Health and Wealth Gospel is a needed Gospel in our world. There definitely is a time and a place for it's message. There definitely are communities and perspectives that desperately need to be encouraged in the prosperity-focused verses in the Bible on a regular basis...

But I think that we middle/upper class members of prospering communities, already are healthy and wealthy...so we really don't need to be focusing soo much on that perspective of the Bible!! We really shouldn't be making it our viewpoint of God's Scripture. God never said we would live "superhuman lives" where life was absolutely perfect. So why are we, already healthy and wealthy people, trying so hard to claim what's already ours even further into our lives?

We are human. We will have bad days. We will see natural human faults, failures, mistakes and problems. It comes with the species. I don't think God or the devil is behind every wrong occurance. We definitely can reach out to God for support and can learn things in the process of our bad days. I think that's exactly why God doesn't just make us superhuman - exempt from anything bad - when we follow Him...because we would never grow if life never gave us opportunity to. Challenges make us stronger, they develop our character, they prove our need for a Savior. But to always assume that bad things are present in life because we are messing up spiritually or because we need to check our faith's status or etc...that is completely amiss!

Even Christians are human, not superhumans exempt from the human experience.

Superstitious: Part 1

2009-07-13T16:06:00.019-04:00

There definitely is enough talk about the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit, at least in Pentecostal circles, but I'd like to address this on another level. I think that Christians, and even Pentecostals, can get so focused on figuring God's will out and contemplating the meaning behind every event and passion and feeling in our lives that we actually begin to turn our faith into a superstition.

Sitting in Christian circles, conversations often lead to digging deeper into simple things in life. If anything happens, especially consecutive events, the conversation turns to: "What do you think it means?" Or if you communicate having a passion, the conversation turns to: "What is that passion for?" etc. etc. While these questions aren't negative in and of themselves (these are valid questions to ask in life)...I just think we ask these questions TOO OFTEN about TOO many things. Instead of just enjoying life and living in God's Hands, we try to figure EVERYTHING out, we try to find deeper meaning behind EVERY SINGLE ROCK.

We probably read meaning in many things that aren't meant to be read into. We probably give God credit for things He never intended. And we probably also, in the process, misdirect ourselves and often lead ourselves away from God's purpose, instead of toward them.

Don't you think we should leave some room in life for the Holy Spirit's spontaneity? (I'm not trying to promote the typical Penctecostal spontaneity here). I just think there are many times God just wants us to live, enjoy and be natural, to allow life to "simply be." When we do this we're actually letting go and giving God control of our circumstances and direction of our steps. Because, the truth is, when we work so hard to figure God out, what we're actually doing is trying take back control and put it in our own hands.

I think we try to read into so much because we really want to do God's will, because we really don't want to miss what God has for us. But I'm starting to see that it's actually through our disposition of taking life as it comes, that God works more often.

I believe God works in our lives most often in such a way that our natural responses will be what brings God's truth forward, rather than our pre-determined actions and thoughts. I believe God brings people and situations in our lives where we make an impact for Him without our ever even knowing about it. This is so holy! The glory goes to God alone, not ourselves. (Besides, it's not always for us to know what God is doing, but just to appreciate the parts of it that He lets us see).

I think as Christians we should stop trying to figure life out so much. We should stop trying to read into every event that happens and every consecutive trail of events, and stop trying so much to figure out "where God is leading me" all the time about every single thing. If you think about it...when we do this, we're really just turning life into a superstitious trail of events to be figured out, rather than enjoying a healthy, communicative relationship with our Father. Just relax a little in the unknown. Enjoy the present, and just appreciate the simplicities of life. Allow God to be in control of directing our future. He wants to get us to where He wants us to go even more than we do!

Jesus Freak or Just Overly Righteous?

2009-07-12T20:46:00.022-04:00

My redefining isn't just about doing more than just going to church, it isn't just about putting my worship to action...it goes so much deeper than that. It's about re-thinking life. Re-thinking Christianity. Re-thinking the world. Re-thinking my place in this world and how all these are related.

I recently got a new look at myself, at my normal enviroment and at my faith community's norms - and suddenly - things I thought were so good, so positive, so right...all of a sudden looked odd, out of place, not nearly as productive and not nearly as helpful as I had always perceived. I stepped away from the perfect life I was living and removed myself from the normal church-going activities (while still keeping up and even digging deeper into my relationship with God) and I saw something...different.

