journeys in the wilderness

New Location

2008-09-22T09:05:00.002-05:00

For my blog, new additional pages, and new interactive features, I'm taking a step up in the technological age (thanks to my wife) and discontinuing this site.

New location:
http://www.priorityjesus.org/

Enjoy!

Cut

2008-09-19T11:13:00.006-05:00

All of this video is good. But this month, focus on just one principle, and how you can apply it in your life. My focus for this month is cutting the useless components. Devising a not to do list.

Enjoy!

Ending the vicious cycle

2008-09-18T06:40:00.002-05:00

My last post was about the vicious Christian cycle. We get pumped for Jesus, fail and sin, wallow, then get rededicated and pumped for Jesus again. Then sin, and on and on we go. The end of this spiral is depression, melancholy and death.

The only remedy to end the vicious cycle is a healthy awareness of who this life is about. If the Christian life is about you, you're screwed! All hope rises and falls based on your spotty performance. And hence, "the cycle." But when you realize this life is about God and not you, then you can rise and never fall, because your life is based upon Jesus' spotless life. Always approach the throne of God with confidence, because this life was never about you in the first place. Always walk humbly with confession and repentance showing the way. It's about exchanging our life for a life that is "in Christ." (as Paul would say) You don't have to go through life anymore worrying about yourself, God has your life in His hand. Instead, spend your energy focusing on serving others and praising Jesus for His radiance.

The vicious Christian cycle

2008-09-16T08:46:00.001-05:00

This short reading from "Grace Walk," is always useful to understand the common Christian struggle. I have used the concept before in messages, it seems to hit the nail on the head.

"I lived many years of my Christian life trapped in what I call the motivation-condemnation-rededication cycle. From the earliest years of my Christian life, I had a mental picture of what I thought I should be. In this picture there was always a wide gap between where I ought to be and where I was. Sometimes when I was especially motivated, I would feel the gap had narrowed a bit. When I was winning people to Christ or spending a lot of time praying and studying the Bible, I felt that I might actually one day be able to bridge the gap and be a victorious Christian.
But inevitably, my motivation level would diminish and my fury and fire would die down. That decline always led to a sense of condemnation. Even when I had done nothing wrong, I would feel guilty for not doing all the things that I believed I should be doing. The devil had a field day with me during this phase. Sometimes I would become spiritually indifferent. Other times I would wonder if I would ever be consistent in my Christian life. I would wallow in my misery until I couldn’t stand it anymore; then I would finally rededicate myself to God, confessing my spiritual slothfulness. With genuine contempt for my inconsistency, I would ask God to help me be more consistent. I would promise to read my Bible more, pray more, win more souls, whatever I thought it took to get back on course. I resolved to try harder than ever to live for God. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I never experienced real peace about my Christian life." "Grace Walk," Steve McVey.

Thou shalt not stuff powerpoint slides

2008-09-13T08:04:00.002-05:00

Here is a great rule. Dare I even say a presentation commandment. Don't stuff your powerpoint slides with information overload. Cramming is prohibited. They're hard to decipher quickly and easily, and put audiences to sleep.

On ppt slides, never say with words what you can say with a picture. You're the speaker, so YOU use words, let your slides be your visuals. Some say no more than 6 words per slide. Think VISUALS, not WORDS, when crafting your next stack of ppt slides.

Powerpoint slides should be closely akin to the design of billboards. And what are billboards known for? Words or visuals? VISUALS! You're not driving on a highway hoping to catch 3 bullets with 25 words on it. You need something you can absorb in 3 seconds. So next time you're thinking ppt presentation think billboard method. Think 3 second glance by an audience member, and see if they can grasp everything you're trying to throw at them.

"Presentations are a 'glance media' — more closely related to billboards than other media.... Ask yourself whether your message can be processed effectively within three seconds. The audience should be able to quickly ascertain the meaning before turning their attention back to the presenter." — Nancy Duarte

Thinking Presentation Design

2008-09-12T09:40:00.003-05:00

1) Connect with your audience:
Make a connection with your audience and their goals and their interests. This goal is supported by the principle of Relevance and the principle of Appropriate Knowledge.

2) Direct and hold their attention:
You must get and keep their attention and interest and let them know what is important and what is not. This goal is supported by the principles of Salience, Discriminability, and Perceptual Organization. Attention is drawn to areas that are perceptibly different, so leverage design principles such as contrast and make differences big and obvious.

3) Promote understanding & memory:
You must make it easy for them to follow, digest, and remember your material. This goal is supported by the principle of Compatibility, the principle of Informative Changes, and the principle of Capacity Limitations.

For more go here.
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/08/i-spent-the-wee.html

Another great lesson is the timeless, "Less is More." Strip down and cut away. Clear the rubbish so that only the critical point shines through in simple elegant design. Great lessons are learned by design and transference of meaning in comic books. Amplification through Simplification!
"By stripping down an image to essential 'meaning,' an artist can amplify that meaning..." — Scott McCloud

For more go here.
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2006/09/learning_from_t.html

Heaven is no goal

2008-09-11T07:04:00.002-05:00

Many, young and old, think heaven is the goal. But, heaven is a lousy goal! It's an atrocious goal! It's a ridiculous goal! And I'm not even exaggerating! A couple decades of an evangelistic movement have left a terrible wake of ineffective and inactive Christians. Americans sit brainwashed, worshiping a god dangling the heaven carrot in front of them. (Think about all those old cartoons. The characters are always chasing the dangling carrot right in front of their noses but never getting it!) Unfortunately, when no one teaches differently, many come to believe in this cartoon picture. They think God dangles heaven carrots, and you get it when you die. I assure you, this is a woefully inadequate picture of the Almighty.

Who ever reaches the dangling heaven carrot anyways? Only dead people! Think about it!!! So, while you're living you can't even get the carrot anyways! Therefore, what a terrible goal to set for this life! So stop chasing it! It's not even a viable option for living people! So, what are a whole bunch of Christians waiting to do? I suppose die, so that they can cash in their Jesus chips for the prize.

How totally misguided and backwards! How about getting a vision for this life instead of waiting around to die to achieve the heaven goal. Get some goals for this life, don't sit on your hands waiting for the next! We can live aimlessly now waiting for a carrot, or we can make an impact for Jesus immediately!

So the goal properly defined is this. Union with Christ and union with our neighbor. This is a the goal for this life. To listen to God's voice, and for God's love to spill out of our hearts into other people's lives. The rest of the goals, are between you and God, and your specific community of believers. How has God specifically wired you? What are distinctive features of your community of believers that God desires to capitalize upon for His kingdom purposes? God has a mission for you and your co-laborers, and an assignment specifically tailored for you! Find your niche, and get to work! Now that my friend is a goal worthy of your life!

you know? really?

2008-09-10T06:55:00.002-05:00

Christian lingo makes my skin crawl. However, sometimes it's almost unavoidable. It can act as a kind of shorthand, and get to the point quicker. That is good. But sometimes it's misleading. That is not good.

If you're a Christian, you're familiar with the almost password kind of question, "Do you KNOW God personally?" "Do you KNOW Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" If you say "yes" then you can enter the inner circle. Whew, now I'm in, now I arrived! Or did I?

When did this language start to become in vogue? Now it has spread like a virus. Now we have everyone parroting this stuff without attending much thought to the substance behind it. This is troubling.

But what is more troubling is this. We can become presumptuous in our knowledge of God. We can assume knowledge flippantly. We can easily slip into irreverence. Immodesty can make a home in our hearts. I pray God will explode the shells of our hearts that contain a god too small. We can know small gods, but can we know the UNSPEAKABLY HOLY God?

Think of the incomprehensibility of God. Think of the otherness of God. Think of the holiness of God. We merely grasp at God with failing language. We must admit it's kinda hard to embrace a God who's shrouded in magnificent mystery. When we say we KNOW God, let us never become presumptuous thinking we have grasped and contained the uncontainable.

How can we know that which is Wholly Other?

Thomas Merton Quote

2008-09-09T10:30:00.002-05:00

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."

Pursuit of the inactive

2008-09-08T08:23:00.002-05:00

Lessons come at us left and right from Jonah chapter 1.
Slowly reading the Bible allows us to linger over each thought and have a conversation with God where the biblical text intersects our life.

A few of the lessons from Jonah 1 follow.
1. Jonah disobeys God and runs the other way. Where are you currently running from God in your life?

2. Jonah falls asleep. The captain shakes Jonah to wake up. He calls out, "Wake up and call on your God, we are dying!" In what ways does God need to shake you and wake you?

3. Jonah's remedy for his disobedience is for him to be tossed overboard. What ever happened to the first logical choice? Jonah, first pray, confess and repent because you're being disobedient! When we are facing problems, do we first go to God? I know for many of us we struggle with this and instead of turning to God right away we first turn to friends "to talk" or chunky monkey ice cream. Or maybe you're the type that just sweeps it underneath the rug, and continues to distance yourself from God, acting as if there's no real problem. The lesson here, turn to God first, rather then leaving God as the last resort when nothing else works. How are you doing with this lesson?

Finally, if we think on a larger scale about Jonah 1, we see three main characters. God, the sailors, and Jonah. God and the sailors are both very active in chapter 1. Jonah however is inactive and sleeping, both physically and in his relationship with the Lord. Here is one sentence tying up Jonah 1. God pursues the inactive Christian.

Where are you at with God today? Are you sleeping on your relationship with God like Jonah did? Are you pressing the snooze button on God? Are you actively running from God? Are you apathetic and not carving out time for God as the number one priority in your life? Take comfort today, because although we all struggle with pursuing God, God is still pursuing you.

Every Generation

2008-09-07T08:41:00.002-05:00

The senior generation can feel left out and then check out. They can feel as though they're on the back burner. We must encourage them, and integrate them once again into the church family. Every generation has something to learn, every generation has something to contribute.

Get lost

2008-09-06T21:09:00.002-05:00

Get lost in something bigger than yourself. Get a juicy dream, a worthwhile vision, then go after it! With God on your side, and a tenacious heart full of compassion for others, nothing, absolutely nothing can stop you.

Get lost in praying for others. So on a Saturday night, when it's tempting to waste the night doing nothing important, get lost in something greater than yourself.

gotta love them politics!

2008-09-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Give a punch and make a point

2008-09-04T08:43:00.003-05:00

From the pulpit, in the classroom, or in the business world, presentations need tapering. They need a pinnacle. A talk that bleeds and runs all over the place is a poor presentation. Keep revamping and revising until it's clear to you where exactly you need to bring your audience. Then cut everything else. If it lacks precision and exactness then the points are weak and liquidly. It's like repeatedly throwing wet noodle jabs without ever bringing home the strong forceful uppercut. So next time you speak, take some Pepto-Bismol, end the diarrhea spewing forth from your mouth, and make the killer point.

Dialogue seizes attention

2008-09-03T16:34:00.002-05:00

If you can create dialogue in your presentation you have your audience glued. But I’m not talking here about dialogue between you and your audience. I’m talking rather about dialogue and interplay within the presentation itself. Your audience in these scenarios are the on-lookers of the embedded dialogue, exchange, and interplay. This method of presentation works very well, and you should look to incorporate it in creative ways whenever possible.

One reason why it works so well is because the audience is guessing and anticipating what’s next in the exchange between the characters. There is a ping-pong back and forth effect, which can captivate and mesmerize your audience. If you can do this, you have your audience, their attention, and everything else.

Example to illustrate: Look at the captivating effect of the exchange of the two characters from the MAC vs PC commercials. Dialogue seizes attention! Brilliant characters, brilliant exchange, great interplay. Creative, humorous. It’s got everything in 30 seconds.

Dropping PHAT philosophy on napkins

2008-09-01T10:42:00.004-05:00

You wanna drop huge lofty dreamy complex PHAT ideas? Well, you need present them simply to be effective.

The gods of marketing, presentation, and design like Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Garr Reynolds, and Guy Kawasaki are joined at the hip. Wonderful stuff. Dan Roam's new book, "The Back of the Napkin," helps us to think visually to make a powerful connection with our audience. No need for fancy technology. If you know what you're doing, all you need are powerful simple ideas displayed visually on a napkin.

My points to bring the dreamy to the pavement.
1. Thinking visually and creatively so points can transfer and stick.
2. You do the complex and thoughtful background, but then, leave it at home. You bring your imagination and simple clean crisp design when you present.
3. Mission statements are run on German philosophers' sentences. Toss them and opt for mantras, and slogans. You can't remember mission statements, but you can remember mantras and slogans!

Don't just dish it, eat it!

2008-08-29T08:04:00.006-05:00

Whitewashed tombs have a hard time seeing the scum within. The religious leaders got raked over the coals by Jesus. Whitewashed tombs! Now that's Jesus dishing out some serious heat!

Jesus dished it out to the whitewashed tombs. The whitewashed tombs tried to dish it out to others, without ever understanding it themselves. Finger pointing. We just make it circular. Jesus tries to teach us. We say, "yup, great message," and try to teach others without first digesting the teaching ourselves. If we are to be partakers in God's transforming work in this world, we must eat it and be slow to dish it.

Eat and digest the teaching for yourself first. You don't have to constantly be dishing it out, Jesus is pretty darn good at serving up a mean dish himself!

