Today, I am just enjoying the quiet while I write and think a little bit.  The next few weeks are going to be a radical shift for my family and I.  I’ve never done a long-distance move before.  I’ve contemplated it when I interviewed at churches in Lake Havasu, AZ and Kalispell, MT & sent a resume out to Juneau, AK.  As you can tell probably, Becca & I are really excited about the move.

There is a bittersweet part of moving in all of it too.  We had gotten pretty close to our church family at Narrow Road Community Church.  I mean, they knew we were looking for where God would take us since we first started attending there.  I had mentioned it in prayer enough while I was frustrated with the job search (which was often).  They knew also that it was wearing on us considering Becca being pregnant and also the primary provider for our family financially.  But we love these people.  We had gotten involved in numerous ways (not as much as we wanted even) and really felt loved.  They have in many ways become family to us.

I know there are problems in every church, but being at Narrow Road Community Church has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with a church… warts and all.  We have been blessed beyond measure, prayed for, lifted up emotionally & spiritually and invested into while being a part of the family there.  There’s been way more opportunity to get connected with the church family that I’ve never been able to take advantage of.  More ways to serve than you could shake a stick at.  I can honestly say that no one in that church feels like they are left out feeling that they don’t know how they can get involved.  If they do, it’s their own fault.  Now I know not every church is destined to be a mega-church.  I had never understood that till I came to Narrow Road.  Some churches are meant to be small.  Small is what they do best.  A congregation can be cared for adequately.  People can grow together in ways they just can’t in a big church.  The pastors (both of them) excite in me a passion for preaching the Word, really caring about people, and just being around them you know you are loved and cared for yourself.  I don’t know if Narrow Road is destined to be a large church, but I can say they do small really well and I think they would do large well too.

I am not belittling the lessons I’ve learned elsewhere before coming to Narrow Road as a burned out (probably mostly my own fault) recent Associate Pastor from another local church, but here is where I’ve been re-ignited, reforged, and set aflame with passion again.  Narrow Road has been a refuge for me and a place of renewing for both Becca & I.  I hope in the future I can maintain the relationships I’ve found at Narrow Road and bridges can be built in the Kingdom of God for God’s Word to be spread all the more because of it.

I got a job!

But job sounds like something you do for money as in “selling out”.  I prefer the term “position” because it sounds more like the way I view it.  Doing something you love while getting paid and being able to provide for your family doing it.  So what does this mean for the immediate future.  Well, we are moving for one.  Right now the moving is scrounging around for moving boxes and trying to pack while looking for a place to live.

So now for the details.  The church is Franklin First United Methodist Church in Franklin, KY.  This means we are moving in the next few weeks.  Becca is really excited as it means going back south.  Kentucky is her home state and as she’s lived pretty much all over western Kentucky, she counts the whole state as “hometown” for the most part.  We will be about an hour away from Mammoth Caves, 45 minutes away from Nashville, 30 minutes or less from Bowling Green.  I will be the Youth & Young Adults Pastor at the church Full-time & Becca will get to be a stay-at-home mom (which is what she wants to do).  She is also probably going to start writing on her site a lot more, www.motherhoodfordummies.com.

Now, the only thing I’ll be worried about is the fact that I’m going to be working with this guy below as he is the pastor at the church I’m going to.  He’s the one on the right.

See I didn’t realize the underlying Jewish Rabbi Cult that has permeated the United Methodist Church.  The fact that he has Henna Art on his hand along with painted fingernails.  I will assume that this image is of some strange new age Jewish wedding or “The Night of the Henna”.  Looking at Wikipedia I find: (via this link under the section for “Traditions of Henna as body Art”)

The Night of the Henna was celebrated by most groups in the areas where henna grew naturally: Jews,^[11] Muslims,^[12] Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrians, among others, all celebrated marriages by adorning the bride, and often the groom, with henna.

But if you aren’t doing anything on Sunday and you live in the area, we’d love to have you join us.  Check out the post on the church website for more info.

To tell the truth I look forward to listening to it again myself… but I’ll try to sum up what I got out of the sermon today that challenged me.

• It’s the overflow of our faith which is the outpouring of worship.
• Faith gives it’s best.
• Faith is how we know we are saved.
• Faith calls us to do things that look strange to others who don’t have faith.

I am sure I am not quite getting all the points that were listed, but what it comes down to is this.  Everything in the Christian life comes down to an issue of faith.  From what we give of our time, ourselves and our income to how we live on a daily basis.  Without faith, it’s just words and works.  Neither of which will save us.  Faith is how we understand.  Not knowledge.  Not more study.  More faith.

