The Tribe Log

God is Good!

2007-01-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

I wanted my last post to read this way. He truly is good.

Bring Back Abortion!

2005-08-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Social justice is a huge issue in today’s church. Maybe it has something to do with Jesus being so into social justice or something like that. If you pick a relevant magazine or go to any cutting edge Christian blog you will see a lot of space devoted to social justice. It is really fantastic to see a renewed charge for this. For too long the church has done nothing for social justice, and I am excited to be part of the resurgence.

But are we really seeing a resurgence? According to most sources the answer appears to be a resounding yes! There is more interest in the church now than ever when it come to issues like poverty, health care and women’s rights. But here is my question…Did we just change out our old issues of social justice with these that seem more hip. If we look back 15 years we see a church that was equally passionate about issues of social justice. This was seen especially in the issue of abortion.

To my knowledge I have yet to see someone who identifies with the emergent conversation stand up on the issue of abortion in the same way that they stand up for the other issues of the day. We cannot argue that within the emergent movement social issues like abortion have taken a back seat to issues like the AIDS crisis in Africa. So what happened? Why do we feel like today we are so much more socially compassionate than ever before?

Another characteristic of the emergent conversation is an understanding that God has no political stance. He is neither conservative nor liberal, neither republican nor democrat. This idea could not be any truer. For years it has been understood that Christians in general are Republicans. Terms like Conservative Christian seem to go hand in hand. To fix this it appears to me that the emergent conversation has indirectly been a driving force behind a shift to the left. I say indirectly because I am not convinced that this was ever the attempt. The emergent conversation finds a lot of its style in the culture of the day. Popular culture is generally leaning politically left, thus these leanings are picked up by the emergent conversation. Popular culture celebrates causes like health care for all, debt relief, and women’s equality and we can see these causes slowly gaining strength in Christian circles…especially in the emergent conversation.

On the other hand, issues like abortion, family values, and public prayer seem to be slowly losing steam in the emergent conversation for the same reasons as stated above. It grieves me to see that in an attempt to rid the church of political leanings, instead we seem to be exchanging one political ideology for another. Many see the church as a pawn for the Republican Party. I am not a fan of this, but the answer is not to become a pawn for the other. The answer, as with many things, lies somewhere in the middle.

I believe that if JC were around today, he would that poverty, and abortion. He would hate that people are dying with treatable sicknesses, and that children were being adopted by homosexual parents. I completely agree that God does not have a political alignment, but we must be careful that we don’t exchange one bad thing for another. We need to live for social justice on both sides of the fence. We must be neither democrat, nor republican, but solely Christians.

I suck at blogging

2005-05-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

Gina (the blog entitled Meet Virginia in my “blogs” column to the right) as rightly pointed out that I am obsessive kind of person. Not that I am really clean or anything that you commonly associate with one who is obsessive, but I tend to become obsessed with certain hobbies (aka addictions) for a certain time period and then drop it for months at a time. Take video games for instance. I could go on a kick for video games and play them 15 hours a week for a month or two, and then resign and not play them at all for 6 months. I am weird like that. For those of you who have been reading my blog you may realize now that I was on a blogging kick from January through march, and had a great time, but as of late I have felt little drive to get out there and do it.

I am not sure what I wrong with me, and I kind of feel that this is who I am. Is it a bad thing the way I obsess? Someone once asked me if I finish things that I start, and the answer to that is yes, I do. The problem with many of the things I take up is that the only finishing point for the activity is death. I will never finish blogging. I can go from theme to theme, but never will I have completed my blog. The same goes for video games. I may go from game to game but I have never gotten to a point where I succeeded and finished video games. It is tough but I just want to write an excuse as to why you haven’t seen me on here for a week. Truth is I am pooped. But tomorrow is another day and with it comes a new addiction for me. Maybe it will be one that calls me back to this little cyberspace that has been my passion for 4 months.

God, not sure where to go from here. You know my heart. I have had a great time with this, and look forward to doing it some more. Give me a passion to do it, and if not, for something that changes me every day. I have enjoyed this time blogging with you very much so far, and I look forward to seeing where you take it from here.

Treasure Hunt

2005-05-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

Matthew 19:27 – Then peter said to (Jesus), “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get out of it?”