Excerpt from my book

2008-08-28T11:04:00.004-05:00

So I'm writing my book. Well, ok, I was writing a book before I got uber busy. I shall return to my project however. Today, I give you an excerpt from my chapter about the nasty emotional drug addiction of our churches. (I know, I know, I know what you're thinking, nice little book right? light bed-side reading ;-)

Well, I always figure if I'm going to write, I might as well cause a few heads to roll.

"The stranger said, “Careful how you walk. Walk straight; don’t become sidetracked by the frill. If you don’t walk straight, you will, without question pick up a needle along with the rest of the congregation. They come every Sunday. It's like clock world. They're zombies. They come to sit, to shoot up and get high. The masses have succumbed to the sweet fragant aromas of comfort. Their stretch is strong and reeks of death."

Should be a good read! Make you think n' stuff.

Dude, chill, it's not about you!

2008-08-27T07:34:00.003-05:00

I start teaching today a woman's Bible Study on the book of Jonah.

Jonah and his "issues" actually comforts my heart reminding me that this life isn't about me. Rather, it's about the greatness of our God!

The reason we have hope in life, isn't because of the greatness or resolve of our repentance (nor was this the reason why the Ninevites were spared that day). Rather, it is because we have a God who is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity (Jonah 4:2). May this God grant us the gift to be more sincere in our repentance today than we were yesterday. And when we fail to be faithful, may we praise the faithfulness of the One who came for us.

Cast a Vision

2008-08-25T10:19:00.003-05:00

As a church leader it is imperative to instill vision into the church body. Vision enables your church to be a movement instead of a monument. It provides direction and calls for progress. If there isn't a point, then it is pointless. Energy spent turning wheels with no one at the steering wheel is a complete waste of the church's resources.

Sermon series however "good" and "biblical" fail if they lack purposefulness in terms of long term church direction. Sermons must be catered to fit the overarching vision which the pastor was given by God. Sermons that spin in too many different directions lose the church audience. There must be narrow focus and finely tuned direction in each word preached. Pastors aren't primarily called to be caregivers (bold I know), they are called to be leaders. They are God's mouthpieces entrusted with instilling and empowering people to accomplish God's vision.

Everything done in the church should be done with a goal and larger purpose in mind. Otherwise we simply tread water and remain stagnant, or worse yet. With weary legs, we'll stop treading water and drown.

Pray for your church leaders to get a vision from God, and then to speak that vision with boldness.

Rock your face off!!!

2008-08-23T17:20:00.002-05:00

In grad school I had a friend named Lisa, and her saying was, "God rocks my face off." Now for some reason to hear an M.A. Biblical Exegesis student say that stood out. That certainly didn't belong at Wheaton and certainly not in our program. IT WAS THE PROGRAM THAT ROCKED MY FACE OFF. haha. This wasn't some High Schooler saying, "Jesus is my boyfriend." Gag, gag, barf. This was an intellectual saying, "Jesus rocks!" In fact, God must rock Lisa's world so hard that He rocks her face off from time to time.

Sit and reflect today, and may your Maker blow you away, and yes.....rock your face off.

love always.....serve rigorously.....wrestle with yourself until your exhausted....listen to God with fierce intensity.......bask in the mercy and profound patience of our Maker....let His peace heal you.

Jesus is.............???

2008-08-22T20:29:00.006-05:00

You hear Jesus called a lot of things these days. But no time for chit chat on everything he could and should be called. Focus today is what Jesus is, but rarely called. So what is Jesus??

Jesus is a...
pioneer
visionary
challenger
encourager
relentless and passionate pursuer
revolutionary
dangerous dangerous man
hardcore

A few from this "off the top of my head list" will now get further consideration. Today I ask for you to reflect further on Jesus as: 1) pioneer, 2) visionary, and 3) challenger. Jesus has the ability to light the fire underneath people's butts. He can get people motivated and moving for kingdom purposes. Listen to Jesus the pioneer, visionary, and challenger today!

1) What task has Jesus asked you to pioneer where you live?
2) What vision has Jesus given you for your community?
3) What challenge has Jesus thrown down in your path for you to conquer by His strength?

Let Jesus challenge your pants off today!

Reflexive Prayer 2

2008-08-20T08:19:00.004-05:00

We tend to pray, pitch, and ditch. We throw our concerns and requests onto God, tell Him to take care of it, and then leave the room. We want God to handle it, and we want our angst to leave our minds. Why should we be labored and burdened with prayer concerns of this world, when we can throw it on the broad shoulders of God and carry on about our merry business? We want God to solve the issues, while we sit back and relax. We say, "I prayed, I did my part, now let God handle it."

In reflexive prayer the human does not get off the hook. The human has responsibility that cannot be shucked. Prayer is about a lot of things. And one of those things must necessarily be about human agents getting their orders. It's not solely about crying out to your Jesus Santa Claus who waves magic wands and blows fairy dust to give you nice dreams and makes you sleep easily.

You have to do something about what you're praying. Reflexive prayer should give you nightmares.

Confessing but not Convicted

2008-08-19T15:38:00.003-05:00

Do you struggling with confessing, but not really grasping conviction for life transformation?

I've noticed a trend. The longer I've been a Christian the more I must question the words I pray. It's easy to get the jargon down, but it's hard to wrestle the heart into submission. I often struggle against watery words in prayer with no substance. They just flow out like water, with no formative nature behind them.

Is my life dangerous to Satan with rich gut-wrenching prayers typified by sweat and perseverance, or am I distracted playing in the kiddy-pool? In order to be a dangerous Christian let us search our hearts so we both confess and are convicted. Let us bow soberly repentant to elicit a heart change.

Let us be convicted and determined about the creeds we profess and the sins we stand against as we confess.

Reflexive Prayer

2008-08-19T15:29:00.002-05:00

Reflexive prayer is when you pray in front of the mirror. It's where what you pray bounces back with haunting questions. Reflexive prayer disallows the God dump. It's not just God in the prayer, but you're right there on center stage as well as accountable to work out the solution. It's a nasty little convicting prayer style. It's maddenning, but responsible Christians practice it, even if it leads to melancholy.

It's the famous, "God, what about poverty?" And God says, "Yes, Nick, what about poverty...don't you care, why don't you do something about it?" God has equipped me with resources to help, and therefore I must. Period. End of story, stop pray, become sober-minded and act upon the compassion God has stored up in your heart.

There is power in reflexive prayer, because the Father has put His powerful Holy Spirit inside every believer.

Surviving the hard road

2008-08-15T15:03:00.002-05:00

The road to becoming a committed follower of Jesus is hard, rough, rocky, etc etc. There aren't enough "difficult" words to describe just how hard it is to follow Jesus. You will be endlessly disappointed, endlessly frustrated with yourself. It's failure after failure. Guilt-ridden and everything else.

So how can we survive the hard road? What's one thing we can practice today that will help us from destroying ourselves with our own minds full of lies and discouragement that get us down instead of renewing our minds to build ourselves up in Christ Jesus? One way today we can go about this is by encouraging our fellow comrades as they battles their own inner enemies. Be an encouragement to another Christian today, we all walk a tiring road.

Do not tire my brother, do not give up my sister. Press on to acheive the goal, Christ crucified, and resurrected. Call upon the prayer and strength of the saints who walk with you and have walked before you. Walk with encouraging words on your lips. Let your life and prayer encourage others as they struggle to find the living Jesus. Jesus sees you today in your time of need. Let Jesus give you his water.

Transforming Discipleship

2008-08-13T15:14:00.004-05:00

Something seems inherently wrong with church educational philosophies.

Committee --> Program --> Disciples

Where's the discipleship factory?? Oh yes, it's that white bearded committee coming up with another ingenius one-shoe fits all Savior Program!! Look at it pop out the discipled by-product at the end of the line. Look how nice, neat, clean, and uniformly packaged everything is! Wow!

But there is a mindset deserving careful consideration if we are to find transformed lives in our churches. It bears some semblance to the method Jesus used in training his disciples after he called the babes into committed relationships of following his lead.

Covenantal Relationships --> Time --> Disciples

There is no key, no program, no magic wand. It's discipled people (listening to God's voice) rubbing shoulders with babes, investing their time and lives, and leaving it up to God to transform lives.

Let's not get immodest in how we think about creating disciples in churches. We ain't got a shot in hell to do it even with the most brilliant program. At most, we can invest our very lives in others, just as Jesus did, and then we leave the results to the Savior (Jesus) and the Transformer (Holy Spirit).

Rub your aroma off on others as you pray. That's the only way.

Look up, not to the side

2008-08-11T09:13:00.003-05:00

One thing rings true throughout time when it comes to following Jesus. Greed, lust for power and prominence make it darn near impossible to find clues in our Christian sub-culture (I just threw up a little bit in my mouth) for what it means to sacrificially die for the sake of others. This is why it's of the utmost importance to look up to Jesus for our cues, and not to the side at our neighbors.

We will forever be hard pressed to find living Christians, but we can always look up to find the living Christ. Paul exhortation, to imitate him as he imitates the Messiah should forever haunt the sober-minded pastor. Throughout time the masses have been blinded to the sacrificial call of Jesus. Unfortunately the few have also drunk deeply of carnal cultural influences. The few take spiritual cat naps, and lounge around in a lazy stupor neglecting the persistent call to bear the burden of the sacrificial love cross.

This is why we cannot look to others. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The constant ongoing inner battle within every Christian makes looking to others difficult, because there are many defeats, even in the most love hungry obedient children. Therefore, look up to Jesus to see the one worth mimicking, and not to the side. IF the Lord should see it fit to bless us to put a human representative worth imitating (as Paul calls all Christians to be) then stick close, learn, and be tutored up close and personal in the ways of holiness.

Fear Not!

2008-08-08T13:47:00.003-05:00

God tells us to 'Fear Not" an awful lot. Why? Is it because Christians are a bunch of scariedy cats? Well, no. Then why? It's because we are supposed to be taking steps of faith and risks for God, and not be afraid of doing it. When we sacrifce by faith and look back to see how far on the water we have walked, we are not to fear. 'Fear not' means nothing if we're still sitting in the boat. But 'fear not' means the world if you standing out water and you got nothing around you! When Christians hear Jesus calling them to join him walking on the water, let them also hear 'fear not.' May we walk courageously onto unknown waters.

I'm not a cookie, so don't use a cookie cutter

2008-08-07T09:15:00.003-05:00

Passion, fire, and zeal are all wonderful things when we have a sense of calling and direction from the Lord. However, my fire is my fire. My cross isn't your cross. I don't impose it on others. I only try to dump the lighter fluid on the unified fire we are to find in Jesus under our collective butts.

We are all one body, but intentionally not all the same body part. Our zeal is great to display for others, but don't try to force others to be zealous about your calling. Encourage others to find their fire in their belly for God, not your fire in your belly. Your belly is yours, not theirs, unless you’re pregnant.....I digress...

The point is clear (that I have food on my mind). I'm not a cookie, and you're not a cookie. If you think you might be, call me up and I'll come over and eat you. :-) Since none of us are cookies we don't need cookie cutters. But why then in our churches are we acting like we need programmatic cookie cutters? Is our goal to pump out product like a business? It seems that way sometimes. I want to see transformed people, not some oozed out burnt out product. I swear I've sat in too many planning meetings where people are spoken of in terms of product, output, dollars and cents, or the Big 3, budget, bucks and building. What end are we trying to achieve with such a mindset! Give Jesus at least a little room to breath and operate!

Let us rather encourage HUMANITY. Let us call originality our sister and hold to unity. We can seek creativity and call her our mother and stand united. We are one body, many parts. We are people, not components, and not machine parts to make an American picture of church 'work.'

We aren't cookies, and Jesus is bored by cookie cutter Christians. Everybody is to bring their zeal, their passion, and their fire together. And together we can create a one huge bonfire for the Lord. Let us press on together as one, and write our pastors and leaders to throw away their cookie cutters. And dare I say our idolized cookie cutter programmatic way we think about and do church, education, our beloved programs. May they R.I.P.

Let us resurrect a new people. Yes, I said people. We are people, not machines to be installed into the 12 week study. And no, Jesus couldn't tell you how to find purpose in 40 days. He simply said, "Follow me."

Can you dig what I'm saying? Responses please...

Cat Refusal

2008-08-06T11:12:00.002-05:00

Our cat Monty was sick, and was refusing to take his medicine. Even though it was good for him, Monty didn't care. He just knew it tasted yucky. Therefore he kicks and rebels against me, his caregiver, because he's stupid and doesn't know what's good for him.

In the same way, humans kick and rebel against their Heavenly Master (caregiver). We are short-sighted and are too blinded to see that the discipline and medicine of the Lord is ultimately good for us. We just think discipline hurts and it's yucky and nasty and fight it 24/7. If we were in tune however, we would see that the Lord is only trying to help us. But we are stubborn and desire our sins to persist, both against God and against fellow humanity.

Don't be stupid like Monty. Take the medicine your owner is providing. I saw my own sin, stubborness, stupidity, and short-sightedness in the cat today.

Safety Blanket

2008-08-05T06:16:00.002-05:00

We wish Jesus would understand our NEED to carry a safety blanket. However, he doesn't give us that option. Maybe we try to jam it in our travel bag as we depart to follow Jesus on the path. Jesus will demand us to ditch it as the road narrows. We can't travel the narrow path with the security blanket weighing us down. Traveling the narrow road you'll have to place your faith and security in Jesus alone. Maybe Jesus will grant you security in the way you hope, maybe he won't. But at least you'll escape this world with your soul.