What has become the usual Christian lifestyle in the past couple of decades, I believe can be blinding to some basic truths. And when we're only around others who think the same as us, when we're only around other Christians, we don't get true perspective on our actions and thoughts and pursuits.

When we are only around like-minded people, we become narrow-minded.

We can get so focused on our passions as Christians and on our norms as church members that we misguide ourselves into believing that intense spirituality is what the world needs and what God wants from us. But step back, get out of the norms, get away from the usuals...and you might find that what seemed so right, now seems...too much.

I think as Christians we can become overly-religious...too spiritually-minded.

If I just read this statement a couple years back, the very statement would've sounded like blashphamy to me. I would've attributed "spiritually-minded" to "thinking like Jesus" and thought, "Too Christ-minded? Never!" in reaction to the statement. And that was exactly my problem. In good intention to promote God, I had become too pious about my faith.

Look, even the Bible talks negatively about being overly-righteous!

"There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness."
Ecc. 7:15

The verse still credits the man to being just. In other words, its acknowledging the right intentions in the person. I believe when we are too spiritual it's not because we're trying to be stupid or religious or legalistic or etc. We very, very much want to serve God and put Him first in our lives!! We really are only trying to live for God!! And I understand this. I was there. I'm still learning to not be overly-righteous.

We can be very well-intented and still be wrong though. Read on:

"Do not be overly righteous,
Nor be overly wise:
Why destroy yourself?"
Ecc. 7:16

These verses make very definite and strong statements:

We definitely can be too spiritually-minded, too righteous.
Being this way is extremely negative...to the point of perishing in it, to the point of destroying oneself with it!!!

I think that's exactly what we do. We get so narrow-minded in our great intentions for God that we think being overly spiritual is how we need to overcome this world and what the world needs to see. But this very thing actually repels non-Christians from us. This very thing actually just makes us completely unaware and unable to relate to the world around us. So we perish in our own good intentions.

We defeat our own pursuits before we even begin pursuing them.

Over the past few decades we've created a Christian culture that has elevated the lifestyle of overly-spiritual as the most Godly. We've created a culture that pushes the ideas that if it's not "the very best way," if we're not being intensely perfect, if we're not thinking spiritually about all things - then we not as Christ-like as others.

But who are we really promoting likeness to? The Pharisees or Jesus?

The Pharisees were intensely righteous. Everything about them showed they were spiritually-minded in all things. They studied the law of God and held everyone to it. They were examples of perfection according to this law. Everyone around them understood this and held them in high standing for this. Everyone understood that they needed to be more like them. But everyone around them also hated them, thought they were holding standards too high to live up, saw them as hypocrites because they knew that they secretly weren't all living up to their own standards either.

Today as Christians we definitely see the negative sides to the Pharisees and don't want to be them. But put yourself in their time period. The Pharisees weren't as evil and obviously wrong as we make them out to be: They were also just church-members who were trying to please God. They were also just students of theology who deeply wanted to live for God and promote God's way in the world. They were trying to do what's right. They dedicated all their efforts and all their lives to the church. They gave their money and their time to the church. They were trying to uphold God's standard for living to keep God's people from being infiltrated with sin and evil. They were trying to be holy and promote holiness to people around them.

Now don't they sound a little more like us at church than just the obviously out-of-touch people?! If I had to be honest with myself, I've definitely looked more like a Pharisee than I've looked like Jesus, however well-intended I was trying to be. The very things I was doing to try be like Christ actually looked more like a Pharisee in its execution.

Let's look at Jesus in comparison: His feet were on the ground as opposed to being super-spiritual. He didn't try to spend all his time at the temple, and he didn't try hang out with ONLY other spiritually-minded people. He loved all people. Intensely! He led people to Himself with a friend-like attitude where He walked with them, ate at their houses, lived among them, felt their pain and enjoyed them. Jesus was willing to be seen as a heretic by the religious people of His day if that's what it took to truly love and show God to people. Jesus took the religious ideas of the day and broke them to relieve the heavy religious burden that people were suffering under.