Here’s a reality that I don’t live in. There are rewards in heaven for the way we live our life on earth. Actually I am quite surprised by Jesus’ response to this question. If I were JC I would have explained to Peter that the joy of serving the Lord is joy enough for him. I would ask him to stop grumbling, because he is working for the Lord. But of course this is nothing like what Jesus says.

I was surprised to read that Jesus explains to Peter at some length that he can count on treasures in heaven for every good act he does. But how can this be. Is it ok to have selfish heavenly motivation? Can I give to others and rejoice in the heavenly rewards I will have? Is this what Jesus intended? I am not sure if I have taken this too far but I want to live in the heavenly treasure reality. I want to start laying them up for myself. I have never really thought about them in regards to my Christian walk. I always knew that treasure awaited me in heaven, but I want to be anxious for it because it appears that this is what Christ encourages us to do.

Of course I am reminded of another of Jesus sayings. On a couple of occasions he said about the arrogant that they have their reward in full. So I see that if I am not careful with my pride I may not be able to look forward to the treasures that await. What a catch 22.

God, help me to strip down my pride and arrogance. I want to live anxiously awaiting the treasures I have stored up and the treasures I will store up. I realize that this is a focus for ministry, not the focus. Pleasing you will still be first in my heart. Help me to make sure of that. Tonight and tomorrow as I live my life, remind me of the treasure principle, and help me to set up a pattern that turns into a lifestyle that lives in ready expectation for the rewards you will pour out on me in heaven. I love you Lord.

J.C.'s M.O.

2005-04-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Matthew 14:28 – Then Peter said to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on the water.”

Jesus is so amazing. What got me about this story today is peters direction for Jesus. JC is out there walking on the water and Peter isn’t quite sure if it is really him or not. He thought it could be a ghost or some other spirit. So in order to see if it really was Jesus he had to do a test. This test shows us a lot about Jesus and the way his disciples saw him.

I have always understood this test to mean something like – if you can make me walk on the water then I will believe it is you. This would make sense, because only God himself could do that. But this was not the test that we see here. The test was one that checked Jesus character. It tested his personality. Peter held up his standard operating procedure and compared to the one he saw before him the test was whether or not he would call Peter out to him. Jesus was known for calling people to follow him, and this was the standard by which the disciples recognized him here. He has done the same in our lives. We can know that he is Lord because he will keep calling us to him over and over again no matter how many times we have gotten it wrong.

So what is there to learn from this? We need to be ready to be called to the uncomfortable situations of the world because this is JC’s standard. He proves himself to us daily by calling us over and over again. The truth is if you know Jesus you will be called to him. That is the way it is and it is a good meter to see how well we know him. How has he called you today?

Lord help me to answer when you call. I want to keep your proven system working. Teach me to be a recruiter the way you were. I am willing to got to the uncomfortable situations with you. Thanks for calling me.

That's the Kingdom of God

2005-04-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Matthew 10:7-8 – “Go and announce that the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received.”

One thing that I don’t do is announce that the kingdom of heaven is near. Is this something that we are still required to do? The only people we see doing this today are the homeless with their cardboard signs, and that is usually in movies. The homeless don’t seem to have the spirituality that they used to. But my question is what is the kingdom of heaven, and what is our responsibility to it? What should we be declaring to others. It is bad that I don’t know this? Anyone have any ideas on what the Kingdom of heaven is and what our responsibility is to it today?

Straight Priorities

2005-04-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Matt 8:21-22 - Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Ready for some debate? For those who read my blog you know that one of my goals is to read scripture in a fresh way. I don’t want to take any of my culture or my “Christian” ideas into it. Sometimes that leads to awesome discoveries for my walk, and sometimes that leaves me even more confused than I started. Case and point – today’s verse.

The majority of my life has now been as a Christian. One thing that the church has always taught is that your family should come before just about anything. We say that God comes before our families, but in practice he doesn’t, and for the most part we are OK with that. But I got to thinking today, does the Bible place family before ministry? Should it be that way?

May I suggest that perhaps we should place ministry before our family? I am not saying that this is right, or that I do this, I am just suggesting that perhaps we could make a case for this in the bible. The verse above is just one example of scriptures calling us to serve with Jesus before we take care of the needs of our family. Elsewhere in scripture we see Jesus allowing his disciples to leave their careers and their families to follow him. The real kicker is in 1 Corinthians 7:29 – Now let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short, so husbands should not le marriage be their primary concern.

