The Little Leader
Nobody likes to come in 2nd or 3rd, after all, 2nd place is the 1st loser right? We all want to win, to be 1st! Its part of human nature, but its a part that we need to learn to set aside when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. John the Baptist got it. "'Behold!' John cried. 'There's the One we've all been waiting for!' Every head turned to look at Jesus Christ, the eyes of an entire crowd now riveted on one man. But scan the crowd and see if you can find John. Just a sentence ago all eyes were on him. All the attention was his. People hung on his every word. Now he was out of the spotlight, just another face in the crowd with his eyes glued on Jesus. And John seems so content-and even genuinely thrilled-to point people away from himself to one he believed was greater. As the crowd locked its gaze on the Christ, he continued, 'This is the One I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.'"
That is an amazing statement. First of all it takes a little thought to decode it. Jesus came after John on this earth, but in a greater sense He came before John because He is I AM, and has been since the beginning! John was a little leader. "Like John, all little leaders know who comes first in the story. When they do accomplish great things or taste success, they do so with the realization that God had been on the scene for a long, long time, and that He is the source of their vision, gifting, opportunity, creativity, energy, and breath. (No matter where we finish among men, Christ already has a permanent hold on first place.) That's why John was never happier than the day all eyes turned to Jesus.
When I say John was a little leader, "I don't mean he was small in stature or vision or courage, or short on influence. Just that John knew who he wasn't and who HE is. THere's something pretty powerful about knowing who you are-and knowing who you're not. Because John knew his name was i am not, he was free from the seduction of fame, the tyranny of comparison, the delusional current of self-deception, the never-ending scramble to the top of the heap, ego, jealousy, backbiting, and a massively swollen head. And he was free from the ultimate rip-off-holding onto the starring role in a tiny story that was quickly vanishing from view."
In the days and weeks that followed, Jesus' ministry really took off. It got so big that it was making John's disciples jealous. They would complain and they wanted John and Jesus to have a showdown to see who was the best, but John already knew. One day John's disciples were trying to convince him that he should take Jesus on, "And then John uttered the words that pierce the flesh but free the soul: 'He must become greater; I must become less.'" Just think on that for a minute. What could you accomplish in your ministry if that were the theme? "He must become greater, and I must become less."
When we can say that and mean it, our ego and our desires get pushed to the side, and Christ can be glorified. Until we become little leaders, we cannot glorify Christ, we will only glorify ourselves. Until we become little leaders, we are clinging to the starring roles in the tiny stories of us. "In John's mind he wasn't losing his people to a bigger ministry. He was just doing what he came to do-holding wide the door for the arrival of heaven's King." That is what ministry is about. It's not about numbers, it's not about making the most people happy, it's not about making a name for yourself. It's about becoming a little leader and holding the door wide for heaven's King. Are you ready?
Enjoy the Journey
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Big River
I've only been white water rafting a couple of times. We went on the Ocoee River in Tennessee, and it was really fun. Sure we got tossed around a little bit, but nothing too major. In this chapter, Louie is talking about rafting down the Zambezei River in Africa (which flows out of Victoria Falls). Now that is a big time trip. It is a river filled with class IV and V rapids that kill hippos and some "that could drag a bus under." He says that they made it half way through when they decided to take a break and celebrate their survival on the shore, when their guide told them that they could continue if they wanted, but it was going to get even more dangerous the farther they went. The group decided unanimously to call it a day and just say that the river had won. Currents are dangerous, and if we aren't careful they can sweep us away.
Even more dangerous than a rushing river current is the current that still flows out of Eden. It's called pride, it was the downfall of Adam and Eve, and it is still our downfall today. It all started so well for Adam. Here he was, in a perfect world (literally) that was just days old walking and talking with the Great I AM! Then, as if it couldn't get any better, God made Eve! Soon they realized that the story wasn't about them, I mean they didn't even come on stage until day 6, and all creation was praising I AM, and not them. The problem occurred when they decided that supporting roles weren't enough for them. They wanted to be as big as God. They wanted to be I AMS instead of i am nots.
"When someone named i am not decides to live as though his or her name is really I AM, one consequence always follows: death."
The danger to trying to make ourselves out to be bigger than we are is this: "...we might succeed-at least in earthly terms-in making a name for ourselves. We night draw a crowd, grab some fame, amass some riches, hear the roar of applause. We might succeed at building a tower to the sky with our name emblazoned on it. All that hard work, only to have the River Pride deposit us on a sandbar called "The End." And in that moment, when the tiny story of us comes to a close, all the glory we could garner for ourselves will fade to nothing." But Jesus "gave Himself for us so that we could die to self-fame, self-glory, self-effort, self-centeredness, and the self-stories that are quickly coming to an end."
You see we don't need the spotlight, because we already know the star! "Not only do we know I AM, but I AM lives in us. He displays His power in us and glorifies His name through us. And in so doing we stake our claim in immortality, sowing our lives for His renown, investing in the applause of heaven that never, ever ends."
There will still be times when we are swept away in the current of pride. But we can rest easy in the fact that I AM is there to save us from the death we deserve. "The truth is we can be free of sin's power when we die to pride and self, and live instead in the powerful current of Christ's life in us-that eternal kind of life flowing in the veins of all who put their trust in Him."
Enjoy the Journey
I've only been white water rafting a couple of times. We went on the Ocoee River in Tennessee, and it was really fun. Sure we got tossed around a little bit, but nothing too major. In this chapter, Louie is talking about rafting down the Zambezei River in Africa (which flows out of Victoria Falls). Now that is a big time trip. It is a river filled with class IV and V rapids that kill hippos and some "that could drag a bus under." He says that they made it half way through when they decided to take a break and celebrate their survival on the shore, when their guide told them that they could continue if they wanted, but it was going to get even more dangerous the farther they went. The group decided unanimously to call it a day and just say that the river had won. Currents are dangerous, and if we aren't careful they can sweep us away.
Even more dangerous than a rushing river current is the current that still flows out of Eden. It's called pride, it was the downfall of Adam and Eve, and it is still our downfall today. It all started so well for Adam. Here he was, in a perfect world (literally) that was just days old walking and talking with the Great I AM! Then, as if it couldn't get any better, God made Eve! Soon they realized that the story wasn't about them, I mean they didn't even come on stage until day 6, and all creation was praising I AM, and not them. The problem occurred when they decided that supporting roles weren't enough for them. They wanted to be as big as God. They wanted to be I AMS instead of i am nots.
"When someone named i am not decides to live as though his or her name is really I AM, one consequence always follows: death."
The danger to trying to make ourselves out to be bigger than we are is this: "...we might succeed-at least in earthly terms-in making a name for ourselves. We night draw a crowd, grab some fame, amass some riches, hear the roar of applause. We might succeed at building a tower to the sky with our name emblazoned on it. All that hard work, only to have the River Pride deposit us on a sandbar called "The End." And in that moment, when the tiny story of us comes to a close, all the glory we could garner for ourselves will fade to nothing." But Jesus "gave Himself for us so that we could die to self-fame, self-glory, self-effort, self-centeredness, and the self-stories that are quickly coming to an end."
You see we don't need the spotlight, because we already know the star! "Not only do we know I AM, but I AM lives in us. He displays His power in us and glorifies His name through us. And in so doing we stake our claim in immortality, sowing our lives for His renown, investing in the applause of heaven that never, ever ends."
There will still be times when we are swept away in the current of pride. But we can rest easy in the fact that I AM is there to save us from the death we deserve. "The truth is we can be free of sin's power when we die to pride and self, and live instead in the powerful current of Christ's life in us-that eternal kind of life flowing in the veins of all who put their trust in Him."
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Chapter 3: BEcame
I've never been to Israel, although I've always wanted to go. Louie talks about a church called the Church of the Annunciation at the beginning of this chapter. It is located in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. It gets its name because it was in that little village that the angel appeared to Mary to give her the news of Jesus' birth. Inscribed above the entrance to the church is a Latin phrase which means, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,' which we read in John chapter 1. He says that he dwelled on those words for the next several days, one word per day. The first day was simply the word 'and.' I don't know about you, but I don't know how much time I could spend just thinking about the word and. Louie however pointed out that when you put this word in its context, it summarizes the entire Old Testament! It is as if God is saying, you remember all that stuff that happened back there? The flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Goliath, all of it...you haven't seen anything yet! The next day he got to the word 'the.' Well, the only thing more exciting than 'and' is 'the' right? But think about this, the whole verse hinges on this word. "God did one thing. He sent one Son to be the way. John doesn't right that a Word became flesh. Or that some Word became flesh. Or that the flavor-of-the-day Word became flesh. And certainly not that one of many Words became flesh. John carefully wrote the Word. He was saying that Jesus is the Christ, the only Word there has ever been or ever will be.
Next he comes to 'Word' with a capital w. He is talking about Jesus. Next is the word 'became.' It is a great word! 'Do you see it? Became is a compound word, meaning it is comprised of two words-the word be and the word came. Wow, now do you see it? This verse is about Jesus, the one who bears the same name as the God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush. That day God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM-I AM THAT I AM-the present tense, active form of the verb, to be. Or, simply, BE. God told Moses His name is BE, the very name Jesus used when He claimed, 'Before Abraham was, I AM.' In an instant, became became BE came, and I wanted to shout for joy. Wake the world. Jesus came! BE came! I AM came! But in a most surprising form."
Flesh is the next word in the verse. "BE came flesh. God arrived with skin, the Divine in the form of a sweaty, laughing boy playing with other kids in a narrow street on a summer afternoon. Why does it matter? Because you can touch flesh. You can identify with flesh. You can wrap your arms around flesh and feel its heartbeat. You can hear the voice of flesh and look into its eyes. And if you're searching for a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, you can pierce flesh and it will bleed. You can nail flesh to a cross."
We'll move quickly through the rest. Next is 'and.' Jesus didn't just come in skin and move into Nazareth, there's more. Next is 'dwelled.' He didn't come to sit in a palace, he came to be one of us, to live like us. To feel all the joy and the hurt and the pain that everyone else feels. Next is 'among.' Not only did He come and live here, but He did it with people! He didn't just live out in the desert or on some island, His passion was for people. So he lived with them. And finally 'us.' Jesus didn't just come for certain people. He didn't just come for a chosen few. He came for us, for all, for everyone. The great I AM came to earth for all the little i am nots. Wow. 'The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.'