I have a friend who likes to study things and devise theories on how God works.  But he is quite lost.  I don’t think he knows it either.  He knows a lot of God.  He is a pastor even.  But deep down it seems he has pushed faith aside for ideologies, philosophies, and mere spirituality.

I am challenged by this because it means that all the Bible Study in the world won’t get me closer to God unless it comes from a genuine faith that God will meet me when I come to Him.

I find that a scary proposition actually, but also quite freeing.  Faith must come first.

Hebrews 11, Genesis 4

His will.

Our will.

That’s all it really comes down to. So when we pray those words “Not my will, but thine… on earth as it is in Heaven” is a prayer that encompasses the heart of repentance. To turn away and become infatuated with what God’s will is rather than our own. This is the great denial. This is the catch. This is where we die and Christ lives…

…if we let Him.

So I am beginning something new. I don’t want to be the same old me anymore. “Me” doesn’t work. God does.

Part of the point of this is complete brutal honesty about where I am and where God takes me over the course of the next six months. Maybe this journey can be helpful to someone else too. I know that I am led to begin the adventure to real transformation and for now that is my only goal. To be transformed by a real and authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.

The greatest gift you can give to the world is your own intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Over the years I’ve struggled with the sin of anger in my life.  I’ve never came out to say that I am an “Angry Person” and just expected people to embrace my anger as a part of who I am.  It would be ludicrous to think that just because I struggle with an issue that I need to define myself by that particular sin and label myself accordingly.  God’s word says anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires (James 1:19-21).  Sure I can try to justify it and say that “God made me this way” but the truth of it is that it’s my own selfish desires that cause me to be angry.

God’s word is pretty clear on God’s stance on homosexuality.  It is clear that homosexuality is sin according to God’s word.

But, I am not here to argue that point.  Can someone legitimately struggle with homosexuality just as much as one struggles with pornography or a gambling addiction?  I think the answer is yes.  But just as you wouldn’t hold a person up who is an excessive unrepentant alcoholic and present them as a leader, you also can’t in good faith say that a homosexual is fit to be placed in authority in the Church.  The two things don’t mix.  Light and dark cannot coexist.

Now that probably sounds harsh.  I know.  You don’t say those things today in our culture.

So what is the place of person who refuses to acknowledge sin as being sin?

• To be welcome as a participant, but not a leader.  (Worship)
• To be loved and built up in the knowledge of Christ as a brother or sister.  (Fellowship)
• To be spoken to forthrightly about the sin in their lives in love.  (Accountability)
• To have an understanding that they are choosing to be in the midst of those who believe that God’s word is authoritative and that sin will be confronted wherever it is found.  (Teaching)
• If they chose to assert their will over that of God’s word openly for the purpose of inciting others, they will be asked to leave because God has called us to live in peace.  (Discipleship)

What is the place of the person who struggles against the sin in their lives and fights against it?

• To be welcome as a participant, and depending on the influence and nature of the particular sin, serve as a leader.  (Worship)
• To be loved and built up in the knowledge of Christ as a brother or sister.  (Fellowship)
• To be spoken to forthrightly about the sin in their lives in love.
• To have an understanding that they are choosing to be in the midst of those who believe that God’s word is authoritative and that sin will be confronted wherever it is found.
• If they chose to assert their will over that of God’s word openly for the purpose of inciting others, they will be asked to leave because God has called us to live in peace.

Did you notice anything?  Only the first of the points was any different.  Let me throw one more category in here.

What is the place of the person who says they have no sin in their lives?

• To be welcome as a participant, but not a leader.  (Worship)

Yes, it’s the same as the first category.  The other four areas are the same too…

• To be loved and built up in the knowledge of Christ as a brother or sister.  (Fellowship)
• To be spoken to forthrightly about the sin in their lives in love.  (Accountability)
• To have an understanding that they are choosing to be in the midst of those who believe that God’s word is authoritative and that sin will be confronted wherever it is found.  (Teaching)
• If they chose to assert their will over that of God’s word openly for the purpose of inciting others, they will be asked to leave because God has called us to live in peace.  (Discipleship)

So what is the difference?

Pride and Humility.  The unrepentant sinner refuses God’s will and so their pride keeps them from being in relationship with God.  To them, they have set themselves up as a God in their own eyes.  They are not fit to be a leader.  The ones who say they have no sin in their lives are fooling themselves and living in the delusion that they determine what is right or wrong.  The one who struggles against sin is the only one who acknowledges that they are indeed in need of the forgiveness and grace offered by Jesus Christ.  This is the only person who is capable of repentance.  Both of the other categories much first reach the place where they have acknowledged sin in their lives before they can come to this place.