Following Jesus comes at great cost. You will escape with your soul, maybe not much else. Is that ok with you?

Jesus my dog

2008-08-04T08:17:00.004-05:00

Do we risk what is dear? Or do we only give up what we can do without?

To follow Jesus let us give up what is dear. Let us give up what is precious, so that Jesus will be more precious. Let us take risks which are indeed risky. Let it not be said that we risk in shallow waters. Shallow waters, cheap offerings, weak sacrifices and safe risks. All these things assault the soul and demand a response. Risk by faith for Jesus. Don't treat Jesus, the King of Kings, like a dog by merely giving Him the scraps.

Those who have ears, let him hear.

Did Jesus really mean it?

2008-08-01T08:33:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I read the stories of Jesus, and I'm a total space cadet. My mind is wandering all over the place. Then I reread, with a severe effort to focus (because my mind these days seems to be complete mush) and then I get scared at the sacrifical call staring me straight in the face. You probably can relate. Maybe you're mind is mush too! haha. Or maybe more importantly, you've been petrified at what Jesus is calling you to do as well.

So today, when we hear God's voice, let us immediately pray that we would follow boldly and courageously. I think Jesus meant what he said, and that the call is hard for sinful people to bear to hear. The call is extreme. The call is deeply risky and self-sacrifical.

Lord give us ears to hear.

Your very own personalized baby Jesus!

2008-07-29T16:27:00.004-05:00

Do we complicate Christianity, to the point of losing Christianity? How about silencing Jesus, and replacing him with someone a little less invasive upon how you spend your personal time. Have you ever done that? I call it muffling Jesus with the ol' pillow case.

I'll raise my hand and admit that I do it. Yes, yes I do. We all do it. We tack on teachings and opinions at a nauseating clip. We lug around revised editions of the Bible with our own Jesus penciled in.

You know what I'm talking about right? It's the magic trick performed as you rationalize Jesus in your own mind. Rationalize mean Jesus out, and pencil in new baby Jesus! You pencil in your wanna be teachings in the margins and pray they make the death-defying leap into the text.

Then we hastily hide the ink to admire our newly created baby Jesus. We slow down to reflect on what we created, but we toss cookies because we've dizzied ourselves from our dazzling sound and light magic show. Coming to, we recognize that this Jesus is mind-boggling, and no one can make heads or tails out of this Christianity. Why would they kill this Jesus with his nice reasonable teachings? Anything salvageable is left abstract and in the clouds. It’s all so deranged and obtuse. But one thing is clear, this Jesus is cute, and cuddly too! I want to pet him. Aww, nice Jesus, nice Jesus, good boy.

Let the Jesus of the Bible cut into you today, instead of you cutting him out. We make it complicated, because we don't like what is plainly written. And what is plainly written is Messiah Jesus infringing upon our nice neat lives.

Chillin' with too much

2008-07-20T07:21:00.002-05:00

Last night I challenged the youth group with the following message. It kicked off a sub-theme in the joy series, which is "joy in repentance." We are thinking through 3 major bread texts. Exodus 16:1-20, 31-35. Israelites in the Desert, and God provides bread. John 6:1-14. Feeding the 5,000. John 6:25-58. I am the bread of life.

We looked at the Exodus 16 manna text last night. Many things were said, but the killer point was found in Ex. 16:4, 16-20. In these verses each person should gather enough manna for that day, but not take anymore than they needed for that particular day! But did the Israelites listen? Of course not! They hoarded, and were greedy, and lacked trust in the Lord and the Lord's word to them. They kept some overnight, which of course became spoiled, was full of maggots and smelled. What does this mean to our audience today? Me, chillin' in America, what is the Lord's voice to me in this passage?

It's rather clear, zeroed in on this particular point what this means for me. The forest has broader richer theological messages, but this tree, this gaint redwood stands out. And it is this tree, which our greedy, hoarding, selfishly blinded American heart deserves to be nailed.

One extraction point follows. It means I am that Israelite. They are grumbling, complaining, and whining to God about there being no food, and the entire situation of leaving Eygpt (v.3, 7). God in his sovereign mercy and grace provides bread and responds kindly to their childish grumbling ungrateful attitudes. With food and provision provided by God everyday, still that was not enough for these sinful Israelites, and me, the sinful American.

I am the Israelite in the mirror, whining and grumbling about God's provision for me. IT'S NOT ENOUGH WE SCREAM! WE WANT MORE! WE HOARD MORE! GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME, MORE MORE MORE! The kicker with this is that their manna was ruined within a day. We today, can continue to gather and not be policed immediately about this sin like our Israelite counterparts were centuries ago. While their's became full of maggots, ours is still shiny, at least for a few years. Their manna was spoiled, but we, WE CAN CONTINUE TO ACCUMULATE! Will we police ourselves, or just feed our greed again today? FEED YOURSELF, OR GIVE OF YOURSELF? You decide. GATHER MORE THAN YOU NEED, OR GATHER ONLY WHAT YOU NEED? You decide. ARE YOU CHILLIN' WITH TOO MUCH JUST LIKE ME? What are you going to do about that today?

When we choose to follow Christ we have given up our rights. And yes, that even includes us being greedy, hoarding Americans, who keep too much for ourselves and give too little to our neighbor in need. God will provide for you what you need, He proved that with the manna He provided for the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. Be content with the Lord's provision for you today, and don't grasp for more, more, more. Lord have mercy on me.

What the Future Holds

2008-07-18T10:42:00.003-05:00

Who are the brilliant people shaping the age to come?

May I suggest some of the people in the following camp. I'm a rookie on these folks, but their ideas are what will diffuse and spread. They have ideas worth spreading (www.ted.com). And ideas that spread, win! Thank you Seth.

These are the voices:
Garr Reynolds, http://www.presentationzen.com/
Sir Ken Robinson, watch one of the most brilliant talks ever on www.ted.com
Daniel Pink, http://www.danpink.com/
Seth Godin, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Steve Jobs

Check out Brandon Brown's blog in early Feb. '08 for his musings. http://brownsquirrel.blogspot.com.

These guys know how to speak to a generation that reads in images and has an attention span of that of a 3 yr old on speed. They are the messangers, the preachers, and the orators of our day. Pastors stop and learn. Monologues kill you, and put your congregations to sleep. Your blah blah blah monologues are disallowed. Only 2-way streets are allowed, where both parties are in sync mentally and thinking together. Take minds with you this Sunday instead of Lala Land for 20+ minutes. The above listing are the voices. Listen and learn from what they say, and how they say it. They speak in audible voices, through the web, and in print.

What are the saying? What thread brings them together? How can you win in the future? Be creative! Creative, innovative, creative marketing, imaginative. Brilliant ideas can only survive if you can figure out how to spread them! And in a day of information overload you must figure out how to spread your ideas creatively! Creativity is what will help make you stand out and be remembered. Be remarkable. Be worth someone making a remark about you. Stand out from the noise by using your imagination.

Keep the Lean 2

2008-07-15T16:30:00.002-05:00

The problem with being in ministry even for a short while like myself is the cumulation of hoards of ministry handouts and materials. I'm a spry young 27 yr old and already I find myself far too often thinking, "now where did I put that again?" I'll dig through my materials (a large percentage of which is self-created), and most of the time I'll find it. But still, it takes some serious time to to this, and I'm a rather organized guy.

This has led me to thinking, if I were 25 years into ministry how large would the temptation be to rely on preexisting material as a crutch and do ministry as a resource guru with tons and tons of file cabinets and no longer as a shepherd? My guess is that it would be pretty enticing.

25 years from now will I seek to hear the voice of God afresh, or be content with a handy-dandy handouts whose effectiveness has been approved by church x and church y? Will I care to listen and have a breaking heart for my people, or can I solve all issues of sin with another photocopied handout?

Even already at this point in ministry I find myself giving people handouts or some canned material I prepared in the past. Sure, this CAN BE fine AT TIMES, but it is never a substitute for hearing afresh the voice of God. And sometimes after these meetings, I wonder, was this what they really needed? Did I hear their heart, then God's heart, and then respond? Or maybe I just heard, well, this works for 1.3 million people (or at least the back covers say it), and let me slap this on you too.

Canned cirriculum although it is good at times is also a negative for sinful scheming humanity. This happens when I'm dry on God's voice in a particular passage and have nothing to say, and therefore look to the canned cirriculum gods and collected materials and handouts over the years and let them speak. That way I can do ministry without ever having to do the dirty work of listening to God in my own heart.

If handouts from 1962 are being repeated far beyond their useful years, throw them out. Don't let them become a crutch hindering you from hearing God's voice. Throw them out. Keep the LEAN, throw out everything that hinders the vibrant voice of the Lord in the pastor's life.

Jesus didn't go through canned cirrculum too often, at least I don't think. Jesus said, "follow me." And so today, let us THROW OUT THE LIVELESS WORDS ON COUNTLESS PAGES, and follow instead. Maybe today Jesus will pick up a muster seed and teach from that, maybe tomorrow he'll examine a vine and it's branches, we'll play it by ear each day. Hear afresh God's voice everyday. Each day Jesus heard from his Father and responded to his disciples saying, "ok, I'm ready, follow me."

Keep the Lean

2008-07-07T12:05:00.002-05:00

You gotta keep the lean and throw out the rest.

Too many books on the shelves today all bidding for a place in the mind. Gotta keep the 2-5% that's helpful, study those portions and dump the 90% + rest into the garbage can. So many books poking around how to "do church" and "how to grow the church" it's come to a point of insanity.

How about remembering the lean. If we wanna grow, than we need to glorify God. Bringing glory to God is about being powerful image bearers. He will make us grow if we're bent on glorifying Him.

Out love others. Out serve others. Be more sacrificial than others. Forget the majority about what you read about methodology, and look into the mirror and say, "I must decrease, He must increase."

Out love others.

The Master

2008-06-20T10:55:00.005-05:00

Yes, the Lord is our Master.
No, the language is not too strong.
He formed us, He molded us, He breathed into us. Our Master is our Maker.

What does our Lord not own?
Our Master owns us.
Our Master bought us.

He purchased us with blood.
He created us, and recreated us.
He redeemed us.

We are back in His hands.
We bow our hearts in His presence. We are His possession.
We owns the heart, the will, the emotions.

He is Master.
He is a good Master.
He is kind, gracious, compassionate, merciful, slow in anger, and great in patience.

We are our Master's children.
But we are also our Master's slaves.
We are not our own.

The Master brought us into His house.
We are made joint heirs.
Our Master provides His slaves with everything we need to live.

Our Master is also called Provider.
He provides everything we need.
He holds back from us anything which would harm us, but does not spare in lavishing His goodness upon us.

We are trained by the Holy Spirit to listen to the Shepherd's voice.
We were once sheep without a Shepherd.
But the Shepherd came down to search for us. And He continues to relentlessly search for us.

We are found, because He sought us out.
He moved towards us, while we moved away from Him.
And now we praise our Maker, our Master, our Provider, our glorious Shepherd!

Bow and submit. Our Lord is our Master.

Our Sins 2

2008-06-12T07:02:00.004-05:00

Help us Father to take off another mask today.
Help us to have the boldness and courage to allow another fig leaf to fall to the ground.
Be patient with us, and remember that we have come from the dirt.

Hear us now, for You are kind and gracious to Your children.
Remember the work of Your Son, and look upon us with compassion.
Help us to decrease today so that Your image may increase in this world.

Our sin today is envy
Our sin today is jealousy
Our sin today is coveting
Our sin today is griping

We thank You that You wash us in the sanctifying waters of purification.
We thank You for the fire that burns off the impurities.
Let me praise You, You are holy.

Let it ring from within,
Let my heart sing it with conviction,
May it echo from the caverns of my still hallow heart,
"Praise and bow to the Holy Lord."

Our Sins

2008-06-05T09:10:00.002-05:00

We are Your children, but we are no saints.
Ok, maybe we're saints theologically speaking, but we certainly act as unredeemed sinners.
We are Your church in America.
Wonderful sinful America.
"In God We Trust," we say tongue and cheek as we puff out our arrogant chest. Mine the furthest one out of them all.
Oh, the sin. The sin that makes us blind.

Favoritism
We speak to those in our circles and ignore those outside.
We visit the "important" people in the hospital, but quickly delete the emails from others asking for prayers in their sickness.
Elders and people from other boards we try to have as friends. Everyone else can get lost.
If you are powerful, "well, nice to meet you," and you greet and shake with a warm smile. Everyone else it's ok to walk by.
We have doors so that we can close them, and never think to keep them open.
All the poor, all the oppressed, all the marginalized are pushed out of mind.
But still we insist that our hearts are open to the Word of the God and to our neighbor.
There is no end to the favoritism in our world.
There is no end of favoritism in the church world either.

But our sins do not stop there.
We have forgotten how to pray on our knees.
We have almost forgotten how to pray altogether.
We have become too distracted by other things to care enough to diligently sit at the feet of Jesus.
Our unity is now in shambles and our world no longer turns to churches for hope.
We have run out the pastors who preach truth and replaced them with administrators and event planners.
We now rule with fear, rather than gaining followers by respect.
We have ways of shutting up the people with pesky voices calling us to pray, repent, and fast.
If you are a blade of grass that sticks up from the rest, but ready to be cut down by the people who hold the scepter of power.
We often muffle Jesus' voice.
We are guilty of the ugliest sins.
Lord forgive us of our sins, and turn our hearts to Yours.