Enjoy the Journey
I've never been to Israel, although I've always wanted to go. Louie talks about a church called the Church of the Annunciation at the beginning of this chapter. It is located in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. It gets its name because it was in that little village that the angel appeared to Mary to give her the news of Jesus' birth. Inscribed above the entrance to the church is a Latin phrase which means, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us,' which we read in John chapter 1. He says that he dwelled on those words for the next several days, one word per day. The first day was simply the word 'and.' I don't know about you, but I don't know how much time I could spend just thinking about the word and. Louie however pointed out that when you put this word in its context, it summarizes the entire Old Testament! It is as if God is saying, you remember all that stuff that happened back there? The flood, the parting of the Red Sea, Goliath, all of it...you haven't seen anything yet! The next day he got to the word 'the.' Well, the only thing more exciting than 'and' is 'the' right? But think about this, the whole verse hinges on this word. "God did one thing. He sent one Son to be the way. John doesn't right that a Word became flesh. Or that some Word became flesh. Or that the flavor-of-the-day Word became flesh. And certainly not that one of many Words became flesh. John carefully wrote the Word. He was saying that Jesus is the Christ, the only Word there has ever been or ever will be.
Next he comes to 'Word' with a capital w. He is talking about Jesus. Next is the word 'became.' It is a great word! 'Do you see it? Became is a compound word, meaning it is comprised of two words-the word be and the word came. Wow, now do you see it? This verse is about Jesus, the one who bears the same name as the God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush. That day God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM-I AM THAT I AM-the present tense, active form of the verb, to be. Or, simply, BE. God told Moses His name is BE, the very name Jesus used when He claimed, 'Before Abraham was, I AM.' In an instant, became became BE came, and I wanted to shout for joy. Wake the world. Jesus came! BE came! I AM came! But in a most surprising form."
Flesh is the next word in the verse. "BE came flesh. God arrived with skin, the Divine in the form of a sweaty, laughing boy playing with other kids in a narrow street on a summer afternoon. Why does it matter? Because you can touch flesh. You can identify with flesh. You can wrap your arms around flesh and feel its heartbeat. You can hear the voice of flesh and look into its eyes. And if you're searching for a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, you can pierce flesh and it will bleed. You can nail flesh to a cross."
We'll move quickly through the rest. Next is 'and.' Jesus didn't just come in skin and move into Nazareth, there's more. Next is 'dwelled.' He didn't come to sit in a palace, he came to be one of us, to live like us. To feel all the joy and the hurt and the pain that everyone else feels. Next is 'among.' Not only did He come and live here, but He did it with people! He didn't just live out in the desert or on some island, His passion was for people. So he lived with them. And finally 'us.' Jesus didn't just come for certain people. He didn't just come for a chosen few. He came for us, for all, for everyone. The great I AM came to earth for all the little i am nots. Wow. 'The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.'
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Light Flies
Light does fly. It flies at 186,000 miles per second. Snap your finger one time. Light just traveled around the globe seven times! Astrophysicists have discovered what is the farthest known object from earth that is 13 billion light years away! A lightyear is the distance light travels in a year, and it travels 186,000 miles per second, so a lightyear is 5.88 trillion miles! Wow. I thought driving to Kentucky was far. To put that in perspective. It is about 3,000 miles from Atlanta to LA. We live on a tiny planet that orbits our sun, which is 25,000 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. And just like our planets orbit the sun, our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, but it will take it 250 million earth years to complete one rotation! To sum it up, "We have no idea just how big the universe is, but it's so big we have to use a ruler that's 5.88 trillion miles long to measure stuff. The ruler is called a light year."
That may seem a little overwhelming, but all of that is just a speck to God. Scripture says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. God is the one who makes light fly. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers (to Him). He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 'To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
"God is constant. He blinks and a lifetime comes and goes. To Him one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. All of human history could be written on His fingernail, with plenty of room left over for more. And God is doing well today, thanks you. He has no dilemmas. No quandaries. No counselors. No shortages. No rivals. No fears. No cracks. No worries. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, and self-aware. In other words, He's God and He knows it."
Us on the other hand..."You and I are tiny. Miniscule. Transient. Microscopic. A momentary and infinitesimal blip on the timeline of the universe. A seemingly undetectable alliance of dust particles held together by the breath of God. If this fact makes you just a tad bit uncomfortable, you're not alone. Invariably, when I talk about the vastness of God and the cosmos, someone will say, 'You're making me feel bad about myself and making me feel really, really small,' as if that's the worst thing that could happen. But the point is not to make you FEEL small, rather to help you see and embrace the reality that you ARE small. Really, really small."
But the great thing is that though we are just dust particles held together by the breath of God, we are loved by the God of all Creation! So we can say proudly, "I am not, but He knows my name. I am not, but He has pursued me in His love. I am not, but I have been purchased and redeemed. I am not, but I have been invited into The Story, I am not, but I know the Creator of the universe. I am not, but I know I AM!" We are small, but we are on a first name basis with I AM! We are galactic nobody's...99.99% of people on the planet have never heard of us, but God knows everything about us.
So I can live with that shrinking feeling. Because at the end of the day, the only One who really matters, the great I AM, knows me and loves me! That is awesome.
Enjoy the Journey
Light does fly. It flies at 186,000 miles per second. Snap your finger one time. Light just traveled around the globe seven times! Astrophysicists have discovered what is the farthest known object from earth that is 13 billion light years away! A lightyear is the distance light travels in a year, and it travels 186,000 miles per second, so a lightyear is 5.88 trillion miles! Wow. I thought driving to Kentucky was far. To put that in perspective. It is about 3,000 miles from Atlanta to LA. We live on a tiny planet that orbits our sun, which is 25,000 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. And just like our planets orbit the sun, our sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, but it will take it 250 million earth years to complete one rotation! To sum it up, "We have no idea just how big the universe is, but it's so big we have to use a ruler that's 5.88 trillion miles long to measure stuff. The ruler is called a light year."
That may seem a little overwhelming, but all of that is just a speck to God. Scripture says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. God is the one who makes light fly. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers (to Him). He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 'To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
"God is constant. He blinks and a lifetime comes and goes. To Him one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. All of human history could be written on His fingernail, with plenty of room left over for more. And God is doing well today, thanks you. He has no dilemmas. No quandaries. No counselors. No shortages. No rivals. No fears. No cracks. No worries. He is self-existent, self-contained, self-perpetuated, self-powered, and self-aware. In other words, He's God and He knows it."
Us on the other hand..."You and I are tiny. Miniscule. Transient. Microscopic. A momentary and infinitesimal blip on the timeline of the universe. A seemingly undetectable alliance of dust particles held together by the breath of God. If this fact makes you just a tad bit uncomfortable, you're not alone. Invariably, when I talk about the vastness of God and the cosmos, someone will say, 'You're making me feel bad about myself and making me feel really, really small,' as if that's the worst thing that could happen. But the point is not to make you FEEL small, rather to help you see and embrace the reality that you ARE small. Really, really small."
But the great thing is that though we are just dust particles held together by the breath of God, we are loved by the God of all Creation! So we can say proudly, "I am not, but He knows my name. I am not, but He has pursued me in His love. I am not, but I have been purchased and redeemed. I am not, but I have been invited into The Story, I am not, but I know the Creator of the universe. I am not, but I know I AM!" We are small, but we are on a first name basis with I AM! We are galactic nobody's...99.99% of people on the planet have never heard of us, but God knows everything about us.
So I can live with that shrinking feeling. Because at the end of the day, the only One who really matters, the great I AM, knows me and loves me! That is awesome.
Enjoy the Journey
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Divine Invitation
"God is always looking for ordinary people to play significant roles in His unfolding story." That is a cool thought isn't it? God is looking for people just like you and me to play big roles!? That isn't how we do it. If we want to get something done, we don't look for 'average' or 'ordinary' people to help us. We look for the best and the brightest. We look for people who could really probably do it themselves. Think about it, if you were God, would you have chosen a stuttering 70 year, murderous old shepherd to go to the most powerful man in the most powerful empire on the planet and demand that he let your people go? Probably not. But that is exactly what God did.
So here was Moses, on the side of a mountain, living out his days in peace, when he got an invitation to join the story of God. A bush nearby caught fire, but it wasn't burning up! So naturally he went to investigate and then he got the surprise of a lifetime. God starts talking to him from the bush! What would your reaction have been? After he got over the initial shock, God starts revealing His plan. He said that He was going to free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and then came the punchline..."So now, go, I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." What!? God had been talking in first person the whole time and now he was asking, ok telling, Moses to go!
BUT, "When He said, 'You go and bring them out,' He wasn't thinking Moses was going to actually do the delivering. God wasn't counting on Moses' skill or power to break the chains of bondage that held His people captive. God was going to do all the work, He just wanted a leader with skin to speak on His behalf and lead the people to His promised destination. All along God was counting on Himself to pull the story off-not Moses. Definitely not Moses. When God said, 'You go,' He was implying: 'I am going to do this with or without you, Moses, but I've ben searching for just the right partner, a regular guy who will believe that I am able to do exactly what I have said I will do.'"
You see, "When God invites us into His story, assigning us various roles that are seemingly too big for us to carry out, His affirmation is always the same-I will be with you. It's as if He was saying to Moses, 'Don't worry about who you are, just focus on the reality that I'm going, too. And if I go with you, trust Me, everything's going to work out fine.' Bottom line: God and anybody else is an overwhelmingly powerful team."
So Moses is still making excuses, trying to find any way out of this that he can. He asks God who he should say sent him, because no one is going to believe this story. This was a significant moment, because "since the dawn of time, God had been referred to as Yahweh, meaning Most High God-a name so revered by the generations preceding Moses, they rarely even wrote it out in full (choosing instead to abbreviate it). But that revered title was really more of a description than a personal name. No one knew God's personal name. And, as far as we know, no one had dared to ask."
God tells Moses His name. He tells him that His name is "I Am." "God knew it was imperative for Moses to know who He was-that He was I Am. I Am is the present tense, active form of the verb to be. As God's name, it declares that He is unchanging, constant, unending, always present, always God. God was telling Moses: I AM the center of everything. I AM running the show. I AM the same every day, forever. I AM the owner of everything. I AM the Lord. I AM the Creator and Sustainer of life. I AM the Savior. I AM more than enough. I AM inexhaustible and immeasurable. I AM God."