Sin is defined by God.  We all do sin.  If you are struggling against sin in your life you have come to the place where you know you are fallible and are in need of God in your life.  In short, you are where God wants you to be so He can change you from the inside out.

If you have labeled yourself by your sin, you are in need of healing that God can provide.

If you say you have no sin, then you are delusional and in need of healing as well.

We humans do have this incredible imagination.  It’s a creative part of ourselves that lingers on the things that cannot be in this world.  From day to day I think we tend to think too small.  We think “if only” or “what if” about the things that we see around us.  These are merely daydreams that are entirely possible, though maybe absurdly outside rational thought.  We tease ourselves with winning the lottery or some rich relative that could die when it comes to money.  We think about how we could benefit from a billion other endeavors without doing a thing.  Maybe some of us even think about professional advancement in some way.

Amazing and wonderful some of these things may be they are still small-minded when it comes to the gifts of heaven & eternal life through the forgiveness of sins.

We got into a discussion this last week at Bible Study about what Heaven would be like.  How could we even hope to understand it?  Jesus Christ will be there with the Father and the Spirit.  We will be in fellowship with the creator of all of it.  We know that.  But what will it look like?  How will we interact on a regular basis in so vast a place as Heaven, a “paradise” as Jesus put it to the thief on the cross?  I have a few ideas.

Our imaginations will be set free beyond ourselves.

As a creative guy myself, I find this thought completely freeing.  Often, I get caught up in pleasing others for the sake of myself or even just pleasing myself.  I aim to please God, but often I end up settling lower than where I feel the work needs to be.  When it comes to Heaven, we will have no audience but God.  Yes, you too can be the ultimate kazoo player in the worship band of Heaven (or at least one of the bands).  I am convinced that the surest proof that Heaven truly exists is that we have imaginations that God has given us to procure an idea about what Heaven could be, then blow us away with the reality someday.  Why?  Because, I think He likes to really make us happy.  If the mere thought of Heaven and what it could be thrills you, then I think that you will be more than pleasantly surprised when you do get there.

Adventure.

I tend to be the kind of guy that like to look behind closed doors.  I am naturally curious.  Often, I think God put huge bones in the ground not because large dinosaurs once roamed the earth, but because it thrills us to find and imagine what it could mean.  I enjoy looking under rocks and finding things that I didn’t know where there.  I live in central Ohio where large earthworks were once built by the Native Americans that once lived here.  It is amazing to think an ancient culture once lived here.  I think that it is pretty amazing to think that people once lived, worked and loved where we are today and they built something that has lasted the test of time to get to our age and invoke such curiosity in us today.

I think we will find in Heaven an adventure that never ends.  We will find strange stars to look at and navigate across oceans large enough to swallow the sun whole.  Though some will argue that animals won’t be in Heaven, even the book of Revelations talks about strange beasts.  I think we will find those there too.  Yet we will not fear them.  In the presence of the author of Life itself, death itself will not be present.  In the absence of fear we will conquer the most wild of the beasts and sit around a bonfire on a sand strewn beach gazing at the Heavens retelling the story as we feast on the meat and fruit of the land.  Not out of wanton hunger, but because of a hunger for more of the life freely given.  I don’t know what I will do when I get to Heaven, but at some point you will find me on the prow of a ship, my face set toward the vast horizon with the wind blowing in my hair, eyes set on the setting sun while I think on what it will be like to sail into that golden bliss and harbor in the New Jerusalem with a tale to tell of the adventures that befell me on the unnamed islands of the great seas of that place.

Beauty & Love.

From what we can tell of scripture.  We won’t be married in Heaven.  We’ll all be free to be in perfect harmony with God and all of His creations.  Can you imagine just being in love with everyone?  For women, every man your lover or brother without jealousy or animosity.  For men, every woman your wife or sister you love dearly.  I’m not talking about sex either.  There is an intimacy that goes beyond sex or mere fancy.  We will be free to experience that with everyone in perfect unity with the one who made it all possible.

When it comes to beauty…  have you ever looked at a painting or a work of art that you always saw something new in?  Maybe a melody that you could listen to countless times and still hear a new note?  We see glimpses of that beauty here.  The way the clouds move or the way the filtered light casts a wonderful silent pale light right before a storm.  I think of all things, I will like the storms in Heaven.  To dance across the fields in wild abandon while lightning flashes about me… the thought even fills my heart with joy to think about it.  No harm could befall me.  The idea of experiencing all of nature as it was meant to be experienced without fear or consequence other than endless joy makes me smile even now to think about.  That is how beauty is meant to be experienced.  With both hands, grabbed up and immeasurably poured out, splashed about and yes, played in.