Being like Jesus requires that we get rid of all our engrained overly-righteous perspectives and approaches to life. If we want the world to be infiltrated with Jesus, it needs to start with a reformation in US. The world will never see Jesus if we're not showing Him, if we're hiding Him behind our overly-spiritual actions, words and habits.

Is This It?

2009-07-09T23:37:00.007-04:00

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins - is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart

Are We Missing It?

2009-07-05T16:56:00.019-04:00

Recently I've been looking for a good book to challenge me again. I randomly just decided to buy Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" without knowing anything about the book. (I just love the Chan man!) The book is coming in the mail tomorrow so I decided to go on the book's website (http://www.crazylovebook.com/) today and actually find out what I'm getting myself into.

Just the book description itself calls my name and rings soo true to what's been going on in me, and has got me wanting to quote it:

Have you ever wondered if we're missing it?

It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe -the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? ~~We go to church, sing songs and try not to cuss.~~

Whether you've verbalized it yet or not ... we all know something's wrong.

Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts - it's falling in love with God. And once you've encountered His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same.

Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.

*Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwelmed by a Relentless God. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2008.

It's Actually Not About Servant Leadership, But Simply Servanthood

2009-06-30T14:41:00.018-04:00

"If you want to be important—wonderful.
If you want to be recognized—wonderful.
If you want to be great—wonderful.
but recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant....

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

What a powerful statement! We teach this principle of serving constantly in the church but I don't think I've heard it coupled with greatness the way Dr. King has stated it. And yet it makes complete sense...it's exactly what Jesus plainly stated.

I've always heard the verses quoted over and over from the Gospels where Jesus makes this statement, "The greatest among you must be your servant." (Matt. 23:11, Luke 22:26)...but, at least in my adult years, I've always seen it in relation to ~~"Servant Leadership."~~

Note the word "leadership" included.

Over the last few years, when thinking of servanthood as Servant Leadership...there was always in my mind this implied part to serving...that there already is some greatness in the serving....that leadership goes hand in hand (and lets be honest, leadership has it's recognition).

There's been a huge push for "Servant Leadership" over the last few years (and gladly so), but I think it's come to a point now where servanthood and servant leadership are blurred together. But they shouldn't be!

Servant Leadership is simply a leadership style. A good one. But it's about the leadership. Servanthood, however, which is soley what Jesus was talking about, is simply about the heart and the way of life. Regardless of position.

A leader can, and should, choose to lead by showing servanthood in his status. A servant, however, is anyone who self-sacrificingly takes note of and meets needs around him without self regard. Servanthood is completely seperate from the duty of servant leadership. It's bigger and broader in its spectrum. It requires a heart and a lifestyle. Not simply a leadership style.

Dr. King's statement so powerfully puts the servant status back in its rightful place, how I think Jesus rather intended it to mean:

The servant is great.

Servant in its true, no strings attached, meaning.
(i.e. a servant truly defined:
"in a subordinate position;"
"one who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another;"
"a valet, butler or maid;"
"one working in service to another.")

That means the guy serving with no recognition, no place of prominance in any shape or form, the guy that no one sees or ever notices and never gets awards or acknowledgement in any way...HE is the one who is great!

Not the leader who serves as his leadership style. But the plain and simple servant. "Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve."

It's beautiful!! It's right. It's what Jesus truly meant. I think the people in Heaven sitting in prominent places ~~aren't going to be the great leaders, the powerful names, the ones we see on T.V. and hear their names everywhere~~...rather, it's going to be the quiet church mouse who smiled and loved and cared for her neighbor without ever telling a soul of her "good." It's going to be the guy who picked up the trash when no one noticed and faithfully served when no one was looking. Not because it was somewhere in the fine print of his job description or because it was his church or organization to clean but because He just had it in his heart to serve another. HE is the one who is the greatest in Heaven!!

I think it would do us good as church leaders to recognize this. To realize it's not necessarily us, as leaders, who are great because we're in the service business. But our church members who serve and have no prominent titles but are just serving selflessly without any recognition. A leader should lead through servant leadership, but in the areas of his life where his title isn't "leader," he should be serving there too. This is what will mark a leader as a true servant, not just a servant leader.

We need to change our view of greatness to line up with Jesus' perspective:

The servant will be greatest. Not the servant leader.

Christianity was Never Intended to be a Cloning Operation!

2009-06-28T21:24:00.011-04:00

I really enjoyed reading Erwin McManus' book, "Soul Cravings."