That puts everything in perspective. You see, if God is all of those thing, it means that we are NOT any of those things. If God's name is "I AM," then our name is "i am not." "i am not the center of everything. i am not in control. i am not the solution. i am not all-powerful. i am not calling the shots. i am not the owner of anything. i am not the Lord." As God was explaining all of this to Moses, He said, "This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation" (Exodus 3:15). This is cool because it puts us in the same story as Moses! "God is big. We are not. He is calling the shots, directing the script, and determining the plot. We are not. And, what's really wild is that while He doesn't need any of us, He is choosing to include us, inviting us into the story that never ends. Try to fathom it-little you and me invited into the massive and mysterious story of the great I AM. Are you up for it?"
Enjoy the Journey
"God is always looking for ordinary people to play significant roles in His unfolding story." That is a cool thought isn't it? God is looking for people just like you and me to play big roles!? That isn't how we do it. If we want to get something done, we don't look for 'average' or 'ordinary' people to help us. We look for the best and the brightest. We look for people who could really probably do it themselves. Think about it, if you were God, would you have chosen a stuttering 70 year, murderous old shepherd to go to the most powerful man in the most powerful empire on the planet and demand that he let your people go? Probably not. But that is exactly what God did.
So here was Moses, on the side of a mountain, living out his days in peace, when he got an invitation to join the story of God. A bush nearby caught fire, but it wasn't burning up! So naturally he went to investigate and then he got the surprise of a lifetime. God starts talking to him from the bush! What would your reaction have been? After he got over the initial shock, God starts revealing His plan. He said that He was going to free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, and then came the punchline..."So now, go, I am sending YOU to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." What!? God had been talking in first person the whole time and now he was asking, ok telling, Moses to go!
BUT, "When He said, 'You go and bring them out,' He wasn't thinking Moses was going to actually do the delivering. God wasn't counting on Moses' skill or power to break the chains of bondage that held His people captive. God was going to do all the work, He just wanted a leader with skin to speak on His behalf and lead the people to His promised destination. All along God was counting on Himself to pull the story off-not Moses. Definitely not Moses. When God said, 'You go,' He was implying: 'I am going to do this with or without you, Moses, but I've ben searching for just the right partner, a regular guy who will believe that I am able to do exactly what I have said I will do.'"
You see, "When God invites us into His story, assigning us various roles that are seemingly too big for us to carry out, His affirmation is always the same-I will be with you. It's as if He was saying to Moses, 'Don't worry about who you are, just focus on the reality that I'm going, too. And if I go with you, trust Me, everything's going to work out fine.' Bottom line: God and anybody else is an overwhelmingly powerful team."
So Moses is still making excuses, trying to find any way out of this that he can. He asks God who he should say sent him, because no one is going to believe this story. This was a significant moment, because "since the dawn of time, God had been referred to as Yahweh, meaning Most High God-a name so revered by the generations preceding Moses, they rarely even wrote it out in full (choosing instead to abbreviate it). But that revered title was really more of a description than a personal name. No one knew God's personal name. And, as far as we know, no one had dared to ask."
God tells Moses His name. He tells him that His name is "I Am." "God knew it was imperative for Moses to know who He was-that He was I Am. I Am is the present tense, active form of the verb to be. As God's name, it declares that He is unchanging, constant, unending, always present, always God. God was telling Moses: I AM the center of everything. I AM running the show. I AM the same every day, forever. I AM the owner of everything. I AM the Lord. I AM the Creator and Sustainer of life. I AM the Savior. I AM more than enough. I AM inexhaustible and immeasurable. I AM God."
That puts everything in perspective. You see, if God is all of those thing, it means that we are NOT any of those things. If God's name is "I AM," then our name is "i am not." "i am not the center of everything. i am not in control. i am not the solution. i am not all-powerful. i am not calling the shots. i am not the owner of anything. i am not the Lord." As God was explaining all of this to Moses, He said, "This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation" (Exodus 3:15). This is cool because it puts us in the same story as Moses! "God is big. We are not. He is calling the shots, directing the script, and determining the plot. We are not. And, what's really wild is that while He doesn't need any of us, He is choosing to include us, inviting us into the story that never ends. Try to fathom it-little you and me invited into the massive and mysterious story of the great I AM. Are you up for it?"
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Chapter 2: Look Up
When was the time that you felt most small? For me it was when I was walking around the streets of Rome. In particular when I was walking along the path that was once the Circus Maximus. There is something about standing in a place filled with biblical history that makes you understand the depth of your faith and really understand how big God is. It was then that it hit me that Paul walked these same streets proclaiming the name of the same Jesus that I have come to believe in and love. In the book Louie is talking about sitting in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which is a magnificent church building. The ceiling towers 9 stories above the floor. He says that as he look up, everything about St. Paul's screams, 'God is really big, and you are not.'
It's good to be reminded of that. We often spend our lives trying to make a name for ourselves, to climb the ladder so to speak. We climb and we climb, trying to grab all the glory we can, and all the while God is saying, 'this isn't even your story.' We are a part of the story of God, so why are we wasting our time trying to make the story about us? Maybe we need to 'look up' more often. We need to take time to realize how big God is, because that really puts it all in perspective for us. The amazing part is that this massive God loves us enough to know how many hairs are on our head, we don't even know that! God has a role for each of us to play in His story, and we never get too old to be a part. After all, Moses was over 70 when he got an invitation to change history. Why should we think it will be any different for us? All we have to do is 'look up.'
Enjoy the Journey
When was the time that you felt most small? For me it was when I was walking around the streets of Rome. In particular when I was walking along the path that was once the Circus Maximus. There is something about standing in a place filled with biblical history that makes you understand the depth of your faith and really understand how big God is. It was then that it hit me that Paul walked these same streets proclaiming the name of the same Jesus that I have come to believe in and love. In the book Louie is talking about sitting in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which is a magnificent church building. The ceiling towers 9 stories above the floor. He says that as he look up, everything about St. Paul's screams, 'God is really big, and you are not.'
It's good to be reminded of that. We often spend our lives trying to make a name for ourselves, to climb the ladder so to speak. We climb and we climb, trying to grab all the glory we can, and all the while God is saying, 'this isn't even your story.' We are a part of the story of God, so why are we wasting our time trying to make the story about us? Maybe we need to 'look up' more often. We need to take time to realize how big God is, because that really puts it all in perspective for us. The amazing part is that this massive God loves us enough to know how many hairs are on our head, we don't even know that! God has a role for each of us to play in His story, and we never get too old to be a part. After all, Moses was over 70 when he got an invitation to change history. Why should we think it will be any different for us? All we have to do is 'look up.'
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Start Here
As we start a new book (i am not but i know I AM) we are introduced to the Story of God. "Life is the tale of two stories-one finite and frail, the other eternal and enduring. The tiny one-the story of us-is as brief as the blink of an eye. yet somehow our infatuation with our own little story-and our determination to make it as big as we possibly can-blinds us to the massive God Story that surrounds us on every side."
So often we get so wrapped up in our life and our problems that we forget that we serve a God who is much bigger than we are. The things that we think are huge are things He doesn't even break a sweat over. I don't say that to put anybody down or to say that you don't matter to God. I'm not even saying that you aren't part of the story of God. In fact, the opposite is true. All I'm saying is that we have to keep in mind that the story we are a part of already has a star, and its not us! We have to remember this because when we forget, everything gets messed up. We start living life as though it is about us, and pride begins to well up in our hearts.
The problem is that so many people live this way. But in the end, that is why so many people are hollow shells of humanity. Because when the story is about you, in 80 years or so the curtain will fall, the screen fade to black, and a few people may even clap, but that will end the story of you.
So we have a choice. "We can choose to cling to starring roles in the little-bitty stories of us, or we can exchange our fleeting moment in the spotlight for a supporting role in the eternally beautiful epic that is the Story of God."
Enjoy the Journey
As we start a new book (i am not but i know I AM) we are introduced to the Story of God. "Life is the tale of two stories-one finite and frail, the other eternal and enduring. The tiny one-the story of us-is as brief as the blink of an eye. yet somehow our infatuation with our own little story-and our determination to make it as big as we possibly can-blinds us to the massive God Story that surrounds us on every side."
So often we get so wrapped up in our life and our problems that we forget that we serve a God who is much bigger than we are. The things that we think are huge are things He doesn't even break a sweat over. I don't say that to put anybody down or to say that you don't matter to God. I'm not even saying that you aren't part of the story of God. In fact, the opposite is true. All I'm saying is that we have to keep in mind that the story we are a part of already has a star, and its not us! We have to remember this because when we forget, everything gets messed up. We start living life as though it is about us, and pride begins to well up in our hearts.
The problem is that so many people live this way. But in the end, that is why so many people are hollow shells of humanity. Because when the story is about you, in 80 years or so the curtain will fall, the screen fade to black, and a few people may even clap, but that will end the story of you.
So we have a choice. "We can choose to cling to starring roles in the little-bitty stories of us, or we can exchange our fleeting moment in the spotlight for a supporting role in the eternally beautiful epic that is the Story of God."
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Chapter 13: Vision
This is the last chapter of the book and perhaps the most convicting...
I can't see anything without my contacts, do you have vision problems?
"Jesus didn't have any vision problems. He saw lost people. They weren't invisible to him. He didn't rush by them. He didn't ignore them. He wasn't too busy for them. He saw them crying by themselves on the back row of the church. He saw them dropping off their kids at day care so they could make it to their second job. He saw them with a scotch in hand, looking overwhelmed at the class reunion. He saw them riding bikes outside his window while he was writing his fifth book. He didn't step to the right side of the sidewalk when he saw them standing on the left. He didn't make assumptions about them because of the way the dressed. He didn't avoid being seen with them because of how that might impact his ministry. He didn't look at lost people as if they were second-class citizens. He didn't see their tattoos and piercings as obstacles to their salvation. He didn't see their 'will work for food' sign and think cynically, yeah, right. He didn't see their addictions as disqualifiers that needed to be conquered before they could come back to church. He didn't see them as sin, but sinners who needed salvation. He didn't see lost people as lost causes, because-to Jesus-there are no lost causes! Jesus loves lost people, so he saw them."
So many times we fall into one if not all of those categories. Something that we often do is expect people to come and meet us where we are, but Jesus went TO the people who needed him most. Take the story of Zacchaeus. Jesus didn't make Zacchaeus come to him, Jesus met him at "the spot." The spot is the place where sin and grace meet, and its the place where hope is born.
"Jesus didn't expect Zacchaeus to find him. He didn't send Zacchaeus a home mailer with directions to his spot. He didn't put a map in the yellow pages showing him ten different ways to get to his spot. He didn't hang a banner with the words "Come Worship at Our Spot!" on his church building. No, Jesus didn't expect Zacchaeus to do all the work, so he met him where he was. Fish don't jump into the boat. Good soil doesn't jump onto the seeds. Disciples don't make themselves. Sheep, coins, and sons don't find themselves. We have to go to their spots and look for them."