Then there is God.

I love the way C.S. Lewis talks about Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, and I know I can’t do it justice without the actual experience, but I should hope to meet Christ first when I get to Heaven.  To fall in those arms that stretched out and died on a Roman cross in the history of man, to embrace the one who embraced all that condemned me to death seems more than incredible.  The Lion, the Lamb, the King on His throne, the Jewish carpenter, the Man, we will see Him.  I could talk forever about how the place of Heaven fills me with incredible visions of what it will be, but one thing that I have trouble imagining is the meeting between the fallen creation that I am, and the God of all creation who took my place because He loved me that much.  For some reason, I think this will be one of those things that happens privately in Heaven.  I mean why not?  You have all eternity and God could do whatever He pleases anyway.  But a moment with the One where He gives you a new name and calls you His own is immeasurable.  The greatest thing about it is that from then on, He is with you.  The friend closer than any other.  To go with the artist of it all and experience the fullness of all of Heaven with God Himself  is the pinnacle of it all.

Conclusion.

Heaven is more than just a thought.  It is a place, a paradise in every way.  Imagination exists because Heaven exists.  While here on this earth, imagination is limited, but what will happen when it’s set free?  Think about this.  When our imagination is set free and we can come up with things we never thought, Heaven will still be greater than those thoughts and still surprise with the splendor that will exist for us to experience.  When you begin to understand it from this perspective, when Jesus says He is the only way to get there, it doesn’t sound exclusive anymore.  Giving up my will for this abundant, beautiful existence is really just exchanging rags for all the riches this world can offer.  When we welcome Christ into our hearts to be our savior, we are handing ourselves over and saying “do what you will, I am yours”.   The amazing thing is that He takes it and hands us ourselves back, set free from the chains of sin.  He takes us, and gives us our true selves.  If you think about it, you are giving the creator back His creation that fell of it’s own accord and somehow became broke… back to the creator who fixes it better than it was in the first place.  When you surrender yourself, you become more yourself and more fit to experience the place that awaits you on the other side.

I recently took apart my wife’s iPod touch to fix a cracked screen and got a first hand look at the inside of one of these devices. There’s a lot crammed into one of these little electronic wonders. You can tell there is a design that caters to a specific purpose. I could go on here about how evolution looks at something much more unique than an iPod touch, the human body and supposes that it just sprang up over millennium, but an iPod touch could not just come together over time on it’s own. Then it becomes an iPad overnight. But here is the point. A lot of thought went into these devices and furniture. This for us is like doctrine and theology. It is the innards of the faith that we come to appreciate from the way that it functions outwardly.

Not everyone sees the insides of the faith if they don’t take the time to look. But it’s there. It is reflected in our thoughts, the way we love, the way we worship and relate to God and His creation. It may look simple on the outside, but it’s deeper than that. Now if only our faith got a cool graphics display and touchscreen functionality!

Many so-called Christians want to fight it out with the atheists about if there is a God, historical data, and silly philosophical questions.  The best way to fight atheism isn’t knowledge.  It isn’t knowing more historical data.  It isn’t even having the answers to the fossil record that neither Christian nor Atheist can explain in full.  It’s in how we love.

If we truly love, the fighting won’t matter.  It will be seen.  If we love the atheists that try so hard to convince us that there is no God, we nullify the very argument through genuine compassion, real prayer and a life lived in the Spirit.

Today, there are Christians who are fed up “with the institution of the church”.  Sure they phrase it all sorts of ways.  Really, it’s a cop out.  They are fed up with people who play at being the church and excluding the very people they need to be showing love to.  Don’t get me wrong.  A life that is actively being lived in sin has no place within church leadership.  But we all fall short of God’s perfect will.  We all sin.  Yes, Christians sin.  It’s the belief in Christ forgiveness of our sins that we find grace.