What I think we have is a disconnect in our Christian world between love and action. Can we love the Lord more than anything in this world and not have time to serve him because of our family obligations. I am not ripping on anyone, but I got to tell you that I get this excuse all the time. I love my job but the hardest part of it for me is getting people to jump in and do ministry with me. I am sure that the bulk of the problem is my fault, for not being a good enough motivator, but this excuse is just tough for me. It sounds so noble, and I am not sure that anyone has been called on this before, but let me say this, - If you are unable to do the Lords work because your family is your priority, perhaps your family has a whole needs a new set of priorities.

Then there is the idea that my family is my ministry. That is valid, but it is something that we never see in scripture as far as I can tell. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that family is not important. My only thought is that most of us admit that God is more important. We need to align our actions up with that.

Lord help me to not only love you most but to live for you most at the same time. I don’t want to categorize my time, I want to be a Christian all the time. Whatever you are calling me to do is my primary concern. I live for you first, help me to do that.

You be the Judge

2005-04-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Matthew 7:1 – Stop judging others and you will not be judged.

I am not sure that I ever really understood this verse. This is one of those things that I read before and felt that I had a handle on it, so all I needed to do was make sure that I don’t become judgmental. To this day I don’t think that I am judgmental…to peoples faces. There is a fine line that I have to walk here too. I have Christian friends right now who are doing things that both of us know they shouldn’t be doing. I know I shouldn’t remain silent and let them leave the calling the Lord has on their lives. The new testament is full of people calling others on their sin.

I had to walk through this with some of my best friends. (you know who you are). On friend in particular was in a relationship that we knew was wrong. We had to tell him, calling him on his junk, and after that we became enemy-like. About a year down the road he came back to visit me, relationship over, and was repentant. It really stung to lose a best friend during that time, but the Lord has strengthened our relationship, and it is even better now than it was for.

But that is not what I wanted to say in this entry. I wanted to suggest that perhaps God isn’t the one doing the counter judging in this statement. Maybe I shouldn’t judge other people because in doing that I fall into the trap of pride and the endless cycle of judging myself by comparison to others. By that standard I am very judgmental. God has been dealing with me in this area a lot lately. I am very competitive and I am discovering that there is no trophy big enough. I constantly compare myself to others and when I feel that I am better than them I move onto the next person on the scale. Disgusting isn’t it. By doing this I know that I build pride in my life and am constantly judging myself, never reaching a level of contentment. I want the Lord to help me straighten this out.

God thank you for your word being specific to my situation today. I no longer want to set judgment standards by comparing myself to others. Help me out of this cycle. I do it all the time and it is going to take work. I need your strength

Holy Spirit Led...

2005-04-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Matthew 4:1 - Then Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted there by the Devil.

I had never realized that Jesus was led by the holy spirit to be tempted? I remember being taught throughout my childhood God never tempts us. I guess that is true but it seems here that he may as well have. He brought Jesus to the tempter himself. I am not sure if this is a Jesus only thing, or if God brings us to places of temptation. I guess we need to know why God did this for Jesus? I don’t have a good answer for that. I am not sure why that had to happen. I guess it served to make Jesus more human, in that he faced the same temptations that we face. Either way I haven’t ever felt like I was tempted by the Lord and I am thankful for that.

I am not real sure what is going on here Lord, but the bottom line is that I know you are good and I trust your judgment more than my own rationale. Take first place in my life, and don’t let the temptations I deal with ensnare me.

Conflict Creation

2005-04-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have the pleasure of preaching at my church a few times each month. I really have come to enjoy preaching, and I look forward to what the future holds in that regard. This last week I got to preach on a topic that was real fun. I spoke on Creation. If you have not heard the sermon I encourage you to take a listen to it. I had a great time doing it and although it was very different from most messages that I preach I was very happy with the outcome. I had several people approach me after the service and ask me questions, wondering why I said some of the things I did. I received a phone call to encourage me in my preaching, and I even heard that a few people were inspired to read through the passage again on their own time.