People want to be seen. That is why so many people dress the way they do. They want people to notice them. That is why so many men obsess over their car or their lawn, and why so many women try to preserve, improve, and show off their bodies, they want to be seen. They want to know that their existence matters. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but even more than that he wanted to be seen by Jesus. Jesus saw him, and then he spoke to him. Jesus actually invited himself over (which is sort of rude, but I guess you get a pass if you're Jesus). Because of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus, his entire life changed. He was a tax collector and notorious thief, but after his meal with Jesus he vowed to give back 4 times the amount he had taken! Being seen can be a powerful and transformational experience.
In this story Jesus reminds us "That he was at this spot to seek and save what was lost, Jesus showed everyone that he sees lost people not as distractions but as his purpose for being on this planet." What do you see when you look at the lost?
"I pray that you'll see people who are not where they are supposed to be, go to their spot, look at them, and simply say, 'How about you and I get something to eat? I pray that you'll join me in eating with sinners and in making our dinner tables the most challenging places...not where life ends, but where it begins."
Enjoy the Journey
This is the last chapter of the book and perhaps the most convicting...
I can't see anything without my contacts, do you have vision problems?
"Jesus didn't have any vision problems. He saw lost people. They weren't invisible to him. He didn't rush by them. He didn't ignore them. He wasn't too busy for them. He saw them crying by themselves on the back row of the church. He saw them dropping off their kids at day care so they could make it to their second job. He saw them with a scotch in hand, looking overwhelmed at the class reunion. He saw them riding bikes outside his window while he was writing his fifth book. He didn't step to the right side of the sidewalk when he saw them standing on the left. He didn't make assumptions about them because of the way the dressed. He didn't avoid being seen with them because of how that might impact his ministry. He didn't look at lost people as if they were second-class citizens. He didn't see their tattoos and piercings as obstacles to their salvation. He didn't see their 'will work for food' sign and think cynically, yeah, right. He didn't see their addictions as disqualifiers that needed to be conquered before they could come back to church. He didn't see them as sin, but sinners who needed salvation. He didn't see lost people as lost causes, because-to Jesus-there are no lost causes! Jesus loves lost people, so he saw them."
So many times we fall into one if not all of those categories. Something that we often do is expect people to come and meet us where we are, but Jesus went TO the people who needed him most. Take the story of Zacchaeus. Jesus didn't make Zacchaeus come to him, Jesus met him at "the spot." The spot is the place where sin and grace meet, and its the place where hope is born.
"Jesus didn't expect Zacchaeus to find him. He didn't send Zacchaeus a home mailer with directions to his spot. He didn't put a map in the yellow pages showing him ten different ways to get to his spot. He didn't hang a banner with the words "Come Worship at Our Spot!" on his church building. No, Jesus didn't expect Zacchaeus to do all the work, so he met him where he was. Fish don't jump into the boat. Good soil doesn't jump onto the seeds. Disciples don't make themselves. Sheep, coins, and sons don't find themselves. We have to go to their spots and look for them."
People want to be seen. That is why so many people dress the way they do. They want people to notice them. That is why so many men obsess over their car or their lawn, and why so many women try to preserve, improve, and show off their bodies, they want to be seen. They want to know that their existence matters. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but even more than that he wanted to be seen by Jesus. Jesus saw him, and then he spoke to him. Jesus actually invited himself over (which is sort of rude, but I guess you get a pass if you're Jesus). Because of Jesus' interaction with Zacchaeus, his entire life changed. He was a tax collector and notorious thief, but after his meal with Jesus he vowed to give back 4 times the amount he had taken! Being seen can be a powerful and transformational experience.
In this story Jesus reminds us "That he was at this spot to seek and save what was lost, Jesus showed everyone that he sees lost people not as distractions but as his purpose for being on this planet." What do you see when you look at the lost?
"I pray that you'll see people who are not where they are supposed to be, go to their spot, look at them, and simply say, 'How about you and I get something to eat? I pray that you'll join me in eating with sinners and in making our dinner tables the most challenging places...not where life ends, but where it begins."
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Chapter 12: Joy
What we celebrate says a lot about us? What do you celebrate? What you celebrate tells us what we really love and who we are. Jesus celebrated when lost people were found. Again 'lost' simply means not being where you are supposed to be (with Christ). Lost people were drawn to Christ, but it seems today that most lost people are running away from Christians. They wanted to be around Jesus because He wanted to be with them. They wanted to hear what He had to say because He was giving them hope. And that is what everyone is looking for, hope! Jesus gave them hope because He welcomed them, accepted them, and loved them, and it wasn't fake! This didn't make everyone happy, it made the religious leaders 'mutter.' Sometimes when you are living out your faith it makes people who aren't living out their faith uncomfortable and they begin to 'mutter.' So if you think about it, if people are 'muttering' about what you are doing, it could be a good thing!
The religious leaders muttered because Jesus was associating with people who were 'sinners.' They were lost because of what they had done, and the religious leaders wanted them to get their act together before they could be accepted. But Jesus doesn't care what we've done to find ourselves where we shouldn't be. All He cares about it getting us back, and when He finds us, He throws a party. It's not our job to determine if someone is 'good enough' to be found. In fact, no one is 'good enough,' you aren't good enough now even if you've already been found! The grace of God knows no limits, but we limit it far too often. "George Barna estimates that there are between 180-190 million people in America who are not born-again Christians. Imagine there's a huge fire coming toward this country and that everyone who wants to get out safely must come to you. If you could save 1,000 people a day, it would take you 521 years to save 190 million people. Good news: you don't have to save 190 million people by yourself. Bad news: there is a fire coming."
As most of you know, I tear up just about every time someone gives their life to Christ. That is the reason I am in ministry. I celebrate when lost people are found. And after reading this chapter, I'm going to start celebrating when people mutter about our passionate love for the lost. What do you celebrate?
Enjoy the Journey
What we celebrate says a lot about us? What do you celebrate? What you celebrate tells us what we really love and who we are. Jesus celebrated when lost people were found. Again 'lost' simply means not being where you are supposed to be (with Christ). Lost people were drawn to Christ, but it seems today that most lost people are running away from Christians. They wanted to be around Jesus because He wanted to be with them. They wanted to hear what He had to say because He was giving them hope. And that is what everyone is looking for, hope! Jesus gave them hope because He welcomed them, accepted them, and loved them, and it wasn't fake! This didn't make everyone happy, it made the religious leaders 'mutter.' Sometimes when you are living out your faith it makes people who aren't living out their faith uncomfortable and they begin to 'mutter.' So if you think about it, if people are 'muttering' about what you are doing, it could be a good thing!
The religious leaders muttered because Jesus was associating with people who were 'sinners.' They were lost because of what they had done, and the religious leaders wanted them to get their act together before they could be accepted. But Jesus doesn't care what we've done to find ourselves where we shouldn't be. All He cares about it getting us back, and when He finds us, He throws a party. It's not our job to determine if someone is 'good enough' to be found. In fact, no one is 'good enough,' you aren't good enough now even if you've already been found! The grace of God knows no limits, but we limit it far too often. "George Barna estimates that there are between 180-190 million people in America who are not born-again Christians. Imagine there's a huge fire coming toward this country and that everyone who wants to get out safely must come to you. If you could save 1,000 people a day, it would take you 521 years to save 190 million people. Good news: you don't have to save 190 million people by yourself. Bad news: there is a fire coming."
As most of you know, I tear up just about every time someone gives their life to Christ. That is the reason I am in ministry. I celebrate when lost people are found. And after reading this chapter, I'm going to start celebrating when people mutter about our passionate love for the lost. What do you celebrate?
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Chapter 11: Investment
Eating with sinners is not something that comes with no cost. It requires an investment of time, energy, money, our whole lives. Ironically, that is what being a Christian costs as well. You see they go hand in hand. Christianity isn't something that you just say you are, Christianity is who you are and what you do all the time. Before you become a Christian, or before you continue your life as a Christian, you need to count the cost. Are you willing to do what it takes to be a Christian? Are you really? Because Jesus asks for it all, and that is a lot to ask.
He asks for our resources. "What resources do you have? Which are you willing to give up to reach lost people? Are you willing to write a big check? Are you willing to sell that old sports car sitting in the garage that hasn't been driven for years? Are you willing to let the church use your home as a small group location? Are you willing to buy groceries for a needy family? Are you willing to spend money or supplies to an overseas missionary? Are you willing to start giving at least 10 percent of your income to your church? Are you willing to give up anything and everything to reach someone for Jesus? 'Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.' (Jesus)
There is a popular line of thinking today that says once you become a Christian all your problems will go away. You'll become 'healthy, wealthy, and wise.' I hate to rain on that parade, but that is far from the picture Jesus paints. Jesus says that there are no uncrucified disciples. He says be ready and willing to take up your cross. He says that if we aren't willing to invest our lives in following Him, we are not true disciples.
"If we're looking for a comfortable faith, then we're not going to want to follow Jesus. If we're looking for a faith that won't cost us too much, then Christianity is not the right choice for us. It's time for you, me, and any others who call themselves Christian to put on our big boy and big girl pants, man up (and woman up too), pick up our crosses, and start investing our lives in our faith by inviting people to the great banquet."
We say that we want a world filled wit the light of Christ. A world filled with the light of Christ costs a lot. It costs everything. Are you ready?
Enjoy the Journey
Eating with sinners is not something that comes with no cost. It requires an investment of time, energy, money, our whole lives. Ironically, that is what being a Christian costs as well. You see they go hand in hand. Christianity isn't something that you just say you are, Christianity is who you are and what you do all the time. Before you become a Christian, or before you continue your life as a Christian, you need to count the cost. Are you willing to do what it takes to be a Christian? Are you really? Because Jesus asks for it all, and that is a lot to ask.
He asks for our resources. "What resources do you have? Which are you willing to give up to reach lost people? Are you willing to write a big check? Are you willing to sell that old sports car sitting in the garage that hasn't been driven for years? Are you willing to let the church use your home as a small group location? Are you willing to buy groceries for a needy family? Are you willing to spend money or supplies to an overseas missionary? Are you willing to start giving at least 10 percent of your income to your church? Are you willing to give up anything and everything to reach someone for Jesus? 'Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.' (Jesus)
There is a popular line of thinking today that says once you become a Christian all your problems will go away. You'll become 'healthy, wealthy, and wise.' I hate to rain on that parade, but that is far from the picture Jesus paints. Jesus says that there are no uncrucified disciples. He says be ready and willing to take up your cross. He says that if we aren't willing to invest our lives in following Him, we are not true disciples.