So my encouragement is yes, steep yourself in the knowledge.  Study science.  Study biology.  Study philosophy.  The church has long neglected the sciences and arts because of those who use it for evil.  But inquiry is made not just for knowledge.  It is made for the affirmation of faith.  But don’t use the weapons of knowledge against the ones who have made up their mind already.  Knowledge without faith is merely looking at the creation and refusing to aknowledge a creator.  Only half of the puzzle makes any sense at all.  If you turn it around and look at science, history, sociology, philosophy from the perspective of realizing that God is, that He exists and is active within His creation, all of creation will speak… nay, sing of His wonder

We have watched unborn infants sanctioned to death by a government that does not value life.
We have become fearful of stepping up and speaking of our faith because it may offend someone.
We have a history of fakers, slanderers, liars, cheats and scoundrels in our midst.
We have more voice than ever before to show Jesus Christ at work in our lives.

While all around us our liberties and freedoms are not being ripped from our grasp. They are being given away. Easily deceived by hopes of a grander future, we have handed over the inheritance of gold to be made into golden calves that we all bow down to. We will taste the bitter cup of that drink in good time.

But there is still time today. We have today, this moment to make a difference.

We need to stand together across denominational lines, across racial, economic and personal ambitions and be the church we were called to be.

I don’t care if you speak in tongues. I was not blessed with that gift of the Spirit. But, one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience. Another is self-control.

We are one body after all. The fruits of the Spirit need to be evident now more than ever so that we can enact the message of Christ that we need to be presenting and quit dividing ourselves along lines that do not matter more than the fact that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins, to set us free from sin and give us the gift of life. Abundant life in Him.

We cannot hold to both life and sin which causes death at the same time.

It is not up to what I think, or your professor thinks, or the blogger who you read…. or how we twist the word of God to say what we want it to say. It says what it says because God said what He meant for all generations and He used men from all walks of life to convey that message.

I was given a book the other day.  I’m not going to share what it was just yet.  But it made me think a little more about some things that I’ve thought over the years.  A lot about the way I have thought about things in relation to the churches I’ve been a part of in a leadership capacity and as a fellow lay minister at times.

Let me first say publicly, I am sorry.  Now, I know that on it’s own doesn’t really seem to make much sense, but let me share a little about why I am sorry.  I’ve often been critical of leadership in churches.  I’ve never been public about these criticisms.  It’s been more of an internal struggle about how I should submit to the authority of someone who in my opinion wasn’t submitting to God themselves.  I may have outwardly done all the right things, but often internally I’ve struggled when I have seen churches do things at the bidding of their pastors or ministers that has been contrary to what I believe God wanted.  Often, I believe that feeling may have been folly.  Not because the ministers or pastors were right, but because in my mind I tried to judge how God was leading them to lead.

Granted, I didn’t act on it in an outward fashion.  I’ve thought about it.  I’ve laid schemes in my head hundreds of times about how I would do things differently.  How I would change things if “I were in charge”.

I think one of the greatest gifts God has given me is a short attention span.  I entertain ideas and move onto things very fast.  I don’t hold grudges because I often forget why I am holding grudges in the first place.  So I think that has been beneficial to me in the past for avoiding the types of conflict I otherwise would have found myself in.

But here is the point.

I have been blessed by God in the sense that He has kept me from personal ruin thus far because of the way that He created me.  I don’t think God has shielded me for my own sake though.  I think He has protected ministries from me more often than He has given me authority because He knew that it was beyond me to be the leader that He wanted me to be.  I won’t dare claim brokenness.  I also won’t claim that I have been chastened to the point that I am the ultimate embodiment of who God wants me to be.  I will claim instead, Christ.

I don’t understand Jesus. I don’t get Him at times.  I sin.  I fall short at times.  If someone were looking to me for guidance and an example, I hope they don’t check their brains at the door and forget that I am fallible.

I claim Christ because of grace.  This is the thing that separates Christianity from all other faiths.  The fact that a perfect God could love an imperfect people and give Himself up for them.  I guess this is why I don’t feel that I “belong” to a particular denomination. I belong to Christ.  No General Superintendent of whatever conference took my sin.  Jesus took it.  Often we could fight all day about open communion or closed communion, but ultimately it doesn’t come down to a ritual practice.  It comes down to a relationship between us & God, and our relationship with people who though fallen, were created in His image.  How I treat those people in my thoughts regardless of whether they are right or not, reveals how I am also treating God.

All of which were quite distracting from reading the Bible together.

Spiritual warfare?