Here is chapter or rather, "entry," #22:

Entry #22 Standardized Testing
(McManus, Erwin R. Soul Cravings. Nelson Books: Nashville, TN. 2006.)

IRONICALLY, ONE OF THE VERY THINGS THAT SHOULD DRAW people to God has actually repelled them from Christianity. Over the last 2,000 years, the Christian religion has abdicated its unique view of the individual and has fallen in line with every other world religion. It's easier to run a religion if you can standardize everything, including the people. Religion, after all, has become one of history's most powerful tools for controlling people. If you were thinking of a stratergy to keep people in line, religion would have to be at the top of the list. In this, Christianity has become no different.

If you were to interview people who have come out of churches and have no intention to return, you'd find some common themes. One of them is the controlling nature of the churches they came from. Somehow we've equated conformity with holiness. Spirituality is more identified with tradition and ritual than it is with a future and a hope. Too often discipleship equals standardization. ~~It's almost as if God's solution to the human problem is cloning, making us the same, extracting from us all that is unique, destroying that which makes us different.~~

The tragedy, of course, is that this has nothing to do with Jesus. It would be an understatement to say that Jesus was unique. Even if he were not God, he would have been history's most extraordinary human being. He was a nonconformist; He was anti-institutional; He surrounded himself with outcasts; He was everything except what they expected. Jesus' life was a model of uniqueness, and his movement was nothing less than that. The people he chose to entrust his message to had to have been the unlikeliest of candidates. They were nothing if not unique. The son of a carpenter gave the responsibility that would typically be entrusted to priests and theologians to an unqualified group consisting of fishermen and even a tax collector. Furthermore, his inner circle also consisted of a woman who was once a prostitute. From background to temperament there was nothing about Jesus' disciples that reflected ~~conformity~~—neither did his message.

When Jesus spoke to the crowds in what become known as the Sermon on the Mount, he described the masses in a way that no one else saw them. The thousands who pressed against each other to listen to the teachings of Jesus were the social outcasts of their time. They were the unwanted, the poor, the criminal, and the sick. Yet when Jesus described them, his words were filled with both affection and admiration. "You are the light of the world," He told them. Their lives should not be hidden, but open for the world to see.

These masses were the invisibles.

They were part of the countless number of people who are lost in the shadows of great civilizations. They were the throwaways. They were seen as liabilities, burdens to society, but not to Jesus. He saw them as lights hidden under a bushel. He knew that there was something deep inside them waiting to come out, something beautiful, something breathtaking.

They were created by God to be luminous if only Jesus could make them see it.

"You are the salt of the earth," he told them. But here there is a different danger. When salt loses its flavor, it has no value. It's thrown out and trampled upon. I think a lot of people listening understood that. In fact, they had probably experienced it. In the sight of those who were powerful, they were considered worthless. It was easier to walk on them than to waste a good bag of salt. But they themselves may have been their worst enemies. If they did not recognize their own worth, if they relinquished the uniqueness of being human, if they denied their own value, they were like salt that had lost its savor.

In both these images, Jesus appeals to the intrinsic value of every human being.

You may not agree with this, but you should take time to consider it. While religions have historically tried to make us the ~~same~~, Jesus calls us to be different. If you have ever experienced this, you know your soul bristled at the demand to quietly get in line and conform. But something in your gut told you this was wrong. If there was a God, his value would not be uniformity, but uniqueness. And you were right. Imprinted on your soul is the fingerprint of God. There is something inside you that resists surrendering your soul to legalism. The good news is that all that time it wasn't you fighting against God; you were fighting for what God has created you to become.

To come to God is to discover the uniqueness of your being.

When you come to God, you begin a process that re-creates you from the inside out. You begin a journey that is nothing less than life transforming. While there are something things we will share in common, the journey God has prepared for you is uniquely yours with him. Don't be confused about this—everything around us pushes us toward conformity. Whether it's communism or Islam, Calvin Klein or McDonald's, we are all pushed toward standardization and quickly find ourselves as assembly-line humanity.

We have to choose.

Liberal or conservative? Democrat or Republican? Evolution or creation? Pro-choice or pro-life? The enviroment or development? Coke or Pepsi? Coke Zero or Pepsi One?

Choose your box and stay there.