"If we're looking for a comfortable faith, then we're not going to want to follow Jesus. If we're looking for a faith that won't cost us too much, then Christianity is not the right choice for us. It's time for you, me, and any others who call themselves Christian to put on our big boy and big girl pants, man up (and woman up too), pick up our crosses, and start investing our lives in our faith by inviting people to the great banquet."
We say that we want a world filled wit the light of Christ. A world filled with the light of Christ costs a lot. It costs everything. Are you ready?
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Chapter 10: Humility
Humility is the quality of having a modest view of one's person, rank, and importance. "William Beebe, the naturalist, occasionally visited the home of former president Teddy Roosevelt. President Roosevelt and Beebe would go out on the lawn at night to search the skies for a certain spot of light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus constellation. Then they would recite: 'That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.' Then President Roosevelt would grin and say, 'Now I think we are small enough. Let's go to bed.'"
Sometimes it is really hard to be humble. It must have been hard for Christ to be humble. I mean after all, He is God. Yet He was willing to die on a cross. The cross was designed to both humiliate and kill its victim. Check out what Philippians 2:5-8 has to say about this. Our attitude should be like His? Now that is a tall order.
"As we eat with sinners, it would be wise to start each meal with a slice of humble pie, because it seems to me that it's too easy to position ourselves safely on a comfortable perch and look down with pity on those so far below us. This is absurd and un-Christlike. If we really want to reach lost people, we must be humble=and true humility comes from standing next to the cross."
An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of each of the successive major parts of a compound term. What are some famous ones? CEO, FBI, SCUBA, RADAR, ect... Arron gives us the acronym HARD:
Healing is perpetually possible with Jesus.
Always remember the well.
Reseat yourself if necessary
Dinner should be a party to which everyone is invited.
As Christians it is tempting to separate ourselves from everyone else for fear that we might 'catch their sin.' I'm not saying that we should all go down and spend the rest of our time in the bar drinking with everyone. But what I am saying is that we can't expect people to come to Christ on our terms. We can't expect people who don't know Christ to act like they do before we are willing to spend time with them. We can't look down on people from our perch of holiness and pray for their pitiful souls and expect God to bless us by using us to bring people to Christ.
When Christ healed a man on the Sabbath who was suffering from dropsy, He immediately asked the teachers of the law if the had an ox who fell in the well on the Sabbath if they would pull it out. This was to prove His point that they didn't care about this man, they only wanted to trap Jesus. We've all been 'trapped in a well' from time to time, hopelessly flailing about in our sin. "With true humility, Jesus resolves never to leave the well until every last person who is willing to follow Him is rescued." That is our mission. True humility calls us to help people who we think are "worse" than we are. People who are trapped in a well of sin and need help getting out. That is what Jesus did, think HARD on it.
Enjoy the Journey
Humility is the quality of having a modest view of one's person, rank, and importance. "William Beebe, the naturalist, occasionally visited the home of former president Teddy Roosevelt. President Roosevelt and Beebe would go out on the lawn at night to search the skies for a certain spot of light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus constellation. Then they would recite: 'That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.' Then President Roosevelt would grin and say, 'Now I think we are small enough. Let's go to bed.'"
Sometimes it is really hard to be humble. It must have been hard for Christ to be humble. I mean after all, He is God. Yet He was willing to die on a cross. The cross was designed to both humiliate and kill its victim. Check out what Philippians 2:5-8 has to say about this. Our attitude should be like His? Now that is a tall order.
"As we eat with sinners, it would be wise to start each meal with a slice of humble pie, because it seems to me that it's too easy to position ourselves safely on a comfortable perch and look down with pity on those so far below us. This is absurd and un-Christlike. If we really want to reach lost people, we must be humble=and true humility comes from standing next to the cross."
An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of each of the successive major parts of a compound term. What are some famous ones? CEO, FBI, SCUBA, RADAR, ect... Arron gives us the acronym HARD:
Healing is perpetually possible with Jesus.
Always remember the well.
Reseat yourself if necessary
Dinner should be a party to which everyone is invited.
As Christians it is tempting to separate ourselves from everyone else for fear that we might 'catch their sin.' I'm not saying that we should all go down and spend the rest of our time in the bar drinking with everyone. But what I am saying is that we can't expect people to come to Christ on our terms. We can't expect people who don't know Christ to act like they do before we are willing to spend time with them. We can't look down on people from our perch of holiness and pray for their pitiful souls and expect God to bless us by using us to bring people to Christ.
When Christ healed a man on the Sabbath who was suffering from dropsy, He immediately asked the teachers of the law if the had an ox who fell in the well on the Sabbath if they would pull it out. This was to prove His point that they didn't care about this man, they only wanted to trap Jesus. We've all been 'trapped in a well' from time to time, hopelessly flailing about in our sin. "With true humility, Jesus resolves never to leave the well until every last person who is willing to follow Him is rescued." That is our mission. True humility calls us to help people who we think are "worse" than we are. People who are trapped in a well of sin and need help getting out. That is what Jesus did, think HARD on it.
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Chapter 9: Mercy
What is grace? A simple definition is 'giving someone something that he doesn't deserve.' What is mercy? A simple definition is 'not giving someone something that he does deserve.'
We tend to like it when people get what they deserve don't we? We like it when the bad guy gets caught and goes to prison forever. We would like it if Osama bin Laden was found dead. We like revenge. It sells, it sells movies, books, revenge is sweet! That is how we are, but its not how we should be. We should be concerned with their salvation. We should be concerned about giving them the same chance to receive mercy that we were given. "Mercy doesn't sell a lot of books or movie tickets, and it may not make you popular at the Pentagon or as a UFC competitor, but it reflects the heart of God and it's an essential ingredient to any meaningful effort to reach lost people for Jesus."
Jesus told a parable about mercy. We know it as the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story began with a question from one of the teachers of the law. The question was this: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Its an odd question really. "I have to caution him about thinking that there is anything we can actually do to inherit eternal life. The cool thing about an inheritance is that you don't have to do anything to receive it-it's a gift from a father to a child. Like many of us, this guy has it all wrong. Our salvation is not about what we do or have done, but about what God has done for us."
As the parable unfolds, it turns out that the hero of the parable is the Samaritan. Of course the one person that the teacher of the law would hate the most ends up being the protagonist! Jesus also holds him up as an example of what a neighbor is! This was devastating, because Jesus had just told him that to inherit eternal life he had to love his neighbors. Jesus had just blown the social hierarchy right out of the water. "Like the Samaritan, Jesus was merciful to people regardless of who they were, what they'd done, or whether they liked Him," and He expects nothing less of us. As we eat with sinners, we need to leave revenge at home, and replace it with mercy. That's what everyone deserves, and we want them to get what they deserve right?
Enjoy the Journey
What is grace? A simple definition is 'giving someone something that he doesn't deserve.' What is mercy? A simple definition is 'not giving someone something that he does deserve.'
We tend to like it when people get what they deserve don't we? We like it when the bad guy gets caught and goes to prison forever. We would like it if Osama bin Laden was found dead. We like revenge. It sells, it sells movies, books, revenge is sweet! That is how we are, but its not how we should be. We should be concerned with their salvation. We should be concerned about giving them the same chance to receive mercy that we were given. "Mercy doesn't sell a lot of books or movie tickets, and it may not make you popular at the Pentagon or as a UFC competitor, but it reflects the heart of God and it's an essential ingredient to any meaningful effort to reach lost people for Jesus."
Jesus told a parable about mercy. We know it as the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story began with a question from one of the teachers of the law. The question was this: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Its an odd question really. "I have to caution him about thinking that there is anything we can actually do to inherit eternal life. The cool thing about an inheritance is that you don't have to do anything to receive it-it's a gift from a father to a child. Like many of us, this guy has it all wrong. Our salvation is not about what we do or have done, but about what God has done for us."
As the parable unfolds, it turns out that the hero of the parable is the Samaritan. Of course the one person that the teacher of the law would hate the most ends up being the protagonist! Jesus also holds him up as an example of what a neighbor is! This was devastating, because Jesus had just told him that to inherit eternal life he had to love his neighbors. Jesus had just blown the social hierarchy right out of the water. "Like the Samaritan, Jesus was merciful to people regardless of who they were, what they'd done, or whether they liked Him," and He expects nothing less of us. As we eat with sinners, we need to leave revenge at home, and replace it with mercy. That's what everyone deserves, and we want them to get what they deserve right?
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Chapter 8: Urgency
Captain Sully knows about urgency. Shortly after takeoff, he realized that a bird had been sucked into the engine of his plane. He was going to have to make an emergency landing, but there was nowhere to land! He had 155 people on board, and he had to do something fast. So Captain Sully landed in the middle of the Hudson River!
When the alarms started going off, he acted with a sense of urgency. You may not know it, but the alarm is sounding. Each day 146,357 people die. That is 6,098 per hour, and 102 per minute! The alarm is sounding.
Have you ever had fruit or vegetables that were harvested too early? Too late? Its disgusting. The trick is to harvest them at just the right time. Jesus said that the harvest is ready, but the workers are few.
The harvest "looks like a coworker who starts crying at lunch when you ask her about things at home. It looks like an elderly neighbor who sits by himself on his front porch in the chair next to the chair where his wife used to sit. It looks like an angry boss who asks you why you go to a men's prayer group before work on Thursday morning. It looks like your kid's teacher. It looks like the guy in the 7-Eleven on Saturday night, waiting to spend fifty dollars on lottery tickets, hoping to finally have something that will change his miserable life. It looks like the classmate you've reconnected with on Facebook. It looks like the attractive woman with the low-cut top sitting next to you on the plane and trying to flirt as you discuss the weather. It looks like the young couple at the end of the street who seem overwhelmed taking care of their three little kids. It looks like your alcoholic father. It looks like your teenage daughter who acts like she doesn't want you around only because she needs you so desperately. It looks like the person you're going to eat with at McDonald's next Wednesday because you want to eat with him in Heaven for all eternity."
There was a girl who was awoken by her families grandfather clock, it was ringing 4, but it didn't stop there, it rang 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14! She was so frightened that she ran upstairs and told her family, Get up! It's later than it's ever was!