I started a series awhile back called “full disclosure” and one of my little business card slogans was “I am praying for you”.  But, I think I even perpetrate a misconception about prayer at times.  Prayer isn’t something that we do because it’s easy to close our eyes and act like life doesn’t get messy at times.  Life gets quite messy, dirty, and rather unpleasant at times.  God knows that.  Jesus even died on the cross a messy, horrible, even nasty death so He knows it better than we can imagine.  He even prayed a messy prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood and asking His Father if there were any other way.  But we often use prayer as an excuse to get out of real life situations that are quite hard to deal with.  The bad part about it all is the fact that most times when we flippantly tell someone that you are praying for them, that we completely forget to do so.  Or worse yet, it’s just the “Christian” (say it with sarcasm) way of telling someone to bugger off!

found via shallowfrozenwater (awesome find by the way)

All we get out of sin is death and destruction.

Sure, sins seem nice when they are happening. We even try to justify them a thousand different ways. But what it ultimately comes down to is that God is God. He is the one who decides if something is sin or not. In fact God even holds Himself up as the standard of Truth and righteousness.

If there is question about it, stay away.

It gets me that some argue that certain things are not sin because it’s part of their genetic makeup. I find it amazing that they have come to that conclusion because scripture tells us we have a problem called “sinful nature”. I won’t deny it.

• I am likely to speed every time I drive, so I use the cruise control to keep myself in check.
• My mother was an alcoholic, therefore I stay away from beer.

It’s really that simple.  I realize that I am prone to a certain sin so I take more measures against it. Sin is still part of our nature though. Often, those sins we are most likely to commit are also the ones that we are most aware of actually being sin and are the ones we usually fight most vehemently that they are not.

The opposite of rebellion is repentance.

Once we are aware of our sin, we can accept God’s grace. Repentance means humbling yourself and turning around and going the other way when you realize you were wrong. Rebellion is going the way you know is wrong knowing it is wrong.

Sin and the Church.

Unfortunately, many people who attend church have gotten it backwards. Church is a gathering of sinners who recognize their own depravity and want to be in community with other people seeking out the way of repentance. So the church can be divided in several categories of people.

• Those who recognize their own depravity and are somewhere in the process of turning away from it and seeking God.
• Those who think they have it all figured out and so waste their time by telling those who are seeking God where they think He is.
• Those who are delusional that their particular brand of sin is somehow acceptable to God and are seeking the acceptance of the church to somehow justify themselves.
• Those who really don’t care one way or the other so they go with whatever the majority thinks.

I’m a mess, you’re a mess, we’re all a mess.

Not to sound like an AA meeting, but we are all sinners and we have to come to recognize that fact first. You don’t have to justify it to me because God’s the one who has set the standard.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3

Godlessness in the Last Days

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Praying for You

Often, I pray for friends, family and people I meet. I think that some people perceive this as some kind of hidden motive if I tell someone I am praying for them. There is no hidden objective and no agenda behind it. It’s just a part of who I am in Christ. Other people influence me and I would be naive to think that I don’t influence them, so when I talk with God, yes I pray for those people. I also pray for things I write; that people’s hearts would be moved by God rather than by my own attempts. There really is no need to tell someone you are praying for them, but often when they know that you are, they mention specific ways that you can pray for them. Often for me, this also leads into a deeper and more open and meaningful relationship too.

“Adam.  Eve.  I know you are here.  I mean I am God.  Wait a second… are you trying to hide from me?!”  God laughs.

There is an absurdity here.  I like to think that God laughed here and yelled out “Marco?!”  But I bet what brought Adam and Eve out of hiding wasn’t laughter.  I bet it was tears.

• Bible: The book of Jeremiah
• Third Dawn by Bodie and Brock Thoene
• Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
• Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
• The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit By R. A. Torrey

I guess the interesting thing is that several of these are fiction.  Christian Fiction and Inspirational Fiction, but nonetheless fiction.  One is more Theology.  Then the other is the Bible.  But I was talking to my friend, Mark, who asked why I was reading fiction as part of my daily devotions.

So, Can Fiction be Devotional?

My answer is obviously yes.  Jesus used parables (stories) to illustrate the concepts of the word of God.  One of my personal greatest joys in life is reading fiction.  So doing something I really enjoy, not just like, is in a sense a part of my devotional life.  Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz actually illustrates this point in my reading today somewhere in chapter three.  He relates that story resonates with the Human condition because we are in a story.  We have a setting, a place where we live.  We have other characters, people we know, work with and play with, dislike and love.  There is a conflict, that fact that we are a fallen creation of God and He is working to redeem us.  The climax is the ultimate decision that we must make.  The resolution is that we can be restored or that God is indeed just.