Love Deeply

2008-05-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Teach us today to love.
We pray it often.
We pray it flippantly.
But today, my friends, let's pray it deeply.
And today, my friends, let's pray it slowly.

To love at great cost.
To love at great loss.
To love sacrificially.

To weep with others as they weep.
To smile with others as they rejoice.
To give an ear when others need to be heard.

Let us be all things to all people.
Let the introvert mingle as an extrovert if that is what is required to show love.
Let the extrovert retreat to solitude and silence if God desires it so that they might see more clearly.

Let the scholar do his work in the dirty street.
Let the pastor read something of theological substance.
Let the snob learn to be a servant and reach out to all.

Let us pray earnestly.
Let us be a people who confess daily.
Let us be profoundly repentant.
Let us be a people who cling to the cross.
Let us shout of our Lord's mercy and grace.

Teach us today to love deeply.
Teach us to pray it more deeply.
And teach us to pray it more slowly.
May we decrease so that God's image in the world may increase.

Does Your Soul Pant for God?

2008-05-09T07:23:00.003-05:00

I wrote this one rather quickly, so you'll have to take it as is.

"So I'm deeply troubled and deeply vexed." That's how I would truthfully open just about every talk I would ever give. Or I would open it with, "The Lord is great in mercy."

I gave some thoughts this past weekend to our leaders, giving them a window into my devotional life. I think it's important for your leaders to see you as you wrestle with yourself before the Lord. Below are some elements that I included, to help our leaders understand the honest struggles I have when I approach the Bible.

Psa 42 starts out as follows... "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." So I stop myself after v.1 and ask myself if this is true of myself. Do I long after God, like a deer longs for water? Do I thirst after and pant after the Lord like a deer pants for the streams? I stop, reflect, and pray, because often times it's not true of me. Therefore, at times when I'm distant from the Lord, I believe I have in a sense disqualified myself from any consoling and comfort that the Psalm can provide because I cannot identify with the Psalmist's heart disposition before the Lord in v.1. I cannot say, "this is a Psalm for me." Because it's not true of me. It's not talking about me. Because in the naked honesty of the moment I cannot say, "I pant after God." So I cannot move on, until I confess before the Lord, and ask Him to rekindle the fire in my heart. Psa 42:1 is beautiful. But we must be honest when it's not true of us.

Also, I spoke about how I wrestle with myself to be "totally present" when I read Scripture, and wrestle with myself to prevent my mind from wandering all over the place. It's heard enough to hear from God when we're paying attention and concentrating and praying fervently, much less attempting to hear from God when are mind is spinning in multiple directions.

An additional passage that I used was from 2 Corinthians.
"Are they servants of Christ?-- I speak as if insane-- I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." (2 Corinthians 11:23-27)

It was plainly evident that Paul sacrificed himself so that He could love God and love his neighbor. In order to love, it comes at a cost. So I read this passage and think, "what was going through the mind of Paul that would make him come to the conclusion that living that lifestyle would be a good idea?" Living the lifestyle of a disciple of Christ makes no sense to the world, no sense at all! Why put yourself into a sacrificial lifestyle if you don't have to? Answer: Paul knew God's love, and therefore was compelled to love others sacrificially as God had loved him. How do we get into the mindset of living as a disciple of Jesus? Answer: Ask yourself the following question all the time. "Am I making decisions that demand me to live a crucified life?" After all, the goal has always been, "That I may know the Savior, and Him crucified." God's disciples made conscious active decisions where they sacrificed themselves to others, we must follow in their footsteps and do likewise.

May God's mercy keep you.

2008-04-15T13:23:00.000-05:00

2008-04-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

Beauty Redefined (Part 3)

2008-04-09T18:59:00.002-05:00

Can beauty fade, or is beauty eternal?
Can something which is defiled be made beautiful?
Do you believe in the God who does miracles?
Can something devoid of holiness be made holy?
Can the unclean be cleansed?
Is forgiveness beauty?
Is the holy hand reaching down to the sinful mind beautiful?

There is beauty in a choice.
There is beauty when we decide to pick of the cross and follow.

Can something painful be beautiful?
Will you enter into the beauty of suffering discipleship today?

Beauty Redefined (Part 2)

2008-04-08T09:29:00.002-05:00

When heaven reaches down and touches earth, is that beauty?
When heaven opened, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and lighting on him, is that beauty?
When a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Is that beauty?

When he was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil, is that beauty?
When he denied himself, and past those temptations, is that beauty?
When he fasted and prayed, is that beauty?

When Moses heard the voice of God on Mt. Sinai, was that beauty?
When Jeremiah wept for God's people, was that beauty?
When a voice shouted in the wilderness for us to repent and prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord, was that beauty?

More to come...

Beauty Redefined (Part 1)

2008-04-04T21:42:00.000-05:00

I need to recapture the essence of beauty. Beauty is not the destruction of something sacred. Sadly, in our sinfulness we’ve fed ourselves lies calling the unholy beautiful. Ironically, humans now pursue the impure and call that beauty, and want nothing to do with the purely beautiful. We chase after beauty that isn’t intended to be ours, and in turn lose our innocence when we bite into the skin of the apple. We have stripped the proper boundaries and parameters from beauty and are left with a diffused oozing undefined beauty.

I have vainly chased after the wind and called that fulfilling. I need to rethink what it means to behold beauty. I need to see as if for the first time the beauty of our glorious Lord. I don’t need another lecture-ish type of sermon stating 10 things that beauty isn’t. I don’t need to hear about how our society has perverted beauty. I don’t need to hear another rant on our society’s insane twisting and distortion of beauty.

I just want to hear about beauty. I don’t want to hear about the tainted other side for a change. Just give me the beautiful side, and let us see beauty, raw beauty. I want to read about beauty. I want to write about beauty. I want my life to display beauty. I want to breathe beauty.

More to come…

In the Biblical Text

2008-03-28T13:40:00.003-05:00

I preach to myself everyday...Sometimes I listen...

To burn for the Biblical text. To be sick for the text. To feel the text. To have a burden for the text. To have angst for the text. To weep over the text. To be aggressively in the text. To be beside myself, because I am not yet aligned with the text. To be moved by the text.

Echoes of Holy Otherness (Isaiah 6:2-8)

2008-03-27T07:01:00.005-05:00

The Seraphim bore witness to it. "Holy Holy Holy," they cried, and their revelation shook the foundations of the temple. The scene was heavy. The temple dripped with holiness. All senses were heightened for the what was about to transpire. For this was it. This is the story. Sinful humanity standing before the Holy Lord. Humanity was unraveled, humanity was undone. The chasm was infinitely great. There was admission of guilt. There was a recognition of sin. There was deep confession. There was painful repentance. There was a desire to humble oneself. There was a desire to submit. There was a desire to follow.

The canyon was uncrossable by humanity. It was utterly unfathomable how far we strayed. Humanity looks over the ledge in a deflated spirit. Humanity looks over the ledge and is desperate. No way for humanity to bridge the gap. No way for that which is unholy to be made holy. Isaiah is left to depression and angst. There was a breaking point before the Wholly Other. No human could withstand the Lord's holy presence. There was instant death on the spot for any creature that breathed unholy breaths. The only chance was the Lord's issuing forth mercy and grace to be able to withstand the intimate encounter. And that is exactly what the Lord did!

So rejoice with me! Rejoice with your whole life. Rejoice in the morning when you rise. Rejoice with me when you go to bed. The Lord is merciful to me, the sinner! The Lord provides for Isaiah, like He provides for you and I. Look at the frustration and the dark pit of your sin. The chasm testifies against you. The Judge could condemn, but the Judge chose to forgive! Therefore worship the One who gives and the One who takes away. Worship the One who meets us in our brokenness. Blessed be His name. For He is holy, holy holy.

Hear the good news today all who stand as condemned sinners. Hear and respond with Isaiah. For today the Lord seeks to touch the burning coal to your lips. He wishes to whisper redemption in your ears. Your iniquity, your guilt, your sin, He is ready and willing to wash them away. Drink deeply from His cup today. Hunger deeply for the bread that nourishes today. Today is the day the Lord has made. May we see our Lord in a new light today.

A burning coal touched to human lips with mercy and grace. Behold, God reaches down to earth to touch you. He whispers 7 times 70. He whispers forgiveness. He whispers redemption. He whispers that your guilt is miraculously taken away. He whispers that your sins are forgiven. So hear His voice again today my brothers and sisters. Let His voice wash over you. Be still and know God. And walking with Him, respond and say, "my life is Yours, You are my Savior, You are my Lord, You are my Master. I will praise You with my life."

Eagerly Desirous of Meaning

2008-03-26T17:23:00.000-05:00

Thirst for meaning
Do you ever get cotton mouth?
I mean cotton mouth for the water of God
Cotton mouth to hear the voice of God
But not just to hear the voice
But to make your dry bones jump and dance again
To make your cold heart warm
To make your hard heart soft

Yeah, do I crave and yearn and burn for His voice
Yeah, maybe, but not enough....not enough at all
So stir in my soul again today I pray Lord
Let your voice provide me meaning this day

Let the meaning You provide unravel my nonsensical life
Cure my cotton mouth
Unplug my ears
When You speak let me be awake in the hour of sweat soaked prayer

Let the weeping Holy Spirit soak my dried up heart with merciful tears
Let the earnest prayers of the saints that have come before shatter and disturb this fragile soul
Arise and pray, for the hour is come

Let the warrior rise, He is risen
Victory is at hand
Reclaim this land for Him
Call the nations back to Him

Wrap us in meaningful existence this day
An existence that is obsessed with proclaiming the name of our great Savior
Make our feet true to Your voice, our tongues tamed, and our hearts bowed.

Prayer from 3/15-3/22

2008-03-23T05:55:00.002-05:00

Prayers sometimes develop from deep wounds. All prayers must resound with the dull thud of deadly sincerity. Just to write this prayer I had to dig up from within and without to feel again the devasting human reality that we were created to live to community, but all too often we remain alone and searching for friendship. So Lord, give us people to lift our spirits and to encourage us in our walks.

I am reminded of the painful echo of God's charge to me through the lips of Jesus on the verge of his crucifixion. Stay up, pray with me. Emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, whatever the case may be. The truth still remains that God has called me to stay up with the God who never sleeps, and weep and intercede on behalf of His children. Lord help me.

Friendship/Togetherness/United in Christ-likeness/Listening in Friendship

Lord, give us friends who will stick by us, friends who will pray for us, and friends who will listen to us.

But even more than this, give us friends who will strive to understand, even though they fully well know they will never understand. Nonetheless, they are faithfully by our side, and strive to understand.

Yes, and give us friends who will not just say, "I will be praying for you," but give us friends who will weep with us as they pray painful prayers together with us.

And give us friends who will not only listen, but listen without judging.

And give us friends who listen and love us with a prayerful ear.

Surround us with people who faithfully carry the cross of Jesus up into the mountains and down into the valleys.

Surround us with people who are slow to speak, but quick to listen, and even quicker to love and serve.

Grow and give us by Your grace deep Christian friendship. And dare I mention, authentic fellowship. And today I pray that I may have the courage so that I may have friendships without the masks, but with complete gentleness and heartfelt love. Let these be friends where we don't have to pause and second guess ourselves if it is a fictitious fabrication when we call others our 'brothers' and 'sisters.' Instead, give us friends where we are knitted so closely together that we can say without blinking, "Yes, this is my brother. Yes, this is my sister. We are close; we are family. We can, and will love one another, because our great God continues to show us extravagant love and mercy through His only Son."

We thank You for the blessing it is for You to hear us, and for us to hear from You. Thank You for Your friendship Father.

Prosperity Gospel?

2008-03-05T20:10:00.002-06:00

John Piper, may we learn from your words, for your words are from our Father. You speak to this generation like very few can. Wait, it's not that we can't, it's just that we haven't learned to follow in full surrender like you. God be praised when man hears His voice and doesn't turn away.

Imaging God is not a Broken Record

2008-02-28T06:09:00.002-06:00

Thank goodness God is not a broken record. Although God is unchanging, it doesn't mean that God becomes a stale mundane repetitive God. No, God is far from "old hat" from the human finite point of view. He wants to teach us each day. If God didn't want to teach us a certain day, it would certainly be a waste that day. His voice constantly rejuvenates the soul. His word provides us our daily bread. Each day God desires to make a profound impact and deep impression upon human clay.

The Planter plants and the Gardener tills our hearts. New fruit is produced and picked, and the leaves are pruned. The field of crops of our lives burst open and overflow into the hearts that surround us.

We are to image the Potter, for we are His clay. We are to image our Farmer, for in us He has planted His fruit bearing seed. We are to bear the image of the invisible God to a world that does not know God. We are to testify by our lives the glorious news of the resurrected Messiah. We are not be unimaginative stale broken records witnessing a God that is outmoded. God is not old and boring. God has not gone out of fashion. We need God more than ever before. Don't image a broken record today, rather, image God.

Superb Evangelism Advice

2008-02-20T07:29:00.004-06:00

My friend of many years posted great insight in his blog. I don't know why, maybe it's because it's directly up the alley of what I've currently been poking around at, but it definitely speaks. Check it out below.

http://everlastingworth.blogspot.com/
Feb. 7th, "Heart of a Farmer"

Below is my comment to Drew's post:
This would be a great sermon. I have never thought of using 1 Cor 3 in this manner, but you are absolutely correct, and my heart leaps from within testifying that you have correctly handled the Word of God. Linking evangelism to an idea of listening to seeing what a human/plant/seed currently needs at that particular time is very insightful and a brilliant theological pull out from this passage. We all are to do our part, however, we must be finely tuned into God to hear if he has called us now to plant, water, till soil, pull weeds, add fertilizer, reap harvest, etc.