For Doing

2009-06-25T13:50:00.005-04:00

"A man is not saved by doing, but rather, for doing."

- Sheperd's Chapel broadcasting, 1:30pm, June 25, 2009, 57 WATC

Worship Does Not Equal Music

2009-06-24T15:44:00.012-04:00

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast of Catalyst interviewing Louie Giglio: http://www.catalystspace.com/content/podcast/catalyst_podcast_episode_73/

He quoted A.W. Tozer:

"If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsiblities on Monday, it's not very likely that you were worshipping on Sunday either."

Here's an except of what Giglio said right after quoting Tozer:

...and you know, that just kinda blows up this whole mentality of "I sang the songs, I lifed my hands, I felt something." So on our little 'postage stamp' we're trying to say: Worship is life and the most worship that God wants is not for me to sing 'Mighty to Save' again. God is not leaning on the edge of the throne, going, "I hope, I hope they sing 'Jesus Messiah' today. I love that one!"

...You know, God is being bombarded with worship songs in every language right now from millions of people. PLUS, he's got angels that all they do 24-7 is just tell him how holy he is. And he's sitting on a throne that lightening come out of!

So he's not going, "Oh man, I hope at Catalyst this year they sing, you know, 'We Shine.' You know, and then as soon as it starts, he goes, "Awww, I'm so excited! This is great!" No, he's going, "That cool. Thank you. Now the poor please." And when you go and touch one of them in a significant way, He goes, "THANK. YOU! THAT made me happy! THAT was more than a thousand worship songs when you touched that one person in my name."

And we're trying to say that we're (Passion) never gonna have an event again where worship and justice aren't clearly wed for the last IQ person who is there to get it.

Jesus Liked People Who Were Nothing Like Him

2009-06-21T20:52:00.014-04:00

I LOVE this message that Andy Stanley taught!!! It's not what you usually hear in church and I think it is a powerful truth that many of us who have grown up in the church need to hear.

It challenges those who have grown up hearing about Jesus all our lives. Do we have the correct view of Jesus? Andy Stanley challenges:
Do you really know Jesus?

The Message of Jesus: Simple
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I76lFlWT4ZI

(it only gets better in part 2!)

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hPu730-ys

Hello World

2009-06-21T17:00:00.013-04:00

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."

C.T. Studd*

Being in church and doing church things was top priority in the Christian enviroment I've grown up in. But I've been feeling very resistant to that idea as I get older. I want to reach the world for Jesus and I'm finding that is very difficult to do when I only go to church, hang out with church folk and participate in church activities. I'm starting to decide that I have to rub shoulders with the world in order to reach the world. I've got to be in places where I can meet people, and I have the disposition that is accepting and loving to people in order to ever, ever reach them for Christ.

The things I used to think were most important in life I'm starting to reconsider and realize while church is an absolute necessity and Christian fellowship is vital, it IS NOT ALL that God has called us to socially and actively. God called us to reach the world. So part of the world we must be.

And NOT part of the world but with a pious air that I'm only stepping out of the Church-world to fix them or show them the way or that I'm better because I have Jesus. But humbly as a fellow human and naturally as a co-participant in whatever is before us...the restaurant, the event, the activity at hand. I need to be REAL about who I am and what I'm doing, and live naturally. Naturally, my faith in God will come out (it's too big a part of me not to). Naturally, I will make a difference for Him. And naturally, I will come across as genuine rather than someone with an agenda. If we think, as Christians, that the world doesn't see our hidden agendas to "fix" or "save" or etc, we are dead wrong. Our agendas come out loud and clear and they most often immediately put the world on the defensive.

Jesus was very natural and real in his approach to the world. He ate at their houses, went to their parties, and just participated alongside people in life. It was through THIS avenue that naturally topics came up that he was able to expand on and impact the world.

And finally, I musn't be afraid to go places that that world goes. A bar will NOT turn me into a sinner (etc). My connectedness to Christ will remain in tact no matter where I go...so long as I spend quality time with Him daily, quality time in Christian fellowship on a frequent basis and quality time studying materials to develop and strengthen my faith.