Fiction also causes us to think outside ourselves.  One of my favorite books was written by author Stephen Lawhead, called Byzantium.  He relates a story of Aidan, a monk chosen to go on pilgrimage.  A journey that he sees in a dream will ultimately lead to his death.  He goes and faces all kinds of different situations.  The monks are attacked by Sea Wolves (danish pirates) and he is made a slave.  He endures slavery, is freed, then is attacked by Arabs and falls in love with a Arabian princess only to lose her when he abandons his faith.  He frees his fellow monks from being slaves in the silver mines and ultimately finishes his quest to appear before the emperor of Rome to find that his pilgrimage was in vain and that Rome is full of spies, speculation and Roman turmoil.  He eventually returns back to the monastery a broken man, without his faith.  But we find out that it was not all in vain.  The Danish Sea Wolves who attacked him and his friends have become friends and followers of the faith Aidan once boldly proclaimed while a slave with them.  He returns to where he once was a slave to become a priest, and eventually dies in Byzantium as a Bishop of the church fulfilling the dream that he would die there.  But he dies a content old man rather than a victim of a red martyrdom, a pilgrimage gone awry.

I think that the greatest benefit of fiction for my spiritual life is that in fiction I can live a life of someone else and learn the thoughts behind decisions that end for the good or the bad.  In doing so, I gain a greater understanding of my own motives and begin to see the story that exists underneath the surface of my own life and the greater story that I too am a part of.

I am trying to get back on track with my personal prayer life to where I feel I should be, but am finding it rather difficult.  Not the actual action of prayer, but the things that are happening when I have been praying are a little rough.  My mind wants to say that it’s “coincidence” and “normal things that just happen” but my spirit is telling me different.

I guess the question is “how to do recognize when you are up against a real spiritual attack?”   This is something that will require further study, but maybe first, a little prayer.

image source

I’ve seen too many people live with this kind of facade where all they do in front of other so-called “Christians” is live a lie.

I found this video on Vimeo earlier today and really liked the metaphor in it for Christians.  I’ve met a lot of so-called Christians who put this perfect front up that everything is fine when things in their personal lives are really screwed up.

• They may go to church like a regular couple on Sunday, but minutes before they walked through those doors they were ready to kill each other. The show continues till they get back in the car.
  
• They avoid talking about that relative who molested another family member because they fear being rejected by their family for opening up about the “family secret”.
  
• They struggle with private sins and habits and don’t ask for help because they fear that they will no longer be accepted in the church if it were to become known.
  
• Worry about looking and acting perfect has taken a toll on their lives, their stress levels and their faith.  They don’t know who they are anymore.

I’ve seen too many people live with this kind of facade where all they do in front of other so-called “Christians” is live a lie.

What happens when we become authentic in situations like these?

… when your pastor confesses that he still doubts at times?

… when your worship leader admits that he has a drug problem?

… when your youth pastor’s wife leaves him for someone else?

… when your teenage son or daughter tells you that they are going to be a parent?

Oh, we say we want authenticity.

We say we are seekers of the truth.  But how do we respond when people show that they are in fact marred by sin and regardless of position or pay, still in need of forgiveness and the hand of God working in their lives.

I remember there was this song we used to sing in children’s ministry when I was young:

He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He’s still working on me.

How often we proclaim our perfection and refuse to let Christ work in our lives!

Do I truly believe that everyone has the right to their own beliefs or lack thereof?

Romans 1:20 & 21 says “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

All creation bears witness to the creator.  So the lack of a belief that God exists is not the debate, for that there is no excuse.  But I guess that isn’t the question is it?   “Do I believe that everyone has the right…” is the key part of that phrase.

Did God bestow us with free will so that some can choose to have “their thinking become futile and their foolish hearts darkened”?

The answer in this case is yes.  I do believe that everyone has free will.  They can choose to think or believe whatever they want.  It may or may not be true.  I can sing “I’m a little tea pot short and stout..” all day, but I don’t suddenly become a little tea pot, short or tall or whatever.

Can I respect the person, even though I may not respect their ideas?

Everyone spells respect differently nowadays.  Some believe if you respect someone you will abandon the idea of sharing the truth that they are not the little clay tea-time reservoir that have come to believe themselves to be.  I tend to think of respect as a love for one another that gives honor not out of obligation but because I myself have been loved by a loving God.  If I show this love and I disagree with their ideas, this self-same love that I show also is mixed with pity.  One whom I love who has decided to live in darkness when light abounds.

So if the question is “will I love the person regardless of whether I believe them to be in error?” the answer is yes.

Do I have the capacity to recognize my own fallacies?

This is the root of my faith.  I am wrong.  In and of myself, I will never be right.  It is only through God that I can come into any kind of right (righteousness).  This is called mercy.  Any person who says they have it all figured out is either a “Liar, a lunatic or Lord”.  I’ve met many liars and lunatics but I’ve only met one Lord.  Jesus Christ.