Thirsty?

2008-02-19T15:59:00.001-06:00

Evangelism vid 2

2008-02-19T13:25:00.000-06:00

Evangelism vid

2008-02-19T13:04:00.000-06:00

Ben Stein's Movie

2008-02-15T08:03:00.003-06:00

Because I feel compelled to because of my undergrad degree. I must throw this in here. He raises the issue and articulates it in a way that I can learn from in approaching this topic. Enjoy!!!

Revisiting Intelligent Design, and talking about it intelligently!! Finally someone well-known can help build better dialogue between two sides that hate each others guts. Feel free to comment!!

Jonah Video

2008-02-13T15:35:00.007-06:00

Often times we think the Christian life is about the Nike slogan, "just do it." In actuality the Christian life is about not being able to do it, but rather letting Christ do it through you. Getting burned out, bummed out, and flat out disgusted with yourself with your half-hearted repentance would send anyone into a talespin and dump their faith. Experience the joy once again today in knowing that it's not about us "doing it," it's rather about Jesus saying, "it's done." I pray that you know the mercy of God, and that it's His grace that sustains you. Because of Christian experience the empowering presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we can repent a little bit more sincere today than we did yesterday. It's not about is "doing anything," it's about God "doing everything" through us. Cry out to God for mercy and brokenness, so that by His strength you may start to understand what true authentic repentance is all about.

Religious Affections, Edwards 4

2008-02-11T07:04:00.000-06:00

Last installment of notes. I continue to be taught difficult lessons from these words which are hard to hear.

Saints tend also to emphasize their sinfulness as over any goodness they have. They see the least sin against an infinite God as an infinite perversion. They feel that the highest degree of their holiness does not have infinite loveliness. Therefore its loveliness is nothing in comparison with the ugliness of the least sin. The more spiritual light a person has, the more this attitude is intensified.” -133, 134

-The truly humble are the most freed of self.

-“They actually trust in Christ to allow them to quietly enjoy their sins and to defend them from God’s displeasure.” -153

-concerning a true saint…”His uneasiness concerning his lack of love for God will increase. The more he hates sin, the more he will want to hate it. He will regret that he still has so much remaining love for it. The more his heart is broken, the more he will want it to be broken further. The more he thirsts and longs after God and His holiness, the more he will long and breathe out his very soul in more longings after God. Like a kindled flame that rises higher, the more ardently it burns, the more it will continue to burn.” -163

-… “he places holy living above everything else. This is his main preoccupation; he is devoted to it with the greatest diligence and earnestness. It can be said he makes his practice of true religion eminently his work and business…he persists in it to the end of his life. He never takes a holiday from it, nor does he practice it only at certain times. It is the constant business of his life and he perseveres through all vicissitudes and under all the trials as long as he lives. The necessity of each of these traits in all true Christians is clearly and fully taught in the Word of God.” -167

-“But a man’s actions are the proper test of his heart. If, for example, when God and other things, whether worldly interests or pleasures, are in competition with each other, a man’s behavior will be tested by what he actually prefers and cleaves to, and what he forsakes. Sincerity consists then in forsaking all for Christ in the heart, and in forsaking all for Christ when called on. Doing this is the test. So godliness consists not merely in having a heart intent on doing the will of God, but having a heart that actually does it.” -180

-“It is absurd then to pretend to have a good heart while living a wicked life.” -180

-“This great evidence of holy practice will be used before the judgment seat of God.” -183

-In the Day of Judgment practice will be the evidence.

-Practice is the evidence of repentance, saving faith, and Christ’s presence.

-Is it legalism to emphasize need of outward practice?

-Practice and works do not exalt self-effort, or subtract or take away the attention which should be given to free grace, rather it points to it because it is God’s enabling power and free grace which only made it possible for the practice of faith and works to take place.

Religious Affections, Edwards 3

2008-02-08T09:21:00.001-06:00

Third installment of notes from this book.

-“Again, others develop a high affection for God as a result of their fears of hellfire which are followed by some assuring text of Scripture that persuades them they are safe and that God has forgiven them and made them His children. But their perspective is distorted, and because of their selfish pride they may even continue to have false notions of their communion with God, believing it is carried on by impulses and whispers and other external manifestations that really come from their own imagination.” -92, 93

-“Some people, emotionally and self-confidently excited, speak ignorantly of seeing the truth of the Word of God. They are, in fact, very far away from it. Some text of Scripture comes to their mind in a sudden and extraordinary manner and they think it declares immediately to them that their sins are forgiven, or that God loves them or that he will save them, In their excitement they call this “seeing the truth of the Word of God.” But it is nothing but a delusion. To truly see the truth of the Word of God is to see the truth of the gospel, not a revelation that such and such persons shall go to heaven.” -119

-“So when they hear of the great and glorious things of religion, they have the notion that all these things belong to them. They readily become over confident that they are true. Hell is for other people, and heaven is certainly theirs. Confident that they are children of God and that God has promised heaven to them, they appear strong in the faith of their reality. They may even have great zeal against unbelief, yet the basis of their zeal is false.” -126

-“The great Christian duty is self-denial. This duty consists of two things: first, in denying worldly inclinations and its enjoyments, and second, in denying self-exultation and renouncing one’s self-significance by being empty of self. Self-renunciation must be done freely, from the heart.” -129

-The truly humble lament their own sinfulness.

-“When the saint compares his love with his obligations, he realizes how far short his love falls. He also sees not only how little he loves, but also how great is the corruption remaining within him. For sin is falling short of God’s demands of us. The more the saints realize their inadequacy, the more they see how vile they are. Thus it appears to them that they are full of sin in not loving Christ enough. Before their eyes this is the most hateful ingratitude.

Religious Affections, Edwards 2

2008-02-07T07:02:00.001-06:00

Second installment of notes from this all time classic.

-The Devil can counterfeit all emotions.

-“Emotional reactions to the Scriptures, whether of fear, hope, joy, sorrow, or any other may not themselves be evidence of a genuine experience. There are some who think that their emotions have saving value, especially if these emotions move them to have hope or joy or to enjoy anything else that is pleasurable or delightful. They will cite this as evidence that all is well, and that their experience must have come from the Word.” -44

-“On the other hand, their affections are not necessarily true just because they have boundless confidence that they are all right and that their affections are divinely inspired. Nothing certain can be argued from their confidence, however great and strong it appears to be. Just because a man fearlessly calls God His Father, and prays often in the most intimate, bold, and appropriate language, it does not necessarily follow that his confidence rings true.
Indeed, such an overbearing, highhanded, and violent sort of confidence as this may not be evidence of true Christian assurance. For this may savor more of the spirit of the Pharisees who never doubted that they were saints.” -62

-Many non-Christians have false hope, and are under the dominance of self-exaltation and self-confidence. They lie in a sess-pool, relaxing in the massaging waters of self-deception. The true saint may doubt their salvation.

-“First of all, the hypocrite does not have that cautious spirit, that great sense of the vast importance of a sure foundation, not the dread of being deceived. The comforts of true saints will increase caution and a lively sense of how great and awful it must be to appear before the infinitely holy, just, and omniscient Judge. False comforts put an end to those things and dreadfully stupefy the mind.” -63

-“Second, the hypocrite has no knowledge of his own blindness, nor of the deceitfulness of his heart, nor the mean opinion of his own understanding such as the true saint has. Those that are deluded with false discoveries and affections are always highly conceited of their own light and understanding.” -63

-“Third, the devil does not assault the hope of the hypocrite, as he does the hope of a true Christian. The devil is a great enemy to the true Christian hope, not only because hope tends greatly to comfort, but also because hope is of a holy, heavenly nature. It greatly tends to promote and to cherish grace in the heart; it is a great incentive to strictness and diligence in the Christian life. But the devil is no enemy to the hope of the hypocrite, which above all things establishes his self-interest.” -63

-“Fourth, he who has a false hope is not aware of his own corruptions. A saint is. A true Christian is ten times more aware of his heart and his corruptions than is a hypocrite. Therefore his sins and practice will look dreadful to him. But it is a false hope that hides corruption, covering it up so that the hypocrite looks clean and bright in his own eyes.”

-“True saints do not have the discernment to determine who are godly and who are not. For although they may know experientially what true religion is in the internal exercises of it, they cannot feel or see into the heart of another person. They can only see outward appearances. But the Scripture plainly intimates that this way of judging by outward appearances is at best uncertain and is liable to deceive.” -67

-We can never know how defective we can afford to be as Christians.

-“When Christians are in a poor condition, guilt lies on the conscience, and this brings fear and so prevents the peace and joy of an assured hope.” -74

-Being spiritual is having a wholly new life.

-“Love which arises from self-interest is worthless in the sight of God.” -91

-We love God because:
1)We escape from Hell
2)Purely because of how he benefits us.
3)Because of what he does for us.
4)We love solely because of what is in it for us, how God benefits us. We are in it for our own self-interests.

Religious Affections, Edwards 1

2008-02-06T07:50:00.000-06:00

My first installment of notes from this book. (I did this in honor of you Brandon, oh famous Middle School Pastor)

Religious Affections
How Man’s Will Affects His Character Before God
Jonathan Edwards

-We have a tendency to live for nothing, care for nothing, believe in nothing as is evidenced by our actions, seek to know nothing, enjoy nothing, find purpose in nothing, and remain alive because there is nothing worth dying for.

-“The assistant to one renowned media pastor told me when I asked him the key to this man’s success: “We give the people what they want.” That, too, is heresy. Heresy is at the very root of the “what’s-in-it-for-me” mentality so prevalent in the west today, a mentality born from the seeds of materialism planted even in Edward’s day.” (introduction xxx)

-“Loving God calls for more than gushing sentimentalities or pious mouthings: Loving God demands obedience to Him in every aspect of our lives and calling others to obedience—whether that message is popular or not.” (intro xxx)

-“Edwards stressed that we can never cultivate true religious affection without a deepened sense of sin. It is the very heart of a Christian to confront one’s own sin and to desperately desire deliverance from it. And once we’ve seen our sin, we can only live in gratitude for God’s amazing grace.” (intro xxxi)

-“I have had a vastly greater sense of my own wickedness and the badness of my heart than ever I had before my conversion…It is affecting to think how ignorant I was, when a young Christian, of the bottomless, infinite depths of wickedness, pride, hypocrisy, and deceit left in my heart.” (Edwards himself xxxii)

-“Yet we find that people exercise the affections in everything else but religion! When it comes to their worldly interest, their outward delights, their honor and reputation, and their natural relations, they have warm affection and ardent zeal. In these things their hearts are tender and sensitive, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, and much engrossed.” -27

Winter Retreat

2008-02-05T15:14:00.001-06:00

Broken Today?

2008-02-04T19:16:00.001-06:00

When I think about repentance I also think about brokenness. They really fit alongside each other quite nicely. Corporate repentance happens when we are corporately broken. It is a dynamic not often experienced today among the body of believers. I have never actually seen this happen. Because this is rarely experienced collectively, I am afraid to say that the body of believers is missing out on the great treasures and riches that are found in Messiah Jesus. This leaves me in a perpetual state of grief. It is a grief right now that I believe the Lord wishes to let me rest in, to let me feel the weight of, to allow me the burden to experience. Brothers in sisters out there, I pray that our hearts might be united. We need to recapture again the idea of corporate brokenness and corporate repentance.

Sometimes I think it is as if we are so in the dark, that we can't even see the mirror any longer, much less spend the necessary sober introspection time required for us to look in it, thus allowing God the time to speak piercing messages to our heart.

We can be quick with our prayers. Quick prayers are dangerous prayers. When invoking God we invoke the One with the power to give and take away. We toy with fire when we try to pawn off wearing a mask before the Holy One. I have never once prayed a haphazard prayer that amounted to anything. The truth is, prayer without reflection, weight, and contemplation mean very little to us, and dare I say, mean very little to God. A haphazard prayer which is purely surface level, only has the option of being shallow. Depth is not an option, because it merely comes from the lips and not from the heart.

We can suffer the unwelcomed tendency to be absent in our prayers. Our lips move, but our hearts can remain unmoved. We can pray prayers that do not even resonate in our hearts anymore. We can become prayer drones, and thus sever ourselves with the reality of the darkness of our heart. When darkness looms long enough we can chuck the idea of God's presence into distant oblivion. We can be so quick in our prayers that we can shoot out the traditional opening line, "God we thank you for your presence," while at the same time, wishing we were very absent from the Lord's presence. The mouth can thank God for His presence, while the heart craves to flee God's presence.

Let us return now to the idea of brokenness. It's good if the last two paragraphs have led you to personal brokenness already. They just took me about thirty minutes to write because the message stirs me so powerfully. Individual brokenness produces individual repentance. This phenomenon is far more commonplace than corporate brokenness, but is still not common enough. Unfortunately, I am ashamed to say, it hasn't found a habitual home in this author's life.

Why do we need more of brokenness? Because we need more growth and more closeness in fellowship with our Lord. When we are broken and beside ourselves we are more susceptible to be transformed in mighty ways by God's voice. In weakness and brokenness we are susceptible to the Lord's breaking into our lives.

