Peace, Be Still

Thomas Kelly wrote, "People nowadays take time far more seriously than eternity." As I reflect on the conversations I have with people, it seems the pace of life seems to increase almost daily. Now, I do not live in the metroplex, and so much of the hurried-ness I experience pales in comparison to that which those who live there subject themselves.

Over the past few decades with the advances in technology, we have seen an increase in what John Ortberg, in his book The Life You've Always Wanted, calls "Hurry Sickness." It is funny to me, because I still remember hearing ads about how certain gizmos would increase your time, but in fact, it has just opened up slots of time in order to fill them with more things. The result is families and societies that are falling apart.

This not only affects our world, but it begins with our spiriutal lives. Ortberg states, "The great danger is not that we will renounce our faith, but settle for a mediocre version of it." Perhaps this is why the Father tells us to "be still and know that I am God."(Psalm 46). Jesus who was always in step with His Father's will, knew that was a result of getting away. "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." (Luke 5:16).

If Jesus in His vast ministry felt it necessary to withdraw, why do we think we can do it more efficiently without it. I know when I do not withdraw, my life just seems to collapse on itself, because the foundation is no longer there. So, we must take time to be still. Ortberg suggests that we adopt the practice of "slowing." He even suggests that we can do some practical things to begin training ourselves in that discipline. This includes things like intentionally getting in the longest line at the grocery store or driving in the slowest lane in traffic. Try it, if it is a real stretch for you, you may really need to do more research into this discipline.

So, stop reading this blog, and get by yourself and be still. It will be difficult slowing down your brain for a period of time. It is for me anyway, but try, and it can refresh your soul. The tyranny of the urgent will be there when you get back.

You Feed Them!

One of the most familiar stories of Jesus is found in Matthew 14:13-21. Jesus, having heard the news of John the Baptist's death, withdraws to an isolated place to pray. However, He is followed by a huge crowd of people on whom He has compassion. He then heals their sick and ministers to them. Afterward, the disciples have the following response, "15As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

They were tired, had a busy day, they were probably hungry, so their response was reasonable, right? Note Christ's instruction to them, "16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." If you have been to Sunday School, you know that in the following verses, Jesus works a miracle with a little boy's sack lunch and feeds the estimated 10,000+ people there.

OK, cool story, so what, I can't turn 5 loaves and 2 fish into a convention buffet. The Holy Spirit taught me a different application of the above mentioned verses. As parents, especially in the busy lives we lead, we too often tend to want to send our kids away to church, school (or Christian school), or wherever to learn about life and faith. But I think that Jesus' words to the disciples are apropos to us, "you feed them."

Much to the surprise of parishioners, it is not the church's responsibility to disciple our kids, but rather, according to Deuteronomy 6:4-9, WE are given that mantle. Too often we fuss and complain about what our schools are teaching or what the TV is allowing into our kids heads, but we abdicate our God given task to raise up our kids in the way they should go. We must be the primary source of information that our children receive, not the V-chip or the school board.

This is not a treatise on home school or Christian verses public school. The truth is I have seen both godly and pagan kids come out of both. By far the ones that the kids really rose above the culture were ones that Mom AND Dad actively pursued discipling their OWN children.

Our church is seeking a new youth pastor, and my pastor shared with me that one of the youths' parents had made the comment that if we didn't replace the youth pastor soon, we would lose our youth, since we didn't have, "anyone to disciple them." I think Christ would say the same thing to them and He did the disciples... "YOU FEED THEM!"

Mouth Candy

"The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."

-Isaiah 29:13

As a worship pastor, this is one of the most haunting verses to me. I want more than anything to give myself and my life to my Lord in total abandonment as a sacrifice of praise to Him, that everything I say and do be an offering of worship to Him. I do not want myself nor those entrusted to me that I lead in worship to fall into the trap of giving lip service to the Lord. However, I know that I do. I know this because, He shows me daily areas of my life that are not completely surrendered.

Last night, is a great example. We hosted a Missions Festival to celebrate what God did through our Mission Team we sent to Thailand earlier this year and to increase awareness of our adopting a certain unengaged people group therein. The team, as well as, a new Missionary couple stationed nearby, spoke of cultural differences between us and Thai people. One of these was the food that the people eat. Of course, there were pictures of fried grasshoppers, silkworms, et. al. Now, I was a youth pastor for over a decade, and I traversed this ministry without consuming anything that I deemed strange or "abnormal." I found myself struck by the question, would I be willing to crunch down on an insect to avoid insulting a local that I was trying to win favor with to share the gospel. I am not sure I could go heartily into that realm, yet this is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Worship, is not just the songs we sing on Sundays, that is just a small expression of what is taking place inside our hearts. If we say we love Him, but our faith does not permeate all that we do and are, our faith is useless, as James states in James 2:19-21. Read the verse, Notice the example he gives at the end of verse 21, he is talking about true worship.