Rick Warren gave a great analogy with regards to this concept about the fish he ate at a restuarant:

"...the fish has lived its entire life in brine and yet before I eat it, I
gotta put salt on it! If God can keep a fish that's lived its entire life in
brine and he doesn't get salty, saturated, don't you think He can put you in the world and keep you pure & serving without getting infected?!" **

I love how Rick Warren states all the above in a simple sentence:

"Engaging culture is the most important thing I can do with my life." **

* http://www.nathan.co.za/ct_studd.asp

** http://www.qideas.org/talks/default.aspx?id=14

How Ridiculous Do I Look?!

2009-06-12T13:59:00.033-04:00

I think this short video excerpt is AWESOME!! :-D It's sooo good!! You gotta watch this!

Francis Chan challenges the status quo of Christian living:

Francis Chan - Balance Beam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_uwWPE6lQ
(use the link above if the box doesn't show up below)

Isn't this what most of us look like?

And we've created a Christian culture that assumes this is what God wants from us. We think it's what God is pleased with.

But this view really puts it into perspective. God DID NOT call us to play it safe and avoid everything in life. He called us to engage life, to take chances and pursue passions, to give it all we've got.

God is not afraid of possible mistakes or misguided passions (or etc) because He can work with us when we're willing to step out. It's harder to motivate a person immobilized by fear and compacency than to redirect someone who already has momemtum and willingness to put it all on the line.

It's time we got out from behind the comfort of our pews and isolated, easy living and start living with passion and purpose to make a difference for Christ in our world! God didn't call us to safely navitage through this life without making any waves, but to present a beautiful performance of giving it all we've got!!

Caged Christian

2009-06-11T17:00:00.008-04:00

In his book, "Wild Goose Chase," Mark Batterson hit the nail on the head concerning my spirituality and what I kept seeing all around me. I was a caged Christian. You could pretty much replace "he" in the following except with my name:

"I'll tell you exactly what he is lacking: spiritual adventure. His life was too easy, too predictable, and too comfortable. He kept all the commandments, but those commandments felt like a religious cage....Listen, not breaking the prohibitive commandments is right and good. But simply not breaking the prohibitive commandments isn't spiritually satifying. It leaves us feeling caged. And I honestly think that is where many of us find ourselves." (8)

My deep unrest and unfulfillment nagged at me constantly. I would communicate it but since what I communicated didn't "fit in the box," I wouldn't get good reception and people didn't know how to handle me. I didn't know how to put what I felt and what I knew about God together. They didn't fit. But I couldn't stop the nagging. I couldn't stop the cry in my heart. This book opened the door to see how God and what I felt actually belonged exactly together. That what I was feeling was actually exactly from God to do more, to live bigger, to create a faith within me that was big enough for God to fit in!

"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."(171)

That is exactly what I was doing. I was trying earnestly to live the safe and "perfect" life that I had always been taught God called us to, that I thought matched a good Christian. Wasn't going to church, never doing anything bad, and becoming a great member of a church who gave back to the church what God called us to?? Mark Batterson said, "Heck no!" What?! I'd always felt this wasn't it but no one had ever affirmed it in me. This is the first I'd ever heard anyone else talk of this Christianity. "Live dangerously!" Mark Batterson encouraged. (6) When was the last time time we prayed to do this? We learn we have an enemy and that the world needs Jesus, and yet we want to play it safe.

Mark Batterson said, "You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored. Faith and boredom are antithetical." (7) He said, "Dont stop making mistakes!" (173) What?! Boredom is where I was at. And I was sick of being held to such a high standard that I couldn't just be human. But weren't mistakes anti-God?!! He explained it like this:

"We need more people who are more afraid of missing opportunities than making mistakes. People who are more afraid of lifelong regrets than temporary failure. People who dare to dream the unthinkable and attempt the impossible." (145)

Mark Batterson outlined a better life. A life that I could fit into, a life that pleased God more than this "prissy-perfect" life I worked so hard to fulfill but that left me feeling empty. And this new lifestyle being outlined resounded so clearly with what I was crying out for, what I always felt God would rather us live.

"If you think that one misstep, one mistake, one failure can frustrate the providential plans of Almighty God, then your God is WAY TOO SMALL!"*

Yes! God is so much bigger than our mess-up's. Enough assuming that God is so small and so rigid that we can't be human and pursue God with all life brings!