Then it seemingly hit the fan. Comments slowly began to trickle in that were contrary to the way I felt about my sermon. Some of the ones that I heard included that I supported the theory of evolution too much, I treated the word of God in an irreverent manner, I sarcastically supported a more traditional creation theory, and one person even suggested to a staff member that they didn’t think I knew what I was talking about. All of this has been third hand information, but it was discussed in our staff meeting today. I got to tell you the truth, I am frustrated by it. I am not really angry or sad, just frustrated.

In response to the third hand comments that I received, let me say a few things. As I listened to my sermon back again, I decided that I am going to stick with what I said. I feel like my theology was sound, and that I did a satisfactory job, accomplishing my goals in the sermon. That being said I want to work on some of those things that people said. My critics may be right that I don’t treat the word of God with the respect that it deserves. This is completely unintentional, but I will acknowledge that I want to be a better handler of the word of God. It is more valuable to us than silver and gold. My hope was to convey this in the message, but obviously to some I did not. For that I apologize. I want to be better at that in the future. I want to be better at this and I want God to do it through me. It is a constant struggle that I face to make Thomas decrease and Jesus increase in my life, especially in my preaching. I have fallen short in this area and honestly you get a lot of Thomas when I preach. I am a work in progress and my aim is present more of his word and less of my own with each passing sermon. So to those who were offended in any way by y sermon you have my sincere apologies. It was not meant in harm. My prayer is that despite my shortcomings you would be drawn into the word and fall in love with it for yourself. Even though Thomas comes through sometimes, I pray that you would still fall in love with Jesus.

Lord, I truly feel like my sermon this week was on par with other sermons I have delivered in the past, and that’s a problem. I want more of you in my life. Too much of my selfishness and pride comes out in my sermons. Help me to fix that. I want to see you glorified. I pray that you would bring good out of this situation and would train me to be the preacher you want me to be.

I Want You

2005-04-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

2 Corinthians 12:14-15 - I don't want what you have; I want you… I will gladly spend myself and all I have for your spiritual good, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.

This passage is rich with meaning. Paul is saying here that he doesn’t want what the Corinthians have, he just wants them and that he is willing to spend whatever he has including himself to get it. Despite his output however it seems that the Corinthians aren’t giving themselves to him. The point to me however is that Paul is willing not only to give himself, but also what he has for people, even when they don’t give back. I am not sure what is harder. I think for me it is harder to give what I have than to give myself. That all depends on what we mean by giving ourselves. I find myself to be far more greedy with my possession than with my personal time, but am I really. How often do I not show interest in others because I value my time more than theirs? How often do I pretend to listen and just say ah-ha, as people talk. Maybe I actually suck at both giving myself and my possessions, I have just trained myself to think that because I am a pastor I give all of my time to the work of the Lord. I need to love people more. (Have you heard me say that on my log before) Paul did not fear rejection he just loved people with all that he had. I need to do the same.

Lord, help me to do that.

Godly People

2005-04-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

2 Corinthians 9:9 – Godly people give generously to the poor.

Sometimes when I read the bible I tend to skip over sections. It’s not that I don’t read them, it is just that I don’t give them thought after I have read them. What that is really doing is handcuffing the word of God. It strips it of all its power. It takes away its ability to transform my life. So often I look into the mirror and don’t change my appearance metaphorically speaking. This verse is a great example. I read 2 Corinthians 9 today and it was one of those “Great what am I going to blog about” days. I started meditating on this verse above and it hit me like a rock. The God’s honest truth that I don’t give generously to the poor. I may have a couple of times in my life, but it is not a regular habit in my life. My lifestyle therefore is not that of a Godly person.

As I write this I am thinking about how my life is going to change. Should I go out there, leaving my wife and daughter to be at home, and give away the money we are saving for a home? I have to confess that I just had the thought that I would write this and change nothing about my life. But something has to change, or I am as foolish as that guy in the mirror. What is the Christian response to giving in this day and age?

Here’s the deal God. I can’t give everything I have to the poor. I can give generously. I can’t give to every poor person I see, but I can give to a few. Give me opportunities to prove my godliness in this way, and I hope not to fail you. You are worth it.