Are you ready to work? Jesus needs workers who will pray. He wants us to be ask to be sent? Seems kind of silly doesn't it? Why do we need to ask Jesus to send us to do what we already know He wants us to do? "Maybe He wants to know that we want lost people to be saved as much as He does. Maybe He wants to know that we know that without Him, the Lord of the harvest, there would be no harvest. Maybe He wants us to ask Him to send workers because it confirms we understand that we can't do this by ourselves."
Second Jesus needs workers who will go. We can't just sit around and wait for people to come to us. Jesus expects us as a church to GO to the world and make disciples. The best way to reach people for Christ is to go where they are and share Jesus with them.
It's time to get to work, and we need to hurry, because it's later than it ever was.
Enjoy the Journey
Captain Sully knows about urgency. Shortly after takeoff, he realized that a bird had been sucked into the engine of his plane. He was going to have to make an emergency landing, but there was nowhere to land! He had 155 people on board, and he had to do something fast. So Captain Sully landed in the middle of the Hudson River!
When the alarms started going off, he acted with a sense of urgency. You may not know it, but the alarm is sounding. Each day 146,357 people die. That is 6,098 per hour, and 102 per minute! The alarm is sounding.
Have you ever had fruit or vegetables that were harvested too early? Too late? Its disgusting. The trick is to harvest them at just the right time. Jesus said that the harvest is ready, but the workers are few.
The harvest "looks like a coworker who starts crying at lunch when you ask her about things at home. It looks like an elderly neighbor who sits by himself on his front porch in the chair next to the chair where his wife used to sit. It looks like an angry boss who asks you why you go to a men's prayer group before work on Thursday morning. It looks like your kid's teacher. It looks like the guy in the 7-Eleven on Saturday night, waiting to spend fifty dollars on lottery tickets, hoping to finally have something that will change his miserable life. It looks like the classmate you've reconnected with on Facebook. It looks like the attractive woman with the low-cut top sitting next to you on the plane and trying to flirt as you discuss the weather. It looks like the young couple at the end of the street who seem overwhelmed taking care of their three little kids. It looks like your alcoholic father. It looks like your teenage daughter who acts like she doesn't want you around only because she needs you so desperately. It looks like the person you're going to eat with at McDonald's next Wednesday because you want to eat with him in Heaven for all eternity."
There was a girl who was awoken by her families grandfather clock, it was ringing 4, but it didn't stop there, it rang 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14! She was so frightened that she ran upstairs and told her family, Get up! It's later than it's ever was!
Are you ready to work? Jesus needs workers who will pray. He wants us to be ask to be sent? Seems kind of silly doesn't it? Why do we need to ask Jesus to send us to do what we already know He wants us to do? "Maybe He wants to know that we want lost people to be saved as much as He does. Maybe He wants to know that we know that without Him, the Lord of the harvest, there would be no harvest. Maybe He wants us to ask Him to send workers because it confirms we understand that we can't do this by ourselves."
Second Jesus needs workers who will go. We can't just sit around and wait for people to come to us. Jesus expects us as a church to GO to the world and make disciples. The best way to reach people for Christ is to go where they are and share Jesus with them.
It's time to get to work, and we need to hurry, because it's later than it ever was.
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Chapter 7: Resolve
Have you ever quit at something? What was it? What is the hardest thing you've done that you refused to quit?
Jesus refused to quit. His mission was to get to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world. He had a clear goal, and unmatched resolve. "You are going to face obstacles on the way to Jerusalem. We all have a place God plans for us to go, our destiny, a place of extraordinary service and sacrifice, a higher purpose for which we were placed on this planet." Jerusalem meant death for Jesus. What is your Jerusalem? What are you resolved to do?
It takes a lot of resolve to get significant things done. Beethoven was resolved to create great music. He did, even after he went completely deaf! He wrote some of his most famous pieces, including several symphonies! Can you imagine writing a symphony that you could only hear in your head? Talk about resolve!
Whatever your Jerusalem is, you can't let anything get in the way of you getting there. We can't let anything keep us from eating with sinners. "Set your face on your Jerusalem and don't let misguided disciples keep you from following God's plan and fulfilling your destiny."
As we work to reach people for Jesus, we are going to face challenges from outsiders. However, we must understand that we will also face challenges from insiders! We have to be ready to follow God's lead no matter the cost. Jesus had his face set on Jerusalem. What is your face set on?
Enjoy the Journey
Have you ever quit at something? What was it? What is the hardest thing you've done that you refused to quit?
Jesus refused to quit. His mission was to get to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world. He had a clear goal, and unmatched resolve. "You are going to face obstacles on the way to Jerusalem. We all have a place God plans for us to go, our destiny, a place of extraordinary service and sacrifice, a higher purpose for which we were placed on this planet." Jerusalem meant death for Jesus. What is your Jerusalem? What are you resolved to do?
It takes a lot of resolve to get significant things done. Beethoven was resolved to create great music. He did, even after he went completely deaf! He wrote some of his most famous pieces, including several symphonies! Can you imagine writing a symphony that you could only hear in your head? Talk about resolve!
Whatever your Jerusalem is, you can't let anything get in the way of you getting there. We can't let anything keep us from eating with sinners. "Set your face on your Jerusalem and don't let misguided disciples keep you from following God's plan and fulfilling your destiny."
As we work to reach people for Jesus, we are going to face challenges from outsiders. However, we must understand that we will also face challenges from insiders! We have to be ready to follow God's lead no matter the cost. Jesus had his face set on Jerusalem. What is your face set on?
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Chapter 5: Tolerance
This was by far my favorite chapter in the book thus far. He says that there are two things that you never want to do. 1: Scream fire in a crowded theater and 2: whisper the word tolerance in a church. How true that can be. Tolerance has become a bad word, especially in churches. Many people associate tolerance with accepting sin, watering down the gospel, and letting everyone do anything they want to all the time. However there is a difference between tolerating sin and tolerating sinners. Tolerating, at least in the sense that we are talking about, is simply allowing someone or something to be.
Continued unrepentant sin by a Christian should not be tolerated. Paul teaches us in Romans that just because we have grace doesn't mean we should keep sinning. We all do, we are by nature sinners, but that doesn't mean that we should willfully sin all the time. "Sin in the church is like a caner that, if left untreated, leads to death. We are supposed to eat with non-Christian sinners but not with unrepentant Christian ones." We read in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11: "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." "Sinners should always be allowed in our presence. It's their only hope. It's our only hope for reaching them."
Remember the story of the woman who came and washed Jesus feet with expensive perfume and her hair? She had a reputation of being...a sinner (probably a prostitute). The people who were there couldn't believe that Jesus was allowing her to hang around. But Jesus wasn't condoning what she had done, He was just loving her. "Jesus was more tolerant of lost people than most of us will ever be, because He loved lost people more than most of us ever will. Tolerance is viewed by many in the church as watering down the message of Jesus, but when we look at how Jesus interacted with sinners who were in need of salvation, we learn that tolerance toward sinners was key to how He reached out to them. He chose to be with sinners because He wanted them to have hope. He allowed this prostitute to be in His presence at this dinner because He wanted her to be with Him at the banquet He will host in eternity." Had this woman made bad choices in her past? Absolutely. But that didn't make her intolerable, just sinful. But with Jesus there are no lost causes.
One thing that we have to remember is this: in Jesus, we are not our worst sin. We are not defined by the bad choice we made on prom night, or the people that we slept with before we were married, or the wrong things we did so that we could get a promotion, or anything else that we have done. We are sinners who sin, but we are not sin. There is a huge difference. Sinners are loved by God, sin is hated.
"Do we really believe that all lost people can have the hope of forgiveness-that God can forgive anyone of anything? If so, then that will change everything. We will tolerate sinners-allowing them into our presence-because we believe that God has the power for positive change." With Jesus there are no lost causes.
Enjoy the Journey
This was by far my favorite chapter in the book thus far. He says that there are two things that you never want to do. 1: Scream fire in a crowded theater and 2: whisper the word tolerance in a church. How true that can be. Tolerance has become a bad word, especially in churches. Many people associate tolerance with accepting sin, watering down the gospel, and letting everyone do anything they want to all the time. However there is a difference between tolerating sin and tolerating sinners. Tolerating, at least in the sense that we are talking about, is simply allowing someone or something to be.
Continued unrepentant sin by a Christian should not be tolerated. Paul teaches us in Romans that just because we have grace doesn't mean we should keep sinning. We all do, we are by nature sinners, but that doesn't mean that we should willfully sin all the time. "Sin in the church is like a caner that, if left untreated, leads to death. We are supposed to eat with non-Christian sinners but not with unrepentant Christian ones." We read in 1 Corinthians 5:9-11: "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." "Sinners should always be allowed in our presence. It's their only hope. It's our only hope for reaching them."
Remember the story of the woman who came and washed Jesus feet with expensive perfume and her hair? She had a reputation of being...a sinner (probably a prostitute). The people who were there couldn't believe that Jesus was allowing her to hang around. But Jesus wasn't condoning what she had done, He was just loving her. "Jesus was more tolerant of lost people than most of us will ever be, because He loved lost people more than most of us ever will. Tolerance is viewed by many in the church as watering down the message of Jesus, but when we look at how Jesus interacted with sinners who were in need of salvation, we learn that tolerance toward sinners was key to how He reached out to them. He chose to be with sinners because He wanted them to have hope. He allowed this prostitute to be in His presence at this dinner because He wanted her to be with Him at the banquet He will host in eternity." Had this woman made bad choices in her past? Absolutely. But that didn't make her intolerable, just sinful. But with Jesus there are no lost causes.
One thing that we have to remember is this: in Jesus, we are not our worst sin. We are not defined by the bad choice we made on prom night, or the people that we slept with before we were married, or the wrong things we did so that we could get a promotion, or anything else that we have done. We are sinners who sin, but we are not sin. There is a huge difference. Sinners are loved by God, sin is hated.
"Do we really believe that all lost people can have the hope of forgiveness-that God can forgive anyone of anything? If so, then that will change everything. We will tolerate sinners-allowing them into our presence-because we believe that God has the power for positive change." With Jesus there are no lost causes.
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Chapter 5: Intimacy
The word intimacy brings up different thoughts to men and women. Women think of long walks on the beach, staying up talking all night, romantic candlelight dinners, and things like that. Men on the other hand think of...well...other things. Jesus thought of eating with sinners. You see eating with someone in Jesus day was equivalent to saying that you accepted, were friends with, were connected with that person.