Will it kill me if I were wrong?

Yes.  Oh wait, I didn’t mention that earlier.  We have to die.  In the Garden of Eden, God made one law that said “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil or you will die”.  Adam and Eve ate of the tree and both Adam and Eve died.  We all die.  This is what is considered “The Law” (along with the first five books of the Old Testament).  God set up all these standards for sacrifice so one could be cleansed from their sins.  But Jesus came and paid His one perfect sacrifice so that anyone who recognizes the authority of that sacrifice can be saved from the death that results in separation for eternity from God.

Galatians 2:19 & 20 sums that up.  ”For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Am I able to hold what I believe is truth lightly in the interest of dialog?

A good dialog doesn’t need anyone to hold onto truth lightly.  If it’s true, it will facilitate dialog rather than thwart it.  I liken this question to “Am I able to close my eyes and find my way over a ravine so that we may both reach the bottom?”  Sure, we’ll find the dialog, but if I am holding too lightly onto truth, what is the point of the dialog in the first place if it isn’t for a clearer understanding of the truth?

Now, that being said, I will listen rather than condescend.  But I won’t back down because the truth is offensive.  Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life” and they nailed Him to a tree over it.

I’d rather be nailed to a tree as well than hold too lightly onto my faith in Jesus Christ.

Can I overlook and maybe even appreciate the idiosyncrasies of others in order to hear what they have to say?

Check out Jesus hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors.  I think a lot of people want to make out Jesus to be someone who wasn’t offensive in some way.  But when it came to matters of dealing with the scriptures, Jesus got pretty harsh at times with religious authorities even calling them a “brood of vipers”, “hypocrites”, and “whitewashed tombs”.  I guess there’s a part of me that says “why let evil be perpetuated through the spreading of lies?”  As more and more people have come to “alternate viewpoints” about scripture, I find myself more and more being preached to from Satan.

I love what scripture says in 2 Timothy 4 of what Paul believes to be some of his last words:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Notice also that Paul states right along with “correct, rebuke and encourage” the statement to do it with “great patience and careful instruction” then talks about unsound doctrine, people with their own desires who want to “gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

Am I willing to discern the deeper currents rather than being distracted by the surface ripples?

I guess I have to answer this with a question.  What deeper current?  Compared to the Truth of God’s Word made flesh in the manifestation of Christ, there is no deeper current than that.  Everything else is surface ripples.

Can everyone play? In other words, will I not ostracize someone because of their beliefs or lack thereof?

I guess I wish it was that easy.  Jesus did say that “anyone who believes in Him would not die, but have eternal life” so yes, everyone can believe and be saved.  But the hard part comes that Jesus is the only way.  He didn’t say ” I am a way, a truth, and a life”.  It was, “I am the way, the truth and the life” and He didn’t stop there.  He went on to say “no one comes to the Father except by me” just to be a little more clear about it.

As for if I will ostracize someone because of their beliefs or lack thereof?

Once again, look at the people Jesus hung around with.  Sinners, every one of them.  The worst of society in many ways.  But Jesus didn’t bend for them either.  I hate this passage of scripture, but I must reference it anyway.  John 6: verse 60-69 just after Jesus declared Himself the very Manna from Heaven that God had sent and essentially declares Himself the Messiah:

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”  Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

I hate this scripture.  It would be much easier to say that many of the disciples agreed to disagree and everyone was fine with it.  Jesus no longer declared Himself as Messiah and told them “it’s okay”
we’re all going the same direction anyway.  It doesn’t matter what you believe.

He didn’t though.  He lost a lot of His disciples and ostracized them through their lack of belief and offended “many”.

Is personal harm to others the only prohibition I am willing to make?

Not if I love God.  Not if I love people.  Good example is what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount in the section called “The Beatitudes” Matthew 5:9  ”Blessed are the Peacemakers for they will be called sons of God”.  ”Peace making” and “holding the peace” are two very different things.  Sometimes in order to make peace, war does have to be fought.  Jesus even tells His disciples to go get a sword in Luke 22:36 then tells them two is enough (which is even stranger).  Or how about Matthew 10:32-36?

“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ” ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

Do I love all beings, and if not, am I willing?

I think we’ve come full circle with this question.  If Jesus loved everyone enough to die for them and He is my example then as it is said in John 15:13  ”Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  And if I am more likely to be held in contempt for my love than my prohibitions, then so be it.