The Perfect Place

2005-04-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well we found it. I am just not sure that it will choose us. We went to look at condo's today and found one that we absolutly loved. It is in the right neighborhood, the right complex, has all the right amenities, and would be perfect for my little starter family. The problem: It is priced right at our limit. No flex room at all and the tendency here in sonoma county is for houses to go for right at, and sometimes higher than their asking prices. We can't do that. We like this place very much and want to put an offer, but it is so nice tha we are scared that someone will swoop in with a higher offer and snag it. So we are praying. I would appreciate it if you would pray with us. I am praying that it would stick at that price or that God would take us elsewhere, and have another place for us. He is all I want in this life (or at least all I want to want) so I trust him in this matter, but your prayers will help.

obsession

2005-04-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

1 Corinthians 7:1 - With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let's make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.

The promise that Paul is speaking of here is one of relationship with the Lord. But the promise is conditional. It requires an separation from the things that cause us to stumble. So Paul continues his case by calling us to get away from not only things that defile us but even things that distract us. If we truly desire this relationship we would do exactly that. But alas, I do not. I am easily distracted. I have what my wife (and previously my mother) call an addictive personality. ( I realize that the previous parenthetical statement could be read in one of two ways. To clarify my mother and my wife are two separate individuals. Hopefully you can ascertain the meaning given this truth) I quickly become obsessed with seemingly benign interests. I have been known to partake in a casual video game which sends me down a 4 month spiral of playing every worthwhile game released in the past 2 years. In that time I will go to video game web sites, read video game news letters, even spend half an hour playing video game demos in wal-mart like a 6 year old. I realize it is quite pathetic. But I do this with so man things in my life. Baseball/Baseball cards, Football, guitars, music, Mexican food, anything I could call an interest, quickly becomes an obsession or me. Some of these things can even be healthy. For the first few months I was blog obsessed. This was good because I felt like God was showing me a lot, and that I grew in relationship with a bunch of people in that time. I have even been addicted to bible and other Christian book reading. Not necessarily a distraction, or is it?

It can be. I wish I wasn’t so obsessive.

God you made me thins way. My theology tells me it wasn’t on accident. It has the tendency to separate us, but I know it doesn’t have too. I pray that you would be the object of my obsession. That I would run to you with all my free time. I am not even close. Help me to get there.

Sad

2005-04-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

I am not sure where I am going with this entry, but hopefully by the end I will have figured it out. I heard a story that was so deeply impacting yesterday that I felt I needed to address it in blog form, even though I don’t know why I am so deeply affected by it.

Last night I went to one of our churches small groups. There were about 12 people there and I was just there to support the leaders, letting them know that what they are doing is worth while. One of the people at the group was a guy named Greg. I had first met Greg on Sunday morning. When I first saw him he appeared to be mentally handicapped. His eyes were fluttering up at the top of his eyelids, and he had the look that he wasn’t all there. As I walked up the ramp after church I got to meet him. Turned was quite intelligent, and blind. He was a really outgoing sweet guy. You may think it is wrong to say this, but I have met a lot of handicapped people who aren’t sweet people. They have this –mad at the world- thing going on. I have been yelled at by handicapped people for not helping them with doors and the like. Greg was not one of these guys. That day Greg and I exchanged pleasantries and were on our separate ways.

At the group meeting last night Greg was a great asset. He was talkative and friendly. Your role model group member. After the meeting we were hanging out and I decided to strike up a conversation with Greg. I have never been one to gingerly approach the handicapped. I think they must be frustrated with all the people out there pretending that they don’t notice that they are handicapped. So I approached the subject immediately. He reintroduced himself, and I did the same and asked him if he was good with voices. He said he was. That always amazes me when the blind can recognize everyone by their voice. I saw that he was open about his disability by asking that first question, so I asked him another. “Were you born blind?” He told me that he had been blind for about 15 years. So my obvious next question was “What happened.” His answer floored me.

I am not sure what his exact words were, but I could tell that he was embarrassed to give his reason. He stuttered through the reason: He shot himself trying to commit suicide and lost his eye sight. I didn’t know how to respond. I have heard about how frustrated people become when they fail at committing suicide. They all ready feel like failures, and now they fail at something that seems so simple, taking their own life. For Greg there was even further consequence to this scenario. Not only did he want to die, and fail at killing himself. He now had to live the rest of his life knowing that he handicapped himself. His wife then left him; he lost his job, his kids, his house. As if he wasn’t feeling bad enough all ready.