"'In first century Palestinian Judaism the class system was enforced rigorously. It was legally forbidden to mingle with sinners who were outside the law: table fellowship with beggars, tax collectors... and prostitutes was a religious, social, and cultural taboo.' Manning writes that in the Near East today, for an orthodox Jew to say, 'I would like to have dinner with you,' is a metaphor implying 'I would like to enter into a friendship with you.'"
Eating with people was a big deal. And frankly, it still is. It is one of the best ways to get to know people, and people generally eat with people they are trying to get to know and become close friends with. It is one of the best opportunities that we can have to share the story of Jesus. And one of the best ways we can share the story of Jesus is to share our own stories.
We can not isolate ourselves from people. 'When we isolate ourselves from people, we lose the ability to connect with them on any level.' This is not how Jesus worked. After all, " Saving someone who is separated from you by a barrier is impossible."
We put up barriers all the time. We associate with people who look, talk, think, dress, and smell like we do. How can we be used by God to save the lost and at the same time not associate with them for fear that they will 'drag us down?' The answer is we can't. Its impossible. "Devotion to our points of view can hinder our efforts to reach lost people and help them get back to where they are supposed to be."
It's time that we start being known for being people who eat with sinners. People who aren't afraid to step outside the bubble of Christianity and associate and become close friends with people who have different points of view and ways of life! That is what Jesus did, and He expects nothing less of us.
Enjoy the Journey
The word intimacy brings up different thoughts to men and women. Women think of long walks on the beach, staying up talking all night, romantic candlelight dinners, and things like that. Men on the other hand think of...well...other things. Jesus thought of eating with sinners. You see eating with someone in Jesus day was equivalent to saying that you accepted, were friends with, were connected with that person.
"'In first century Palestinian Judaism the class system was enforced rigorously. It was legally forbidden to mingle with sinners who were outside the law: table fellowship with beggars, tax collectors... and prostitutes was a religious, social, and cultural taboo.' Manning writes that in the Near East today, for an orthodox Jew to say, 'I would like to have dinner with you,' is a metaphor implying 'I would like to enter into a friendship with you.'"
Eating with people was a big deal. And frankly, it still is. It is one of the best ways to get to know people, and people generally eat with people they are trying to get to know and become close friends with. It is one of the best opportunities that we can have to share the story of Jesus. And one of the best ways we can share the story of Jesus is to share our own stories.
We can not isolate ourselves from people. 'When we isolate ourselves from people, we lose the ability to connect with them on any level.' This is not how Jesus worked. After all, " Saving someone who is separated from you by a barrier is impossible."
We put up barriers all the time. We associate with people who look, talk, think, dress, and smell like we do. How can we be used by God to save the lost and at the same time not associate with them for fear that they will 'drag us down?' The answer is we can't. Its impossible. "Devotion to our points of view can hinder our efforts to reach lost people and help them get back to where they are supposed to be."
It's time that we start being known for being people who eat with sinners. People who aren't afraid to step outside the bubble of Christianity and associate and become close friends with people who have different points of view and ways of life! That is what Jesus did, and He expects nothing less of us.
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Chapter 4: Faith
With God there are no lost causes.
Jesus was a master fisher of men. He also put the fishermen who became His disciples to shame. Now the fact that He is God and can tell the fish to do whatever He wants might be considered cheating, but whatever. One day He saw some men fishing on the Sea of Galilee and He went over to them and just got in the boat! Then He asked them to put out into deep waters and let the nets down for a catch. I don't know why they did it, they had been fishing all night and hadn't caught a thing, but for some reason they just did what He said.
They put out into deep water. That is exactly what Jesus calls us to do today. You see big fish live in deep water. You can't catch big fish unless you are in deep water. If we want to reach people for Christ, we have to dive deep into the community in which we live. That means that we have to be involved in things outside of our churches! How many of our churches local outreach programs amount to little more than sticking our head out the door and whispering the name of Jesus? We wonder why people aren't coming to know Christ, its because we aren't listening to His call to us to go deeper!
Why is that? Because we fall into the trap of linear thinking. Linear thinking is "drawing conclusions about the immediate future based on the immediate past." Linear thinking says that we can't bring people to Christ today because we've never done it before. "Linear thinking says there is no hope for the prostitute, the abusive alcoholic, the adulterous spouse, the murderer, and the northern Colorado farmer convicted of dealing drugs, but faith disagrees- because with Jesus there are no lost causes."
I'm not a fisherman, but I do know this: If you want to catch fish, you have to put your line in the water. "Its one thing to want to catch fish, its another thing to put your bait in the water. It's one thing to have faith in Jesus and put our into deep water; it's another to put your faith into action and let down the nets for a catch."
"As we eat with sinners, we must have faith that God wants to save them. We must also be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they know that."
What are you doing that constitutes putting out into "deep water?" What can you do this week to "put your bait in the water?"
Enjoy the Journey
With God there are no lost causes.
Jesus was a master fisher of men. He also put the fishermen who became His disciples to shame. Now the fact that He is God and can tell the fish to do whatever He wants might be considered cheating, but whatever. One day He saw some men fishing on the Sea of Galilee and He went over to them and just got in the boat! Then He asked them to put out into deep waters and let the nets down for a catch. I don't know why they did it, they had been fishing all night and hadn't caught a thing, but for some reason they just did what He said.
They put out into deep water. That is exactly what Jesus calls us to do today. You see big fish live in deep water. You can't catch big fish unless you are in deep water. If we want to reach people for Christ, we have to dive deep into the community in which we live. That means that we have to be involved in things outside of our churches! How many of our churches local outreach programs amount to little more than sticking our head out the door and whispering the name of Jesus? We wonder why people aren't coming to know Christ, its because we aren't listening to His call to us to go deeper!
Why is that? Because we fall into the trap of linear thinking. Linear thinking is "drawing conclusions about the immediate future based on the immediate past." Linear thinking says that we can't bring people to Christ today because we've never done it before. "Linear thinking says there is no hope for the prostitute, the abusive alcoholic, the adulterous spouse, the murderer, and the northern Colorado farmer convicted of dealing drugs, but faith disagrees- because with Jesus there are no lost causes."
I'm not a fisherman, but I do know this: If you want to catch fish, you have to put your line in the water. "Its one thing to want to catch fish, its another thing to put your bait in the water. It's one thing to have faith in Jesus and put our into deep water; it's another to put your faith into action and let down the nets for a catch."
"As we eat with sinners, we must have faith that God wants to save them. We must also be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they know that."
What are you doing that constitutes putting out into "deep water?" What can you do this week to "put your bait in the water?"
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Chapter 3: Grace
Christians have been hated since the first day they were called Christians, and really even before that. But we used to be hated for the right reason: loving Jesus. Now it seems that we are hated because we don't love people enough and we're too judgmental. This is unfair to most Christians. However you can see where people are coming from, there are plenty of angry Christians out there screaming at the world that they are going to hell. This wasn't the way Jesus did it, He ate with people! The scary thing is that many people do not know who Jesus is and what He was like, so they assume He was just like the angry Christian yelling at them from the street corner, or standing outside the gay rights rally with a sign that says, "God hates fags." Jesus was never mean to people...truthful, but not mean. "He was a grace-filled Savior intent on helping people find their way to heaven."
Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. He treated the poor so much differently than most of us do.
"If you're honest, you might have to admit that most of the time you think poor people are a nuisance. I'm a preacher, and we can be the worst offenders. Preachers have "important" things to do, and honestly, it can be annoying to be trying to finish my sermon on service, only to have my admin call to say there's a benevolence case waiting for me i the reception area! So we usher the poor away quickly with a can of Vienna sausages, an oatmeal pie, a pat on the back, and directions to the shelter downtown. Shame on us. Shame on me."
Wow. I can definitely relate to that. I could easily substitute the words 'preacher' for 'worship minister' and 'sermon' to 'video.' Can you relate?
It's our job to proclaim freedom to those who need it. Satan tries to shackle people with hopelessness and despair. Many people can't see a way out of the life they are living, but Jesus offers hope. Let me rephrase that, Jesus uses us to offer hope to those He died to save. Hope of freedom. Freedom changes lives.
"Jesus was full of grace. He had the heart of a loving Savior, not of an angry street preacher. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus: 'He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.'"
Maybe its time for a new approach. Grace.
Enjoy the Journey
Christians have been hated since the first day they were called Christians, and really even before that. But we used to be hated for the right reason: loving Jesus. Now it seems that we are hated because we don't love people enough and we're too judgmental. This is unfair to most Christians. However you can see where people are coming from, there are plenty of angry Christians out there screaming at the world that they are going to hell. This wasn't the way Jesus did it, He ate with people! The scary thing is that many people do not know who Jesus is and what He was like, so they assume He was just like the angry Christian yelling at them from the street corner, or standing outside the gay rights rally with a sign that says, "God hates fags." Jesus was never mean to people...truthful, but not mean. "He was a grace-filled Savior intent on helping people find their way to heaven."
Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. He treated the poor so much differently than most of us do.
"If you're honest, you might have to admit that most of the time you think poor people are a nuisance. I'm a preacher, and we can be the worst offenders. Preachers have "important" things to do, and honestly, it can be annoying to be trying to finish my sermon on service, only to have my admin call to say there's a benevolence case waiting for me i the reception area! So we usher the poor away quickly with a can of Vienna sausages, an oatmeal pie, a pat on the back, and directions to the shelter downtown. Shame on us. Shame on me."
Wow. I can definitely relate to that. I could easily substitute the words 'preacher' for 'worship minister' and 'sermon' to 'video.' Can you relate?
It's our job to proclaim freedom to those who need it. Satan tries to shackle people with hopelessness and despair. Many people can't see a way out of the life they are living, but Jesus offers hope. Let me rephrase that, Jesus uses us to offer hope to those He died to save. Hope of freedom. Freedom changes lives.
"Jesus was full of grace. He had the heart of a loving Savior, not of an angry street preacher. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus: 'He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.'"
Maybe its time for a new approach. Grace.
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Chapter 2: Accessibility
There is only one way to effectively change the world for Christ: to get the message of Christ to the world! But sometimes we make that so difficult. The world will not be won to Christ because the programs at our church run really smoothly, the by-laws cover every possible scenario, or because our building is amazing. The world won't be won for Christ until Christians decide to make the love, joy, and life found in Christ more accessible to everyone.
There are many things that stand in the way of people coming to know Christ. Arron deals with two physical things in this chapter, because they should be an easy place to start working: Clothing and Church Buildings.