Brokenness occurs when God breaks us and breaks in. When God's voice intervenes and interrupts our shallow existence we become shattered, we become broken. And I think that's the point. The Lord enters in the brokenness. Be broken, be transformed into God's glorious image.

My first youtube video!

2008-02-03T08:50:00.001-06:00

Groovy Sounds

2008-02-02T19:56:00.000-06:00

Prayer Regarding God's Presence

2008-02-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

Spurred by continued reflection of Jonah 1 and 2. 1/29/08

God's Presence
Tonight Lord we want to pray and thank you for your presence,
But first we have something to confess,
You see, we are very much like Jonah,
Our confession is not us harboring an ungrateful heart or an unappreciative attitude towards your presence,
No, our confession is much more scandalous than that,
Our confession is us not wanting you present,
Our confession is us not wanting you near us,
We are like Jonah,
When You are with us,
When You speak to us,
We, like Jonah run,
We try to flee from You,
We attempt to escape Your presence,
We wish we were absent from You,
So today help us to take the first step of genuine thankfulness for your presence by no longer running from our presence
We need You,
We need You present with us,
Help us to come and be present with You,
Help us to talk to You honestly,
There is no use in carrying on this masquerade of insincerity,
You are present with us,
Help us to be present with You,
Finally Lord, as contradictory as it may appear in light of our endless efforts to run and hide,
We thank You for chasing us,
We thank You for pursuing us,
We thank You for finding us here tonight,
We thank You for Your presence.

Give Me a Leader

2008-01-30T20:37:00.000-06:00

I'm helping run a Christian Spiritual Leadership Course this weekend. So I pulled up my random thoughts collected during earlier years in ministry. Ah, there are still some good ones in there. Man, was I smart back then, or well read, or both. What in the world happened? ;)

Leadership Qualities

1. Just as excited about following and serving as one is about leading.
2. Understands the painful baptism of suffering.
3. Understands the stringent demands.
4. Knows where he is going and inspires confidence.
5. Authoritative
6. Wise
7. Strong
8. Adheres to what he believes.
9. Intellectual capacity
10. Force of will, exerts will powerfully
11. Enthusiastic
12. Optimistic
13. Hopeful
14. Accustomed with the necessity of suffering and what it means to identity with the suffering servant and embracing the cross.
15. Demands wholehearted obedience from himself.
16. Disciplined
17. Ability
18. Diligence
19. Prays and cries
20. Thinks himself first as a servant before thinking of himself as a leader (Jesus giving himself as an example: Jn 13:15; 1 Pet 2:21).
21. Would be just as happy following as he would leading.
22. Chosen by God, appointed, and anointed.
23. Content with hidden service and no praise, not thirsting for applause.
24. Empathic
25. Modest
26. Gentle
27. Kind
28. Forgiving
29. Hospitable
30. Courageous
31. Leadership is influence, the ability of one person to influence others. Can influence others to follow their lead.
32. There must be a flame burning within him, a magnetism which will draw the hearts of men towards him.
33. Self-confident, and confident in God
34. Knows men and knows God
35. Makes decisions and seeks God when making those decisions
36. Originates own methods by listening to God’s voice, and listening to the voices of history as well.
37. Obeys God before telling others to obey Him.
38. Forgets himself (self-forgetfulness) and focuses on caring for others.
39. Can handle discouragements and impossible situations in stride.
40. A leader has the power to change the atmosphere by one’s presence.
41. To lead others, one must be master of oneself. He is able to lead because he has conquered himself.
42. Handles criticisms objectively and learns from mistakes.
43. Inescapable sense of obligation and responsibility.
44. Above reproach. No room for anyone to launch a smear campaign against him. Highest moral fiber (unchallengeable morality) and impeccable character.
45. The leader who possesses a sound mind is in control of every part of his nature.
46. Has gained the respect of his wife and his family, and controls household with wisdom, and every member of the family buys into his system.
47. Self-controlled
48. Sober
49. Frugal
50. Enduring in toil/perseveres
51. Able to speak competently
52. Of good reputation
53. Disinterested in personal gain. Focuses solely on gaining glory for God and magnifying Jesus.
54. Sets a worthy example for his flock.
55. Entire surrender to God and His call, great self-denial, heartfelt compassion, rare power in prayer, marvelous organizing faculty, indefatigable perseverance, and of astounding influence with men, and has clarity of the important matters with childlike simplicity and great thankfulness in his heart for the Lord and His patience with us straying lambs.
56. Passion for souls that will not be silenced.
57. Obeys discipline imposed upon himself to learn more about stubborn sinful rebellious man, his nature, and what kind of relationship with God it takes to adhere to rigorous discipline from within.
58. Stern discipline, rigid attention to detail, and ceaseless labor makes for a leader able to sleep at night at ease and with a clear conscience before the Lord.
59. Vision that only comes from spending time with God conversing about the necessary steps that need to be taken in order to go about mending broken lambs’ souls.
60. No pessimist ever made a great leader.
61. We are granted light, leaders doubly must follow it boldly and exhort the flock to following him into the purifying light and fire as well. It is the duty of the leader to follow God’s instruction.
62. Be uneasy until you see the thing you dream and talk about being put into execution.
63. Pure conscience, sincerity, and transparent character.
64. Sympathy for those struggling in difficult situations.
65. Patient, undaunted, undiscouraged torchbearer for Christ.
66. Cultivate the art of persuasion.
67. Friendship
68. Tact and diplomacy, wording and a gentle touch when addressing situations that might sting.
69. Integrity and sincerity
70. Inspirational power
71. His zeal and drive were infectious.
72. Executive ability
73. Galvanize and bring the people together under one vision, purpose, and picture.
74. A sympathetic ear is a valuable asset.
75. While writing, don’t dip your pen in burning acid; rather drench your pen in tears to leave an impression upon your hearers and readers.

Chill a Little and Love a Little

2008-01-27T07:08:00.000-06:00

As I think about Christianity and how some evangelistic messages or methods adversely impact our American culture there is much to ponder.

Unfortunately the "in your face" and "looking for a heated confrontation" approach that Jesus sometimes took with the religious leaders of his day has become for some Christians the only approach in their evangelistic handbag. Don't get me wrong, it is a validate approach, and should be pulled out when appropriate, unfortunately their needs to be wisdom as to when to apply such an approach.

I fear the fire for Jesus by some invokes the inner warrior and has them pulling out their swords and trying to slash off people's ears. In a day when people need to hear God's message, we all need to pray a little more, think a little more, and act in love a little more. This way the message is more appropriately conveyed as Jesus would present it.

Evolution of Speaking

2008-01-26T10:23:00.000-06:00

I speak four times in the coming month. Three of them are for colleges, and one of them is a wedding. I'm also tackling an outreach training time and presenting material for a spiritual leadership development program.

When I'm preparing to speak, a whole gamut of things flow, collide, and mesh in my mind. One thing I've intentionally given attention to recently is how to present content. For me this is very much unexplored territory, or at least it was until a few months ago. I'm actually taking as much time thinking about how to present the content as I'm taking to decide what content to present. Since my M.A. is in Biblical Exegesis I'm not in great peril screwing up the content of most messages. I know what a text says at transferable level to a non Bible scholar audience. I'm not in grave danger to make a text say what it never meant to say. My academic background provides footing on these sorts of matters. I am in trouble however to make a mess of these speaking engagements and leave the audience in the dust for lack thought into how to present content in a way that sticks, hits home, and causes further contemplation after the talk is over.

Our culture has evolved. Our speaking needs to evolve as well. Do people no longer want an exegetically precise sermon delivered from the pulpit? I want to deliver that, well kinda at least, and I think people still deep down want that too. Axe the pulpit or podium part, and I think we still have something worthwhile. What I'm saying is that we need is to figure out a way to preach exegetically precise in a way that hits the pulsating heart.

Although, I myself would love getting God's Word handed to me every week by an 18th century Puritan Preacher that goes three hours long, I'm aware I'm not the norm. A Puritan Preacher in my opinion can move anyone. People want to be moved, they want something that will speak to their minds as well as tug at their emotions. To take an audience down a journey through a Bible passage involves savvy preparation of both content and importantly here, style. So how would a resurrected great preacher of the past adapt their style to fit this current time?

To gain answers, unfortunately not many examples can be found in the American Churches today. Sure there are some, and I could rehearse some names right now, but by in large, we're hard pressed to find both exegetical precision from the text, and an inspirational element that spurs change and application. Oh John Piper, how I wish I could clone thee. For right now, I'm just starting on this journey of the preacher and audience communication dance, and hopefully others will come beside me and help fill in the gaps. You got thoughts? Share 'em.

"Without order nothing can exist-- without chaos nothing can evolve."

God's Presence

2008-01-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

Spurred by Jonah 2. God's continued presence with Jonah despite Jonah's rebellious heart.

God's Presence
We thank you for your presence
We've said it many times before
The words roll off our tongues
We barely have to think about them anymore
The words are repetitious from times past

But when we are honest today
When we recall how we felt yesterday
When we remember where we were last week

We realize in times of reflection we are not always thankful for your presence
Sure, we can say it in our Sunday finest
But when ugly Monday comes again, we leave our holy disposition behind

Today we seek to be more honest with you
Today we want to be more honest with ourselves
Today we ask for forgiveness

The truth isn't that are simply forgetful to stop and thank you for your presence
No, that truth isn't such a horrid gasping admission of sin
It's rather that we don't want you present with us

So today, it isn't really a wholehearted prayer to thank you for your presence
Today, we repent and say we are wrong for running from your presence

What a Human Can Offer God

2008-01-20T08:10:00.000-06:00

What kind of work can a human offer God that can please Him? Nothing!

A human can't offer God anything like that. And yet many Christians, me included, guilty as charged, have tried to live the bulk of our lives trying to give works of service to God. Our works are filthy rags to Him. It's not that God throws our pretty little paintings that us children have labored so hard on down from His throne, but it is that we miss the point.

The point is union and communion with the Divine. It is what Sabbath rest is all about. A point from the garden experience in Genesis was about humankind living in union and communion with their Creator. The clay should be forever reflecting the Potter's hands. There is was a form and shape that we were forever designed to hold. We were designed to forever carry with us the presence and image of the Holy God.

How can we return to the garden of Eden and be connected with God once again? Enjoy His presence! Rejoice that the Shepherd has found His lost sheep. Rejoice by proclaiming the forgiveness of the One who came into the world. God did not become flesh to condemn the world, but that through Him, we might find relationship once again! The way that it was meant to be since the very beginning of time! Shout praise to our gracious Mediator, King Jesus, He has bridged the unimaginable gap filled by our sin. We were once far, but God has searched for us, and has brought us near! Oh shout to Him and be overwhelmed, for the Lord our God is good. Amen.

So what can we offer God? Certainly not our work. We cannot give Him anything, He needs nothing. What He desires is communion with us. We learn this from the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Be intoxicated this day as you kneel before God in prayer to thank Him. Be intoxicated because of His goodness, and mercifulness, and graciousness, and, and, and, the list goes on and on. The thing God wants is us, standing in His presence, praising Him. Well, can you praise Him? I most certainly think you can! Then let us offer our praise! Let us sing, Blessed Be the Unblemished Lamb, He is our hope. He alone is the reason we have life. May God be your breath this Sabbath day.

Motivation-Condemnation-Rededication cycle

2008-01-19T17:42:00.001-06:00

"I lived many years of my Christian life trapped in what I call the motivation-condemnation-rededication cycle. From the earliest years of my Christian life, I had a mental picture of what I thought I should be. In this picture there was always a wide gap between where I ought to be and where I was. Sometimes when I was especially motivated, I would feel the gap had narrowed a bit. When I was winning people to Christ or spending a lot of time praying and studying the Bible, I felt that I might actually one day be able to bridge the gap and be a victorious Christian.

But inevitably, my motivation level would diminish and my fury and fire would die down. That decline always led to a sense of condemnation. Even when I had done nothing wrong, I would feel guilty for not doing all the things that I believed I should be doing. The devil had a field day with me during this phase. Sometimes I would become spiritually indifferent. Other times I would wonder if I would ever be consistent in my Christian life. I would wallow in my misery until I couldn’t stand it anymore; then I would finally rededicate myself to God, confessing my spiritual slothfulness. With genuine contempt for my inconsistency, I would ask God to help me be more consistent. I would promise to read my Bible more, pray more, win more souls, whatever I thought it took to get back on course. I resolved to try harder than ever to live for God. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I never experienced real peace about my Christian life." Grace Walk, McVey

Sound familiar. This vicious cycle isn't God's plan for you. Interested in learning what is? Ask me...

Background Noise

2008-01-18T08:01:00.001-06:00

Throughout the centuries it has always been difficult to hear that, "still small voice." What with, sin, stubbornness, arrogance, and the list goes on and on. Us humans think we have better things to do than to sit with God and listen to Him. Humans have always had an uphill battle to clear the clutter and obstacles keep him in front of his Father's throne to hear that, "still small voice."

Today, it's no different. In fact, I argue that today maybe now more so than ever, it might be the most difficult time in human history from a societal standpoint to hear that, "still small voice." It is a test of time-management and finding the time to put the ol' hammer down on the amount of time spent in front of the T.V., video games, and at the mall. Why do we need to do this? Is T.V. from the Evil One? No, but it becomes a distraction if it prevents us from adequate time to spend alone with God to hear that "still small voice."