I was in DFW area this weekend, and I saw on a church billboard the title of a Bible Study series they were promoting, and I liked what it said, "Stop Dating the Church." I think that captures much of what the vast majority of people in American churches do nowadays. But as I read Isaiah's words above, apparently not much has changed with God's people. Today, may it not be said of me that my heart is far from you, Lord.

Follow Through

If you play golf, baseball or anything where you have to swing an item to participate, you have likely been told in order to be using correct form, you must follow through with your swing. Therein lies a truth to be learned in our Christian walk. Consider James' words:

"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." - James 5:12

Over the past few years, if you know me, you know that Jill and I have endured much in the way of wounding from those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. So much so, that I now am learning to trust again. The up side of that is that God has taught me that He alone will never forsake me. The down side is that when you are in ministry, in order to function as the Body, I believe, you have to have a certain amount of transparency and vulnerability and rely on each other. I am not so naive to believe that I must bear all of my soul to all that I come into contact with at all times, but I also have been in ministry long enough to have learned that if you are not real with folks and cannot depend on each other, it is not healthy and can impede your effectiveness as the Body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

However, with that said, I think one of the things that I struggle with the most being back in ministry, is being able to take people at their word. And unfortunately, believers do not make it easy. I have had a habit of overcommitting myself like many, but at the core of who I am, I feel it is sin to say "I will do that" and never follow through. I cannot tell you how many people tell me they will do such and such and never do it regardless if it is big or small things. To me, if an non-believer is watching us from the outside (and they are!), and sees that we, for the vast majority of the time, fail to keep our commitments to each other (and they do!), why would he or she want anything to do with the church.

If you have no intention on following through with what you say, just say, "no, I am sorry I cannot do that at this time." In my book, to not do so is the same as lying and showing a lack of integrity. To quote Paul, " not that I have attained all this," but when I do screw up and overcommit and can't follow through, I accept my lumps, confess I dropped the ball and ask for forgiveness. I certainly don't turn around and do it again and again destroying my credibility with others. I know I am whining about a pet peeve of mine, and I apologize. But, I keep coming back to the verse quoted above. Let us strive for excellence in all that we say and do and may it be all for His glory. Amen.

Father's Day

Due to a hectic schedule my blogs have been sporadic lately, and they still promise the same for the next few days as I shift back into a more normal ritual. Though my times in the Word have been rich, as I sat down to blog, I wasn't really sure what to write on until after I was catching up reading a friend's blog. He was reminiscing of times of old with his brother and hearing his father's whistle. His words painted pictures in my mind. Not just because his words are so craftily woven, but because they cry out to a heart full of dreams that were never realized. That of adventures with a faithful companion who is your brother. Cheerful memories of a loving father's discipline and instruction. I am truly grateful that I know people that had the blessing of an earthly father, one who taught them how to shoot, fish, play ball, and and maybe even how to walk with the Lord.

However, my own childhood memories were a far cry from those images. For the better part of my life, I sought those things. I longed for those things. Sometimes to the point of putting unfair and even unspoken expectations on men that I knew. Dad died when I was seven, and when he did I was left to a house full of girls. My closest friends' growing up were poster children of the dysfunctional. Many of you also, fall into the category of being fatherless. Perhaps yours was alive, but you were separated by a divorce, some kind of abuse, abandonment, or just neglect.

And yet, in all of my searching on earth, I was left disappointed time and time again. I tried to hide my pain in a fantasy world make-believing I was someone good-looking, strong, smart and even superhuman. Much of this carried well into my adult life.

Yesterday, I celebrated my fourth Father's Day, and in addition to being blessed with two beautiful girls, I was once again reminded of a truth that God gives me again and again. Even in my reading through Malachi this morning. It was something I learned only a few years ago. The Bible, especially the Old Testament is full of expressions of God's heart of compassion for the fatherless. My favorite is that He is a "father to the fatherless."

Once I realized this truth, it set me free from the prison of regret. I began leaning on my true Father. One who will never leave or disappoint me. So, even though, I cannot recall boyhood memories of doing "father-son" things with my dad, I know without a shadow of a doubt, that those memories are yet to be made. When I will walk hand in hand in the cool of the day in heaven with my heavenly Father who loves me. The awesome thing about God is that He is big enough to be a Father to all of the fatherless. I am often comforted by Paul's words in describing of what we as children of God partake.

"Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."" - Galatians 4:6

In the greek, the word, "Abba" is different from Father, it means Papa or Daddy. I hope you too have found the joy of crawling up into Abba's lap as I have.

Missional Living

This week was a long one. Jill & I spent from Sunday evening to Wednesday at the SBC Convention in San Antonio. It started Sunday afternoon with my getting sick, and still recovering to this day. It was long primarily because sitting through a 2 1/2 day Baptist business meeting is hard enough trying to keep focused, but when your head is pounding and you are battling a upper respiratory infection, the days really drag on. Nevertheless, we survived. I have little patience for this type of convention, and found myself remembering why it was that I left the Baptist church years ago. In spite of this, I find myself once again serving in a Baptist church.

This convention did have a couple of redeeming points. The most significant being an after hours session which included an 1 1/2 hour worship set of awesome contemporary music followed by a teaching session by a pastor I have been following in recent months by the name of Bob Roberts. It was a powerful and challenging time as he spoke on something he is on the leading edge of- "Missional Living." Missional living is essentially a postmodern alternative to the ecclesiology and missiology of Evangelical Christians. Is is a relatively new concept and has been a topic I have found myself studying recently. There is much debate on the topic, but guys like Roberts, Dan Kimball, and Ed Stetzer are leading the way on the more conservative evangelical side of things. In short, it is a mindset of outside the box thinking on missions and how to do church- a mindset I find myself embracing. Roberts defined missional living in this way, he stated that it is living your life in Christ in "total abandonment." Living here and now as if you were a missionary wherever God has you. He went on to say that to live missionally is to live not caring whether you live or die pursuing this kind of life. I kept waiting for a comic or sarcastic remark to soften the blow, but it never came. As I meditated further on this, my first response was, "wow, that is extreme!" However, the more I thought about it, the more I found myself accepting the validity of this statement, especially when the Spirit reminded me of a familiar passage where Paul says, "to live is Christ to die is gain..." When I looked up the passage in Philippians, it was even further driven home. Listen to the his words:

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!" -- Phil.1:20-22

It IS extreme, but true nonetheless. The conviction and shame that followed was heavier than I have experienced in a long time. I began to realize that although he was not saying that we must adopt an evangelical version of jihad, the attitude of total abandonment is a willingness to sacrifice all for the sake of Christ. It is wear the rubber meets the road. It is not the "touchy feel-ly churchianity" that I and most fo the American church has grown accustomed to. Even in the midst of my own frequent disgust with status quo religion, it was a wake up call to ask what do I really believe? I can't say that I have had this same conversation that Paul had with the Philippians, and that I have lived much of my existence trying to satisfy the desires of my flesh.

Lord, please forgive me. Your servant Jim Elliot was right, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Context is Everything

There may be something seriously wrong with me. This afternoon, I had two individuals walk all over me, poke their finger in my chest and spit upon me. To tell you the truth, I rather enjoyed it. At first when you consider it, it might turn your stomach or cause great anger, and yet, it did not do so with me. It was an experience that I will log as one that I can look back on and cherish when I am old, should the Lord tarry.

Am I a sick man? Am I a deviant? Perhaps, and perhaps that is a question best answered by those who are closest to me. And yet, as with many things in life, context is the key. we have a popular phrase that captures the essence of this sentiment: "You just had to be there!"

Now for the context. This past week was VBS week, and I spent no less that 13 hours at the church every day since Sunday. With late night and early early mornings since, I was exhausted. I lay down for a short nap and didn't wake up until almost four hours later. It was a time of refreshing for me. I probably could have slept longer, but Jill woke me, and she was soon joined by my two daughters who climbed on the bed and crawled and walked all over me. This was followed by Selah finding fascination with my navel thrusting her finger therein and her older sister jabbing her finger into my armpits trying to tickle me. Selah then began kissing me, which if you you have received a kiss from a toddler lately, they are anything but a dry. I am a truly rich man. . .

But I guess you just had to be there!

We Made Our Beds

I have spent a lot of extra time reviewing Old Testament passages lately. I don't know if you have you ever noticed how many parallels there are of America and the nation of Israel therein? I see America written all over the book of Judges. My current study through the exilic period holds true as well. Perhaps part of it is because people are sinners wherever or whenever you are. But also, it is curious when you consider the likeness in self perception. America has long held itself up as the chosen nation, what with Democracy and all. Yet, like many nations and cultures in the past, we fail to learn from the past generations. We then wonder why things are as bad as they are. Here is a snippet of what I read today in Zechariah, chapter 1,

"1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:
2 "The LORD was very angry with your forefathers. 3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Return to me,' declares the LORD Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD Almighty. 4 Do not be like your forefathers, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.' But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD. 5 Where are your forefathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? "Then they repented and said, 'The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.'"