We've all heard the debate about what you should wear to church. On the one hand, if you don't wear a suit to church then you don't love God, and on the other, God doesn't care what I look like so I'm coming in my pj's. It's funny that we don't have this conversation many other places than church. I understand dress codes. I understand that when I go to a wedding, I need to wear a suit. I understand that when I play basketball, I'm going to need shorts and basketball shoes. I understand that when I come to work, I need to wear 'business casual' clothes so that I can interact with people without intimidating them. So dress codes aren't really a problem for me, but the problem is that God doesn't really give us one! Arron hits it right on the head when he says, "I just refuse to clothe the grace of God in a suit or a dress and require that lost men and women meet a dress code before they can meet Jesus."
Just because someone doesn't wear a tie to church doesn't mean he doesn't love God. It probably means that he hates wearing ties (who doesn't), and that he enjoys breathing. This doesn't mean that I think we should be sloppy, but there is no dress code for church!
He also says that church buildings can be an obstacle. Many of us don't think of them that way, however they can be nothing more than big boxes that 'isolate Christians from the world (and each other) and sap huge amounts of time, energy, and money that could otherwise be used for outreach and staffing needs.' The first century church didn't have buildings, and they seemed to get along just fine. They met wherever they could and found ways to spread the gospel. Church buildings aren't bad, but they need to be viewed for what they are, a tool. They are not the end all, they are ONE method of getting the message of Christ out. If the building becomes the only method, and we spend all of our time, energy, and money on the building, we are missing the point.
"The church was never meant to be viewed as an immobile box sitting on the corner of Eighth and Main; God intended for us to view the church as a healthy, mobile body of believers moving, walking, through this world." We need to stop spending all of our time hiding inside the church building waiting on people to show up. Odds are that they won't. We need to be thinking of creative ways that we can take the message of Christ to a world that is thirsty to hear it.
"When people who are searching for meaning in this life encounter us, they should find hope, not hate. They should find love, not judgment. They should find us clearing a path, not cluttering it. They should find clarity, not confusion. No one should have to wear the right clothes or walk into one of our church buildings to find life, help, hope, peace, joy, truth, and love. No, accessing these blessings should be as easy as sitting down for a meal with you or me."
Enjoy the Journey
There is only one way to effectively change the world for Christ: to get the message of Christ to the world! But sometimes we make that so difficult. The world will not be won to Christ because the programs at our church run really smoothly, the by-laws cover every possible scenario, or because our building is amazing. The world won't be won for Christ until Christians decide to make the love, joy, and life found in Christ more accessible to everyone.
There are many things that stand in the way of people coming to know Christ. Arron deals with two physical things in this chapter, because they should be an easy place to start working: Clothing and Church Buildings.
We've all heard the debate about what you should wear to church. On the one hand, if you don't wear a suit to church then you don't love God, and on the other, God doesn't care what I look like so I'm coming in my pj's. It's funny that we don't have this conversation many other places than church. I understand dress codes. I understand that when I go to a wedding, I need to wear a suit. I understand that when I play basketball, I'm going to need shorts and basketball shoes. I understand that when I come to work, I need to wear 'business casual' clothes so that I can interact with people without intimidating them. So dress codes aren't really a problem for me, but the problem is that God doesn't really give us one! Arron hits it right on the head when he says, "I just refuse to clothe the grace of God in a suit or a dress and require that lost men and women meet a dress code before they can meet Jesus."
Just because someone doesn't wear a tie to church doesn't mean he doesn't love God. It probably means that he hates wearing ties (who doesn't), and that he enjoys breathing. This doesn't mean that I think we should be sloppy, but there is no dress code for church!
He also says that church buildings can be an obstacle. Many of us don't think of them that way, however they can be nothing more than big boxes that 'isolate Christians from the world (and each other) and sap huge amounts of time, energy, and money that could otherwise be used for outreach and staffing needs.' The first century church didn't have buildings, and they seemed to get along just fine. They met wherever they could and found ways to spread the gospel. Church buildings aren't bad, but they need to be viewed for what they are, a tool. They are not the end all, they are ONE method of getting the message of Christ out. If the building becomes the only method, and we spend all of our time, energy, and money on the building, we are missing the point.
"The church was never meant to be viewed as an immobile box sitting on the corner of Eighth and Main; God intended for us to view the church as a healthy, mobile body of believers moving, walking, through this world." We need to stop spending all of our time hiding inside the church building waiting on people to show up. Odds are that they won't. We need to be thinking of creative ways that we can take the message of Christ to a world that is thirsty to hear it.
"When people who are searching for meaning in this life encounter us, they should find hope, not hate. They should find love, not judgment. They should find us clearing a path, not cluttering it. They should find clarity, not confusion. No one should have to wear the right clothes or walk into one of our church buildings to find life, help, hope, peace, joy, truth, and love. No, accessing these blessings should be as easy as sitting down for a meal with you or me."
Enjoy the Journey
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Over the next several weeks we will be going through Arron Chambers' new book called 'Eats with Sinners.' If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them here or email me.
Eats with Sinners Chapter 1: Integrity
One impurity in our lives can pull us and others off course. But this is our problem, not God's. He never changes, He has always been and always will be the same. Perfect. We on the other hand are not. That is why we swear on our momma's grave and sign contracts.
There is only one human in history who has ever had absolute integrity. And I'm not sure if it really counts because He was also fully God. His name was Jesus. As soon as He came up out of the waters of baptism He was lead out into the desert to be tempted, and He passed with flying colors. Scripture says that He was tempted in every way, just like we are, yet He was without sin.
In those moments when we are tempted, we have the opportunity to grow into something more, or shrink into something less. Before we can even think about leading others to know Christ, we too must face our deserts of temptation. None of us are perfect, but that doesn't mean that we can't live a life of integrity. We can't allow the mistakes we make to pull us permanently off course and away from integrity. If we are willing to learn from those mistakes God can and will use us to do great things. "You can have integrity without a ministry, but you can't have a ministry without integrity."
Jesus tells us to pull the log out of our own eye before we try to remove the speck of dust out of our friend's eye. In other, words, don't be such a hypocrite! Jesus wants our lives to be characterized by integrity. "Hypocrisy is cancerous to evangelism, rendering Jesus a joke and His message a punch line in the hearts and minds of lost people."
Hans Christian Andersen tells a famous story about an Emperor who was tricked by two swindlers. They claimed to be able to make the finest clothes, but only those with great taste could see them. So naturally, everyone in the palace raved about the clothes when they were "finished." The king even agreed to have a parade to show them off. Everyone in the kingdom pretended to see these fine articles of clothing until they passed by one little boy who yelled, 'the king isn't wearing any clothes!' Relieved that someone had finally said it, everyone in the kingdom, including the king had to admit that he was parading around naked! Is that how our spiritual lives are? Are we pretending to clothe ourselves in righteousness but in reality parading around naked in our sin? This has to stop.
Sin makes us cowards, but integrity makes us bold. Its hard to help someone come through a sin that you are stuck in yourself. If you are addicted to porn it would be extremely hard to preach about the evils of porn. "Private sin is an evil warden that Satan employs to keep us locked up, silent, and hopeless in a dungeon that reeks with fear. But private sin is also an illusion. We can't fool God." He already know what we do when no one else is looking, and He wants to forgive us if we'll just ask!
God doesn't expect perfection. Only faithfulness. You see God knows that we are all flawed and that we are going to sin everyday of our lives here on earth. But He wants us to be faithful to Him. Don't let your life be defined by a moment of weakness, but rather by years of loyalty to the One who redeems us from sin.
At the end of the chapter Arron gives 3 tips toward walking with integrity:
1. Personal Devotions- are you doing them? Are you spending time in the Word of God?
2. Accountability Partner- find someone of the same gender who will help you stay on track.
3. Local church- find one and stick with it. We need each other!
Enjoy the Journey
Eats with Sinners Chapter 1: Integrity
One impurity in our lives can pull us and others off course. But this is our problem, not God's. He never changes, He has always been and always will be the same. Perfect. We on the other hand are not. That is why we swear on our momma's grave and sign contracts.
There is only one human in history who has ever had absolute integrity. And I'm not sure if it really counts because He was also fully God. His name was Jesus. As soon as He came up out of the waters of baptism He was lead out into the desert to be tempted, and He passed with flying colors. Scripture says that He was tempted in every way, just like we are, yet He was without sin.
In those moments when we are tempted, we have the opportunity to grow into something more, or shrink into something less. Before we can even think about leading others to know Christ, we too must face our deserts of temptation. None of us are perfect, but that doesn't mean that we can't live a life of integrity. We can't allow the mistakes we make to pull us permanently off course and away from integrity. If we are willing to learn from those mistakes God can and will use us to do great things. "You can have integrity without a ministry, but you can't have a ministry without integrity."
Jesus tells us to pull the log out of our own eye before we try to remove the speck of dust out of our friend's eye. In other, words, don't be such a hypocrite! Jesus wants our lives to be characterized by integrity. "Hypocrisy is cancerous to evangelism, rendering Jesus a joke and His message a punch line in the hearts and minds of lost people."
Hans Christian Andersen tells a famous story about an Emperor who was tricked by two swindlers. They claimed to be able to make the finest clothes, but only those with great taste could see them. So naturally, everyone in the palace raved about the clothes when they were "finished." The king even agreed to have a parade to show them off. Everyone in the kingdom pretended to see these fine articles of clothing until they passed by one little boy who yelled, 'the king isn't wearing any clothes!' Relieved that someone had finally said it, everyone in the kingdom, including the king had to admit that he was parading around naked! Is that how our spiritual lives are? Are we pretending to clothe ourselves in righteousness but in reality parading around naked in our sin? This has to stop.
Sin makes us cowards, but integrity makes us bold. Its hard to help someone come through a sin that you are stuck in yourself. If you are addicted to porn it would be extremely hard to preach about the evils of porn. "Private sin is an evil warden that Satan employs to keep us locked up, silent, and hopeless in a dungeon that reeks with fear. But private sin is also an illusion. We can't fool God." He already know what we do when no one else is looking, and He wants to forgive us if we'll just ask!
God doesn't expect perfection. Only faithfulness. You see God knows that we are all flawed and that we are going to sin everyday of our lives here on earth. But He wants us to be faithful to Him. Don't let your life be defined by a moment of weakness, but rather by years of loyalty to the One who redeems us from sin.
At the end of the chapter Arron gives 3 tips toward walking with integrity:
1. Personal Devotions- are you doing them? Are you spending time in the Word of God?
2. Accountability Partner- find someone of the same gender who will help you stay on track.
3. Local church- find one and stick with it. We need each other!
Enjoy the Journey
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