"Our assumptions keep many of us from chasing the Wild Goose...and we put eight foot ceilings on what God can do." (12)

This new life begins with challenging your assumptions and disrupting our routines. Mark Batterson says we make God in our own image and quotes A.W. Tozer saying this leave us with a god who "can never surprise us, never overwealm us, nor astonish us, nor transcend us." (71) So we need to check our assumptions. And our spiritual rituals too often become routines that loose their meaning and significance. This isn't to say that we can never have routines, but to disrupt them is healthy also. It gets us back into perspective.

Letting go of assumptions and routines aren't always easy...because assumptions and routines give us a sense of control. But living for God is like chasing the Wild Goose. It's an adventure! It's unknown. It's exciting and sometimes disorienting because it's unknown. "A part of us feels as if something is spiritual wrong with us when we experience circumstantial uncertainty. But that is precisely what Jesus promised us when we are born of the Spirit and start following Him. (John 3:8) Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: adventure." (2)

The life God has called us to isn't set out clearly where we know we must just go to church, never rock the boat, and simply be great church members. Instead, it's an adventure because it's unknown. Because God has the controls, not us. Because we have no clue where God is taking us...but that's where it's holy, that's where it's right, that's where our lives become God's, not our own.

"Nothing is more unnerving or disorienting than passionately pursuing God. And the sooner we come to terms with that spiritual reality, the more we will enjoy the journey. I cannot, in good conscience, promise safety or certainty. But I can promise that chasing the Wild Goose will be anything but boring!" (3) Sign me up, I can learn to live by faith and have some uncertainties while knowing that my life is in Good Hands - any day - over living this boring, safe life where we just play church.

God has an adventure planned for each of us. They won't look the same and they don't fit some religious box. The passions and the personalities He gave each of us are integral parts of our purpose. When we pursue our passions, we're pursuing God.
Most of us live irresponsibly responsible lives (17)...in other words, we are SO responsible with life that we get lost in our responsibilities and don't pursue what God put in us to live and dream and pursue. We actually becomes IRresponible with God's purpose! Instead of being irresponsibly responsible, we need to be responsibly irresponsible: "Responsible irresponsiblity means refusing to allow your human responsiblities to get in the way of pursuing the passions God puts in your heart." (18)

THIS is the life I want to live. THIS is the life that you can sign me up for. A life that isn't marked out and that others can't clearly regulate, but a holy relationship with God that leads me on crazy turns and flips through life where my sole source is Him. A life where being perfect isn't the uttermost good - but rather living a life in full pursuit of Him through the passions He's given me. And whether this takes me on detours or gets me messed up a little here and there - I'd take this ANY DAY over simplistic, bored living where the only goal is to be good, live safely, and try talk others into joining this boring way.

*http://theaterchurch.com/media/transcript/cage-of-failure/

Determined to Redefine My Christianity

2009-06-10T16:30:00.012-04:00

I want to BREAK FREE!!! I've lived in the box my whole life because I've been trying to "please God." But it's starting to BORE ME to DEATH!! The more I think about it, the more I realize this isn't what God has called us to...

God is Wild @ Heart, Adventurous & Creative!! Why have we put Him in this bland box?! He can never be contained!! And He calls us to a life of passion, unpredictability & adventure so why do we live in the box?!!

We've reduced...

...the Holy Spirit to emotions,
...God to a systematic theology,
...and the Body of Christ to an institution!

I think we've got it all wrong!!

God must be bored to tears with our predictable Christian lives! I've spent the 24 years of my life trying to fit into this perfect Christian world we've created but I think it's killing me! This is not what God has designed us for!!

Where there is boredom, God is absent.

Where there is predictability, God has moved on.

(and this includes the Oh-So-Predictably-"unpredictable" Pentecostal expectation)

I think God is adventurous, has an element of exciting danger, is completely unpredictable & will ALWAYS leave us desiring more!!

I don't have a clue how but I'm ready to go there & find THIS God! Who cares if I'm called a fool, a blasphemer or a wayward child...if it's in search for this Mighty God in His undiscovered territory! I think it's time I let go of my inhibitions, fears & concerns about what others think, and let Him lead me on the real adventure He has designed us for!

I don't know what this looks like but I DO know that church pews & alter calls, squeaky clean lives & predictable lifestyles just CAN'T be all there is to the God who designed this complex & beautiful universe! There just has to BE MORE!!!