The remedy? Where are you with God right now? Close, far? Either way. Stop and pray.

Thinking in new categories in how to get action from an audience

2008-01-13T20:22:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking creatively, trying to work out a deeper understanding of the interchange, interplay, and exchange between communicator and audience. In a book I'm currently reading, "Communicating for a Change," it teaches that the number one goal should be to prompt change in the congregation, which in turn brings everybody closer to God.

I say, good starting point, and a number of other things in the book are helpful as well. However, I find myself uneasy and left wanting. I've been spurred onto deeper thinking along these lines the past two days to put my finger better on the issue. I naively thought in the past all a preacher needs to do is to preach the Bible, and as long as he exegeted the Bible properly, and threw in some good modern day hermeneutical offshoot applications, job well done. However, I've come to realize that is woefully not enough. I could go on about this, but there is a larger issue I need to address.

Where is the modern day error in successful communication? Further on down the line we can find part of the answer simply by watching successful communicators. Part of the answer lays in audience engagement. This is where you see the communicator thinking, and when you look into the eyes of the audience, you see the audience tracking and thinking exactly along the same lines. This is crucial, they are thinking together! A perfect communicator-audience connection. They are thinking through the topic together. The communicator then is charged with guiding and directing the group's thoughts as the move through the journey together. Unfortunately for many communicators today, we fail not just in getting the audience to think with us, but we actually fail in getting the audience to think at all!!

Alas, I digress. The point, ah yes, the point. Now that I have you engaged I can tell you the point. The reason for failure in communicating for change or action is because we do not yet have a thorough understanding of what causes a human to act. If our goal is to elicit action from our audience, we first must have an understanding of what shapes the way in which they choose to act, and then play on this as we think through the topic together with our audience. We'll be hit and miss in our communicating if we don't understand the root issue of the process of human decision making.

We can't communicate for action effectively when we don't know what causes action. Tell me what is involved and what goes in a person's mind, body, and soul in the process leading up to action, and then I can start being able to communicate with the goal being action. But as it stands now we still cannot figure out why humans decide to do what they do. What is a robust theory of action? I'm out on the horizon looking for a philosophy of action, and I still can't find one. What causes humans to change, or to act in a particular manner.?

Do we act in a certain way when we become rationally convinced? Are we creatures of reason? Experience should definitely rule out this possibility for Christians. I say this because we as Christians sin a ton, and we know rationally this is the most absurd thing to do! Reason dictates that to sin against God is far from being smart. Yet, we still do it! Christians, therefore, are certainly not foremost creatures of reason, because if we were, we would never sin again. Therefore, a sound, logical, convincing argument alone usually will not serve to spur change or cause action. And a sinning preacher should realize this if he gives purely intellectual messages, because his very sinful lifestyle proves a sound Biblical rational message isn't the ultimate key in causing appropriate holy action and noteworthy change.

On the flip side of us building rational connectivity with our audience, is us building emotional connectivity. This line follows, if I can get you to feel a certain way, I can get you to act in a certain way. But is this true? Alas, I'm stumped and tired. Therefore, my action is now to stop. ;) (So what just exactly caused this action?)

Change the World with $25

2008-01-12T19:39:00.000-06:00

Change the World, go here.

kiva.org

You Should Listen too...

2008-01-12T19:14:00.000-06:00

One of the most gifted communicators I've ever heard. Entertaining, inspirational, informational, you name it, he had it. Sir Ken Robinson talks on nurturing creativity.

I've heard people talk about his book...but I know very little about this man and his material. My only real encounter with Rick Warren is right here, presenting at the TED conference. Good message here, I cannot comment on anything else of his. May our money, influence, and position be used to help others! Fantastic message, appeals to both Christian and non-Christian audience base.

A Christian Book Cover?

2008-01-09T19:41:00.000-06:00

What comprises a good Christian book cover?

So I'm currently writing a book myself. Therefore, I think about what makes a book pop off the shelf. People taking casual strolls in bookstores pick up books with eye-catching, interesting, or thought provoking covers. Find a good cover, and we hope we also find a good book inside. Immediately below are my thoughts on the most ironic and therefore probably most popular design of a pop Christian book cover as our contemporary American Christian evangelical audience would articulate it.

The front cover would be a businessman sitting on a wooden bench on a dock watching the sunrise over the morning's colorful waters. The man is pictured as being in a relaxed, reflective state as he gazes out over the waters and gets lost in the beautiful scenery. The man has on an expensive business suit, ready to go to work. He holds in his hand a cup of Starbucks or perhaps Caribou coffee, which of course costed him an ungodly amount of money. In his other hand he holds his gold trimmed Bible. Now of course his Bible is leather bound and has his full name written on the lower right hand corner of the front cover. This too obviously necessitated forking out an ungodly amount of money.

Doesn't the scene created start to paint the picture of a man, a successful businessman, moving places, but taking a little time to relax before God, prior to embarking on the rest of his hectic work day? Of course it does! And there is an attempt so that the average Joe Christian can connect with this peaceful image in some way, in hopes that he picks up the book thinking, "this man seems to be relaxed, peaceful, and have it together, I want some of that." So we pick up this book and other such books who inner pages match up to the ideals that this front cover depicts. These texts skyrocket to number one on Christian bookstores bestsellers lists.

But I ask you a scandalous question, "What's so Christian about, "this man seems to be relaxed, peaceful, and have it together, I want some of that."? This may be Christianity, but this could also be a whole lot of other philosophies as well!

Here is my version of a Jesus type of cover. Here is a man worn out. Here is a man with dirty feet. This man doesn't have gelled and slicked back hair, in fact, quite frankly, this man flat out smells and could use a shower. Here is a man who has bags underneath his eyes. Here is a man who has no place to lay his head. This is Jesus. And as if a cover could say this much....but I'll continue anyways. Jesus walks past the finely dressed businessman sitting on the dock. Jesus gestures back to you, the businessman and woman who has picked up this book and says, "I want you to walk on these waters today. I want you to stop just looking at them. I didn't create you so that you could sit on a dock and peer out across the waters. I created you to walk on the waters with me. No sitting on the bench with a silly reflective hazy gaze out across the morning waters. Come walk on them with me. Put down the $4 coffee, come after me. If you're truly crazy about me you'll follow me on these waters."

Saying 'Yes' With Eyes Clinched Shut But With a Heart Opened Up

2008-01-04T07:04:00.000-06:00

In Christianity the call of God, "come follow me" is to be executed with deliberate decisiveness on the human's part despite the certain unknowns and hardships that inevitably wait behind the door of conversion. In this way, we say yes to following God despite us truly knowing what grand decision we have just made, its earth-shattering ramifications, and journey for which we have just enlisted ourselves. Therefore, we say "yes I will follow," without truly knowing what obedient following entails. It is not a point of laziness or lack of researching that brings the uncertainty cloud over what following means. It is rather a message that cannot be discovered until you take the path of servanthood, journey and churn up the ground for yourself that you begin to unearth what following entails.

God gives us a puzzle, but only reveals portions of that puzzle to humanity. The portions/pieces of the puzzle God chooses to give us are sometimes joyful. But with every joyful piece there is a corresponding sorrowful piece that snuggly fits in and is the corollary partner of the joyful piece. The sorrowful pieces often mean deep discipleship and pain for the human, as they speak to the self-denial that must be established within every humans' heart that chooses to answer the call of servanthood to God. Regardless if the pieces you are currently discovering are full of the joy, discovering perhaps for the first time that you are a beloved child of God, or full of pain, hearing God's call to be a suffering servant, they are equally pieces of revelation.

Let us specifically hone in on a specific piece of the puzzle. It's the "come follow me" piece. You remember, it's the piece that Christians say "yup I will follow," without really having a clue of what they're naively jumping into. It's the part that entails faith, because we have no clue what lurks on the other side of that door. It's the part that allows your eyes to be clinched shut, but requires your heart to remain open. It's the part that requires you to say yes in faith, even though at this moment you may be too scared to open your eyes to see what true servanthood entails.

Unfortunately, it is our human nature to desire interrogate God. We salivate for the opportunity to spin God down and force Him to talk. We first want to demand, "First God you tell me what exactly we'll be doing, and then I'll decide if I'll choose to follow you or not." But God will not play nice is my interrogation room, I don't know about yours. He's always breaking my chains, throwing chairs around, and just throwing a real hissy fit.

What I think God is saying is that there is an element to all of this that cannot be known before being journeyed. That element involves faith. That element involves commitment while our eyes still cannot see, while they are still clinched shut. God has plenty of room to operate when our minds cannot yet fully see, God will work in the room of faith. What I wish to say in conclusion is, God can work while our eyes are still clinched shut, but has no place if our hearts are not yet opened up.

Jesus My Possession

2007-12-11T09:51:00.000-06:00

Of course we never come right out and say that Jesus is my possession, but if we're honest with ourselves, we often think it. How do I come to this conclusion? Well, I think it is a mixture of careless language, which isn't really all that surprising or disturbing, but when coupled with selfish consumeristic living, it is a devilish combination.

I'll explain. We use phrases like, "my Jesus," "Jesus is mine," "my God." Now nothing is fundamentally wrong with personalizing the Divine-human connection in relation to yourself. However, it is wrong in the next breath to continue in the same vein to speak about "my salvation," "my blessings," "my spiritual gifts," my...my...my. This is what is starting to catch wind of what I'm pointing at. Even I think "my Jesus" is on the cusp of theological naughtiness. It can be construed of having a tone of acting as if one has ownership of the Divine. This is "my Jesus." Get your own Jesus teddy bear, because you can't have mine. This is "my Jesus" that I am possessive of that I hug and squeeze as mine.

Well, perhaps I have made light of this language and have taken it to an absurd extreme. But still, I think there is some truth in what I'm saying. Jesus is mine, and salvation is mine. Christianity gives me stuff, and that fits into my paradigm of a consumeristic American society. I get heaven and I get Jesus out of the deal. This leaves the flip side of the coin by the wayside. What does Jesus get from this one way business transaction. Where is the two way street? Is Jesus really satisfied being your trinket on your collectibles shelf?

If we act like Jesus is a mine, and we barrel aimlessly down a one-way Christian street that only consists of me, myself, and I, I will get bulldozed by the truth sooner or later. Once the demands of Jesus enter the discussion in a powerful way then Jesus gets accused of legalism. Oh wait, that's not how the story goes. Jesus isn't accused of legalism, we just never let Him speak openly on anything of real depth and self-sacrifice. The American church silences His voice and reinterprets the text instead, muffling his voice.

The question boils down coherently to the driving question underlying this whole issue, "Jesus is mine, but am I His?" Jesus is my Savior, but am I His servant? Once again, "Jesus is mine, but am I His?" If we border thinking that Jesus is my possession, do we ever get to the point where we ask, "am I His possession?"

The Human as Habits

2007-12-09T07:03:00.000-06:00

When we ask the fundamental question, "Who am I?"

We are not our name, we are not our car, we are not the tag on our sheet. The movie "Fight Club" plays with this idea, and it's ultimately rooted in questions that existentialist philosophers ask. Names, possessions and symbols depict and articulate something, but they do not address the question, "who we are." I am currently toying with the notion that who we are is a compilation of our habits.

Who I am is a composition of my habits which I have created. Habitual routines comprise a large percentage of our day, so there may be not better analysis of who I am then to say I am a conglomerate of the multiple habit forming patterns that I have grooved into myself. Who I am exhibits itself in how I spend my time. And how I spend my time is large based on my habits. Ergo, I am a pattern of habits reinforcing "Nick's" being and existence each and every day by continually exerting once again the same habitual patterns.

The problem obviously is that as a Christian I am now told to throw off the old pattern and habits of life of my old self, and to put on the new found in Messiah Jesus. Therefore, pursuit of Christianity entails a vigorous pursuit of habit breaking and habit making. How well I do at following Jesus the Servant is answered by how well I am able to tear away from the clutches of the sinful habits of my past, and how powerfully I can exert my will to recreate myself through the power of prayer.

The missing fruit of my spirit

2007-12-06T14:40:00.000-06:00

Fight Club says the following about what to do in order to gain focus.
"The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide." -Fight Club

As I think about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, I would do well to teach myself the fruit which deals most directly with battling oneself. That fruit is discipline. To gain self-discipline I grow increasingly more convinced that it means defeating one's self. Subdue the flesh, so the Holy Spirit can reign. Discipline has a sister, and her name is focus. Self-discipline is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, unfortunately it gets drowned out by the familiar things such as love.

I teach myself again today to let that which does not matter truly slide. To focus once again on that which does matter, and throw myself wholeheartedly into the purpose of my existence. Self-discipline and focus, two things not often preached, but two messages I need to daily preach to myself. May I count all things rubbish, so that I might gain Christ.

Seizing Life

2007-11-21T19:39:00.000-06:00

Along the same vein of Pascal and further along in the history of philosophy, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche...the rest of the outworking flows from my corrupt and vile brain.

People do not even value, much less take charge of their own existence. Instead, they are filling their lives with various activities so as to divert their attention away from their own unfavorable attitude toward individual existence. Much of men's unhappiness arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.