I am not sure what it is but I don’t think there are stories much sadder than that one. I am still not sure what the bigger picture is, or what the lesson is or even why I wrote this. I am just processing, and this time there is no conclusion. I am tempted to stick a cliché in here like – “life isn’t fair” – or – “win some you lose some” but I won’t (So disregard those last two clichés). I am rocked by this story and I am sure that it will be a sermon illustration some day, jut not yet.

Self Exam

2005-04-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

2 Corinthians 5:15 - He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them.

This passage flies right in the face of the way that I live my life. I feel like I try to live my life by both of these paradigms, and surprise surprise it doesn’t work as well as I would have hoped. I am ashamed to say that I live to please the Lord, because that pleases myself. And I don’t mean that in a “It gives me joy to serve the Lord” kind of way. I mean something that I have confessed to many times on this blog. I serve the Lord often because of what I get out of it. Whether that be personal satisfaction, praise from man, or anything else, I need to regularly check my motives. I want to live to please the lord exclusively and let the bi-products be exactly that – bi-products.

Lord don’t let me use you. I want my heart to be pure before you. I want to please you because you are worth it. Help me to be more honest with myself and have a better eye for my true motives.

reflecting glory

2005-04-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

2 Corinthians 3:18 - And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.

This is a fantastic analogy that I don’t recall ever reading before. I know I have but it never really stood out like this before. What a great way of explaining worship as a lifestyle. Singing songs only does so much, but if we were to reflect the glory of God with our lives we would radiate worship. That is what my desire is to do. Enough Said.

Lord I want to be a better worshipper. Help me to radiate your glory. I want to be more like you and I mean that now more than I normally do. Sometimes I just say that, and it has become familiar to me. I am sorry. I want to be more like you so that I can reflect your glory better for others. Remind me of that constantly.

Contempt for Familiarity

2005-03-31T22:51:00.000-08:00

Taken from the message somewhere in 1 Corinthians 11 – “You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.”

Guilty as charged. Paul is talking about taking communion here, and Eugene Peterson paraphrases it this way. I would say that more often than not I do something like this. I guess it comes down to what you call contempt. He goes on to describe it as taking communion in a meaningless way. When communion comes around at church, I wind up taking it several times, once at each service. Am I really expected to conjure up fresh insight for each taking? How can I keep familiarity from ruining my moment with JC.

It goes well beyond communion too. I know I have the same problem with reading the word too. I will be drawn back to that again and again. Familiarity often gets in the way. I have read what I am reading before and in many cases have had a revelation in the past with a particular verse. I am not saying that god can’t give me fresh revelation, but just that it doesn’t always happen.

Worship songs are another prime example. Just about everyone of them has a amazing message, that we should be able to bring to the Lord. Some of these songs we will bring again and again. Should “The Battle Belongs to the Lord” or “Lord I Lift your Name on High” still inspire us perfectly? Is it wrong that it doesn’t?

I have to believe that what the heart of this passage is all about is letting the message always move me, and never to get bogged down in the repetitiveness of the vehicle. The story of Gods redemptive plan and what that entitles me to should be the only thing on this earth that does not bore me. I should constantly be moved by that. But the vehicles that declare this truth or parts of it can come and go. Frankly I am glad we only do communion once in a while at hope. I have been to places where they do it every week, and it quickly loses its meaning. This makes it a lot easier for me.

Lord help me to never let familiarity breed contempt. I even pray that old vehicles would still move me into a real experience with you. I want that no matter what. Use whatever means necessary to get a hold of me. Thanks for dying child. That will always move me.

Preemptive Grace

2005-03-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 10:13 – But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from being so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.

I am not sure I believe this. Of course I believe it because it is in the bible so my soul knows it is true, but everything in this earth and everything I have seen in my life has shown me otherwise. Sure I believe the first part; my temptations are no different from anyone else’s. I know the Lord is faithful. The next line is a little harder to believe, but I could see how that would be true. There is always a possibility to stand up to a temptation. I have never felt completely overtaken by a temptation, to the point where I had no control. It is just the last sentence that I have never experienced. I don’t feel like I am always shown a way out to my temptation. It sounds like there is to be a choice. You can look at that girl walking on the street, or here there is a way out. Sometimes it has been my experience that sin has a way of sneaking up on me. I feel like I sin sometimes and don’t realize that it was wrong until after it is done, then conviction sets in, and I miss my way out that this passage promises.