White Rocks

Pharisees are alive and well on planet earth. This week is VBS week at our church. Our program is a Ranch-Themed evening program, and so by the time I have been at the office all day and running around with kids all night, I am pretty grimy. Last night, I was at home preparing to avail myself of the daily sludge in the shower when I received a call from my pastor. He needed help.

A family in our church recently lost a mother, their original plan was to hold services at the church-home of the deceased. Apparently, there had been a last minute change. The host church's young pastor (a 25 year old independent fundamentalist) had told the family and their guests that they would have to adhere to his rules for music and attire or they could not use their facility.

Needless to say, my phone call at 9:30PM tells you what their choice was. In a flurry of an hour with many hands we transformed a Ranch-themed VBS auditorium to funeral ready. This turn of events wounded the family deeply. But fortunately in addition to legalism, they also were able to taste the sweetness of grace. The Lord was grieved and glorified in the same night. It angers me and breaks my heart at some people's zeal for the wrong things. Christ speaks directly to these types of situations in two places in Matthew's Gospel.

"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of
heaven."
- Matthew 5:20

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
- Matthew 23:27-28

Incidentally, the whole of chapter 23 is worthy reading on this matter.

On Your Face!

I was reading the following verse as I finished in my morning study through the book of Ezra,

"10:1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly."

These people had come face to face with a repeat of a heinous offense against God, and this verse shows that when confronted with it, how they responded. In just the previous verse here are their words,

"'Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.'"

I was deeeply convicted in what I read. I know how many times I have stood before the Lord after I had sinned against Him, and seldom has my response been so laden with the intense grief before a holy God as is demonstrated in these two verses. Max Lucado, most commonly known for his writing about the grace of our Lord, makes the following cutting statement about this same topic, "Sin is not an unfortunate slip or a regrettable act; it is aposture of defiance against a holy God."

Oh Lord, would that I should mourn bitterly over my own sinfulness.

It is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up "our own" when it is no longer worth keeping. If God were proud, He would hardly have us on such terms.

-- C. S. Lewis

Tragedy

I observed a horrific tragedy in the news this week. A young mother of 4 hanged her children and herself in desparation. All but the youngest (8 months) perished. The mother was 23, her oldest child was 6. She was apparently distraught when her commonlaw husband left her. I do not know this woman beyond what the media has told, and my heart breaks over the murder of her innocent little girls. If my math adds up she was a mother at 17 years old. The sad thing is that this example is becoming increasingly more common.

What I find even more tragic is I wonder where the church is in the midst of lives that are so desparate that they feel that killing themselves and their own children is the only way out. Jesus Christ has called us to be salt and light... he has called me to be salt and light. We are to live our lives in such a way that we draw people to Jesus. Jesus said we are either gathering or scattering. I often get caught up with others in complaining about how our society has gone to pot, but I wonder if we as the church were truly being salt and light where we live and work how much of this would be going on. Now please don't misunderstand me, I understand that this world is not our home, that we are sojourners here, and that this is a fallen world. However, that does not negate the fact that we are to season and illumine our world. But instead, the world influences us.

I know that sometimes this responsibility can be overwhelming, what can I do? I am one person. True, but each one of us can make a difference in the lives of a few.

Consider the lyrics of this song, Love Them Like Jesus by Mark Hall:

The love of her life is drifting away
Their losing the fight for another day
The life that she's known is falling apart
A fatherless home, a child's broken heart
You're holding her hand, your straining for words
You trying to make - sense of it all
She's desperate for hope, darkness clouding her view
She's looking to you

Chorus
Just love her like Jesus, carry her to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don't need the answers to all of life's questions
Just know that He loves her and stay by her side
Love her like Jesus, Love her like Jesus

The gifts lie in wait, in a room painted blue
Little blessing from heaven be there soon
Hope fades in the night, blue skies turn to gray
As a little one slips away
You're holding their hand, your straining for words
You trying to make - sense of it all
Their desperate for hope, darkness clouding their view
Their looking to you

Chorus

Lord of all creation holds our lives in His hands
The God of all the nations holds our lives in His hands
The rock of our salvation holds our lives in His hands
He cares for them just as He cares for you

Chorus

We are to love them like Jesus.