Even so I trust this word to be true. I will look harder for ways out when sin is approaching. It is in the bible for a reason and I pray that I get to experience this today.

Lord, show me ways out of sin. I feel like I have missed them in the past. I want to experience your preemptive grace, keeping me from separation from you rather than restoring it. Keep me from breaking your heart.

I want, I want, I need... - Bob Wylie

2005-03-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight in reading I came to a passage in 1 Corinthians 9. the passage was all about the people benefiting from Christian workers, meeting the needs of that worker. That got me thinking about stuff. Let me be honest. I think I have the best job that in the world. The way I figure it, as Christians we all have an equal burden to share the gospel and do the work of the ministry. I just don’t have to do anything else (with the major exception of my other half time job driving huge blocks of steel all over the state). I am living in a dream world. I love my job.

But the question arises of what exactly needs means. I am not sure exactly but I know it means something different in our heads as it did in Paul’s when he writes this. In Paul's writing here he clearly defines needs as food and shelter. So my question is who decides on the needs that God is going to provide for us. Is it us, our culture or the biblical culture into which these passages were spoken. In this day and age few would argue that a person needs electricity, a few sets of clothes, a vehicle, a phone, and the list goes on and on. The problem with that is that there are many people in my own town that are missing one or more of the things mentioned above. I have just always heard it taught that if we honor God and are generous, that God would take real good care of us. I took that to mean living in a decent house, with cars and cable. But maybe the real prosperity of the gospel is found in food and shelter. That is what the word promises. My wife and I were talking the other day and acknowledged that our poverty has never affected our diet. We don’t consider ourselves rich, but if I look at it from others eyes, we have so much. Maybe that’s why we don’t constantly see God pouring out financial blessings. He doesn’t think we need it. Maybe God knows a humans needs better than I do. I will trust him in that.

Like a Servant for the Very First Time

2005-03-26T20:25:00.000-08:00

I watched the passion again last night. I hate that movie. It is fantastic, well done and life changing, but I hate watching it. I like the way it moves me to worship the Lord but those 2 hours are tough for me. I hadn’t seen it since last February when I saw it in the theater on Ash Wednesday, the day it came out. The first time I tried to watch every bit of it and not cover my eyes. I felt it was important to take it all in. This time I didn’t even try. I spent a good amount of time, head in hands.

The thing that got me the most this time was JC’s servant hood. There was a flashback where he washed one of the disciple’s feet. A perfect example of servant hood. But there was more. An even better example of servant hood was the way he took our sins. I don’t mean to sound cliché or cheesy, but I really never realized that side of the cross. It was the ultimate act of servant hood.

Servant hood is something that we have skewed in the modern church. The idea today is that if you hand our bulletins at church, or if you play electric guitar on the worship team that you have done your service. I am not knocking those things. They are both vital parts of making ministry work. My point is that people have lost touch with the service lifestyle that Christ embodied. He would not have stopped at ushering, for fear of burning out. Why can’t we live like that?

For the past few weeks there has been a small problem at church. There is the always pleasant smell of dead rodent coming from underneath the stage. If you were up there, you probably noticed it. Don’t have a very strong sense of smell and even I got a whiff of it. If I had to guess, I would say that at least 10 people told me about it. “Thomas, it smells like something died under the stage.” “Thomas could you have Sam (our church maintenance guy) take a look and see if there is something dead under here?” “You really need to get Sam up here to get whatever’s down there out.” This went on for at least two weeks. I am quite confident that JC would have taken a different approach. Let’s face it, no one, not even Sam, wants to pull dead rodents out of cramped stages. It is never fun. I have to believe that my Lord, the one who suffered every lashing depicted in the Passion, would have done something like this to serve his brother. If you are one of those people who said something to me or anyone about the smell, please do not take offense at this. I feel equally ashamed because I did nothing more than relay these messages to Sam. I personally felt ashamed of myself. I think of myself as a servant, but so rarely do I do something that no one would notice, that I don’t have to do. Jesus did not have to die, but he did, for me, and everyone else, and so many of us did not notice what an act of service that was.

I said a few weeks ago that this was one of the areas of my life that I need to work on. I know that the Lord is confirming that in me now. My service is not complete, when I lead worship, or preach. God wants more than that, and I will serve him.

Fricking Blogger

2005-03-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

There is nothing on this earth that is a bigger downer than losing work on you computer. We have all experienced this before. You spend a lot of time working on something and then some bug messes it all up and you lose your work. That happened to me today and I am completly furious. I spent a god 45 minutes of my life writing a thoughtful piece on the "sin" of overeating, and lost it when I tried to preview it. I spent the last 30 mintes praying fo God to bring my temper down, and compose me. It worked kind of. Anyway, post your thoughts on this topic if you will...

Is it a sin to overeat?

Lord don't let my anger separate me from you and your will for my life. I pray that you would still use me tonight at roots. Change peoples lies throught the power of the holy spirit. I need that power to continue to change mine.

A Prayer

2005-03-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

A prayer – “Father I pray that you would search my heart and remove any prideful desire to impress people rather than to reach them. I don’t want to make my reputations with Christians more important than my purpose with you. Help me Lord, to be motivated out of sincere love and care for people…” – Judah Smith in Soul Seekers.

Lord that is the prayer for my heart. I want a broken heart and a contrite spirit so that I can give those things to you, and have you make me new. I will be broken before you. Draw me to yourself, so that I san only rely on you and your strength. So often I skate by on my own. Help me to stop that by whatever means necessary. This attitude your word says you will not despise. DO the opposite for me. I am clay for you. Clay is humble, because it has no desires of its own. Make it so in my life. I love you Lord.

This Just In!

2005-03-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

It's a girl! I was the only one who thought it would be a boy, and it looks like my prophetic ability has failed me again. Don't stone me or my little 3/4 pound daughter would be fatherless. I am so excited, and I say that word in its truest form. The doctors wouldn't come out and call it a girl, but they repetedly said "I don't see anything that would lead me to believe it's a boy." I am so amazed by this whole pregnancy process, and I am so thankful for my wife, and the wave she has bravely taken on this new part of our lives.

So be happy. I know that I am

LIVESTRONG

2005-03-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

I hate cancer. I am glad I had a chance to clear that up. Now let me tell you about a growing trend that is bothering me. I am not a fan of cancer accessories. Primarily those wristbands, but any kind of disease support apparel just doesn’t sit well with me. I realize that the proceeds go to fighting the disease, but I just am sick of the fashion statement they have become.

The wristbands all started just a short while ago with the Lance Armstrong “Livestrong” bracelets. They were yellow, and stood for disliking cancer. Then the pink ones came along for those who wanted to make the statement “I hate cancer, especially cancer that attacks breasts.” I have now seen red ones that step beyond cancer into the hatred of aids realm. Finally I saw a friend of mine wearing a purple bracelet. I asked him what it was for and he said it was for disease.

I guess the thing is I am not sure I understand the statement people are trying to make by wearing these accessories. 99.9 percent of the population hates these diseases too, what are you trying to get across? About six years ago the original statement bracelet came out. Unlike the others it was something that not everybody agreed on. Because of this they got sort of a bad wrap. You didn’t see every star wearing them on the red carpet. (Nothing matches better that a 50 thousand dollar dress and a two dollar yellow rubber bracelet) I didn’t even wear one of these bracelets even though I completely believed in the message. They simply asked WWJD?

I am not trying to start a campaign to bring back WWJD bracelets, I am simply curious especially when I read Romans 1:16 - I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Since we can establish that it isn’t cheap bracelets that are out of fashion, can we conclude that the message these old bracelets carry is? Am I ashamed of my message? As much as I dislike aids and cancer, I dislike hell even more. It is said that in my part of the world something like one in five people get cancer at some point in their life. It is not my place to judge, but I bet that a lot more than that don’t know the Lord.

So here is what I ma not going to do. I will not decide to sport the WWJD bracelet. Instead I am going to make a commitment to hate hell more than any other disease in this world. It is the number one killer. I want to put all my efforts into stopping it. It isn’t going to take cheesy message accessories. I am just going to live it. Even if that goes out of style.