We cannot contemplate our existence because it is too unsettling to forever set our gaze on our poverty, feebleness, and mortal condition. Nothing can comfort the soul when one is unwilling to yield to the Savior. Well, that is to say, nothing can comfort besides of course worldly distractions. And who is to say world distractions isn't real sustaining comfort? Many roll through life clinging to this very type of comfort!

The Savior holds the magic potion but the human would rather writhe in pain, rather than to succumb to the idea that he himself is atrociously sinful. But if one ever did choose to focus on the horrors within oneself then one should be compelled, no, that's not strong enough, rather one should be driven by an insane madness to change whatever is necessary to end one's impoverished state. Until one is driven to madness one cannot bear to be humiliated and crucified next to the Savior. Only mad men pray prayers such as, "That I may know Christ and him crucified." It is madness to first realize one's deep sin. At this moment of awareness of one's own deep sin one is driven to madness. It is nothing short of maddening to realize you aren't the good you always imagined yourself to be.

You can seize worldly distractions or you can seize the cross and pray for new life. Many will die never owning their life. Many resolutely refuse to see the deep seated problems within. Own your life. Seize the life God intended, a life to be lived at the foot of the cross.

Questions that matter

2007-11-20T07:11:00.000-06:00

Asking myself questions that matter.

What gift will I give the rest of humanity?
What will I contribute to the human race?
What will I do that will justify my existence?
Will the rest of humanity say that it was good for me to have existed?

What I know is the following...
There is a tendency to implicitly give the idea that a positive existence should be linked to ideas of happiness, or how much fun a person can grab for oneself. An example of this would be coming to the conclusion that I have lived a good life, because I had a lot of smiles and happiness throughout my years. But I submit that this is dead wrong as an assessment for determining the quality of one's life. The quality of life should not be linked to how many smiles or how much happiness one can selfishly grab hold of for oneself.

Happiness sometimes gives a hint also of a selfish undercurrent where the individual is at center stage, and that the world exists for oneself and is at that person's personal disposal to fit one's fancies and whims. Christians are just as much of the problem as anyone else. Me included, I always see myself as part of the problem. I never speak of me on an island with the solutions looking in at the masses with the problems. In my mind I always preach to myself as the ultimate problem. Christians fall into the trap stripping Jesus from the voice he wishes to give when they try to make Jesus fill this selfish gap and void of personal whims and fancies in various ways, many times merely couching it in "spiritual terms" so that it seems less sinful and scandalous. Jesus isn't about fulfilling the whims and fancies surrounding a human's selfish definition of happiness and shallow reason for existence. Jesus' existence was about giving himself away, not about a greedy fat kid at Halloween trying to grab all that sweet tasty candy happiness for himself. Jesus gave himself wholly away to the other.

Christians are not exempt from such terrible traps of selfcenteredness. All such traps produced by the undercurrent of our American culture end in a useless existence. We see the byproduct of that today in our churches, because many Christians are absolutely useless in their service to the Lord. I don't believe this is a harsh assessment or overstatement in the least. We as a whole stand pathetic in our witness in America. We as a whole do indeed stand as totally useless when it comes to us being used by God as his servants. There is nothing meaningful in endless pursuit of happiness as our American culture defines happiness. Christians pursuing this kind of happiness doesn't have a redeeming affect on anyone. But on Sunday morning when the service ends and the doors open we still look unchanged, and look like a bunch of fat kids looking to go trick or treating. If I want to be utterly useless and incapable of being used by God all I need to do is to keep following a shallow definition of what it means to have a positive existence. A meaningful existence isn't about happiness or fun. I don't want to be another American fat kid craving a sugar high.

A positive existence should never be marked by how many times one is able to have fun experiences. But our churches seem to steer themselves down this vomit laced road. Church activities are far too geared to fun, fellowship, and having a good time. I'm so glad we instill in our youth a message that my Jesus exists solely for entertaining me myself and I. Fun, fellowship, and having a good time in my mind is a recipe for church death. This simply cannot be the core message. But still churches echo that message far more than any real message Jesus would have to give us. Let's produce some more fat kids craving candy and then wonder in two decades why the American churches are completely extinct. We are by and large simply screwing ourselves in our churches here in America.

Moving through life there is but one thing which we can use to measure a positive existence. That one thing is one's closeness to the Divine. Positive existence is not to be tied to how much happiness one can attain, or how many fun experiences one can hoard for oneself. A meaningful existence is about being a useful servant.

There is nothing wrong with Jesus as the ultimate hard worker. This is in no way works based salvation. This is a little bit of taking seriously Jesus' message about picking up one's cross and following the ultimate servant. Our churches will soon die in America because we are too lazy to get out of bed to hear a serious call that demands complete domination and absolute discipline of oneself and one's will. I myself would do well to force myself to work a little harder for my master each and every day. After all, what does being a useful servant mean if it doesn't mean submission to a painful message?

Only Half

2007-11-18T06:57:00.000-06:00

If the world's eyes answered for me
If the world responded on my behalf
If the world answered for me they would say

I give you only half
My witness is only half
My Jesus requires only half

My commitment to serve the Glorious King is half
My commitment is only half serious
I'm responsible for only half of my actions
My Jesus only requires me to be responsible for half of my actions

But You Lord say
I demand all
I will not settle for half
I am the jealous God
I am Jesus requiring all

So help me Lord this Sabbath day
Force me to give you all when I only wish to give you half
Overwhelm me by your mercy and grace so that I cannot help but give you all in gratitude

A mind divided is not devoted to Jesus
A heart divided is half for the world

Teach me discipline so that I do not respond to half of your message
You bid me to fully come and die on your cross
Only giving half of myself is fully lukewarm

Bending My Thoughts of the Other

2007-11-16T06:56:00.000-06:00

One my biggest goals in life is mutating my thoughts of God into more accurate representations of God's holiness, and in this case I mean by that, God's otherness.

God is other than the human. At the root, He is light, and our sinfulness is only acquainted and accustomed to dwelling in the darkness. Therefore one of my biggest quests is to spend time thinking of God in ways not often thought about by our society today, (and hopefully) ways that bring us out of our pop culture's theological darkness.

In this way it is a voice from the wilderness so to speak, recovering aspects of God's multifaceted nature long lost. Aspects that are nonexistent today because we are entrenched in a narrow tunnel vision of God continually being perpetuated and reinforced by our American Evangelical culture.

John the Baptist preached a God coming, a God which the world did not know, and his message was repent. When the Messiah came, the world still did not have the mental framework capacity to cope with Isaiah 53's "suffering servant," and therefore John, who prepared the road, still could not fully rupture humanity's hearts. The people cognitively suffered from tunnel vision in what they expected the Messiah to be.

Let us not be surprised when we rediscover God, and the long forgotten but highly valuable aspects of the Godhead. May God break American Evangelical tunnel vision.
-God is the grieving God [Jesus wept, Holy Spirit continually grieves] Prophets wept.
-God's relentless pursuit of humanity throughout the ages of time [don't you pharisees know who I am? [Luke 15, pursuit of what is lost]
-God's drawing humanity back through a series of questions (Adam [Gen 3], and Cain [Gen 4])
-God's intensity
-God never sleeps
-Idea of the Holy

May God interrupt me today, so that I may be a little less like my old self tomorrow.

Media, Connected or Distant

2007-11-14T06:08:00.000-06:00

I gave a talk on media last night. Some rough thoughts follow.

Living in a media saturated culture points to at least one thing. We love to be connected. With this known by all experientially, I still ask, are we connected to the most important things? We crave to be connected. Internet, blogs, youtube, my space, facebook, AIM, MSN Messenger, email, pagers, cells, blue-tooth, palm pilots, blackberries, ipods, iphones, and the wonderful world of online gaming…Yes we're connected, but Jesus asks, "are you connected with me?"

In 1 Peter 2:4-6 we get an insight as to how we're supposed to be connected.
1. Be connected with the cornerstone Jesus.
2. Living stones must be cut, chiseled, and put into place by the relation to the cornerstone.
3. To build something stones must be placed upon each other. Stones are called to bear weight on their shoulders. As living stones we're called to responsibility, called to be connected in God's building project and called to carry weight on our shoulders.

God says, I have a building project going on, and you’re part of it. You’re the living stones from which I’m building a temple that will mark the My presence. You will sacrifice yourself to Me on My altar, and I will live in your midst.

Are you connected to God’s building project?

A second idea of stones follow. A completely different idea however.

God gives a little stone (a little message) and throws it into the pond of our lives. We are called to see that stone hit the waters of the pond, and called to see its ripple affects. Note the similarities of how we're supposed to see the ripple affects of a seed planted by Matt 13. Here the ripple affects of a seed are fruit. In order to see the ripple effects of God's message, or in order for a seed to grow we must cut the noise, all the other stones thrown into the pond that prevent us from seeing the ripple effects from that tiny little of God. Distractions, cares, and concerns of the world that prevent us from internalizing God's message can also take the form of over-saturation of media's lesser message, so that we forget God's most important message.

One pebble, one 35 minute message, however great it is, is prone to get lost in the shuffle of all the other competing messages biding for our time in a media-centric world. How will you protect an important small pebble message from the outside noise until you can see its ripple affects on your life?

Finally, a distant God is different then a close God. God far away we can deal with, God close up is a whole other issue. Are we connected or distant with God? A distant God we can keep at arms length and we can filter a messages which we choose to accept. A God close up gets in our face at times, teaches hard messages at times, and will not be content being drowned out by all the other messages in our media-centric world.

My analysis follows:
-Talk was broken up into small manageable chunks where people I think by and large could keep tracking, and maintain concentration.
-Exegeted text, exegeted culture well. Message was also pertinent with where our society is at.
-Might have been heavy handed, or too direct for some, but it was solely an attempt to address the serious dilemma that we all too often fail to see in the mirror. Perhaps some mistake my passion when speaking for something less admirable or noble. I need to make sure I communicate in a way they see the intent of my communication. I'm so mad at myself if a came off to strong, that's a bad tendency of mine.
-Good use of reflection PowerPoint slides, thus allowing time for reflection and thoughts to sink in. Allowed time for people to think about what I was saying.
-I don't see any issues with any of the content of the message. I agonize over this fundamental element and cannot see myself erroring in any content that was presented.
-I might have ultimately failed in communicating the message in a way that truly touches people. This makes me so angry at myself, because I try so hard at this element.
-Good use of imagery and analogy. Living stones, building project and temple imagery 1 Pet 2. Football analogy, catch a football (a message) but only credit "for a catch" if we hang on to God's seed of a message and allow it to take root in our hearts. Pebble in pond analogy, requires personal inward searching for a message to hit home, until we can see a seed message have a ripple affects on our lives.
-Down side of analogies is that sometimes I'm too cryptic, and should just go plain-Jane. If I have 3 weeks to give a talk I have too much time to think in my head, and then unfortunately the only one who understands the message is me. Maybe I failed miserably at this element as well.
-Personally, this has been a lot of thinking, and a real mental and emotional drain. I haven't slept much in preparation. How my one pebble of a message touches the pond of people's lives the world has yet to see. What I do take comfort in is that I think I can say with a clear conscience that I tried my best to listen to God's voice in the direction and tone of the talk. I gave it my best crack, the best way I know how, and ultimately I rest in God's sovereignty to bring a ripple affect in people's lives from a small pebble of a message. So I move on, try to repent and construct better messages next time, and in the meantime preach more pointed messages at myself because God's demands so much more from me, a servant. Maybe God never told me to preach, preaching might be my dream, not God's plan. If that's the case then may my job in the secular workplace be equally as glorifying to God as any pastor's message on any given Sunday.

Too Close For Comfort

2007-11-12T05:36:00.000-06:00

You are the King of Kings,
You are the Lord of Lords,
You reign majestically from the heavens above.
The cherubim shout holy, holy, holy.

From a distance we admire our majestic King. From a distance it is easy to call Jesus our treasure. But the distant God whose throne rests sovereignly over all of creation came down. He came down to see where our treasure truly lays. He came down to earth and lent a close ear to the human. Now I say, "You are my King," and the King talks back. He questions back what I say to Him and shatters my existence.

God from a distant doesn't talk back. God close up however is a whole other matter. God's holiness from a distance is a beautiful glorious thing. God's holy presence up close is a terrifying thing. A nice, tidy prayer praising the holy God soon becomes unraveled when a distant God chooses by His abundant grace to break the barriers to speak pointedly to address our sins, our very lives. The once high sounding prayers can now only be sputtered out by Peter's, flee from me Jesus, for I am a sinful man, or Isaiah's woe is me, I am undone.

When the distant God comes close, it's too close for comfort. Are you connected or distant to God today? What are you going to do about it?

Catapult Thyself

2007-11-09T21:15:00.000-06:00

There is much spoken out there and equally as much written where pastors can get into little pastoral circles and talk about the problems in ministry until the cows come home. I should probably include myself in that mix, however, I'm not a pastor, and therefore I exempt myself :-) Conversations usually follow the basic train of thought:

-spectator ethic rather than participant ethic
-they are the frozen chosen
-they won't listen and won't follow!
-holy huddles
-the culture today breeds Christians who gather together merely for social and entertainment purposes

Looking towards becoming a better leader myself I try to exegete our culture and our problems, but hopefully I pray not dwell on them all day. The answer is serving God, but what specific message will that Platonic form manifest itself this week?

The wise sage Matt Erickson contributes the following prayer thusly, "They would see that their spirituality is not about them alone, but about finding their place within the body of Christ." Individualism is at an all time high, and Matt correctly brings this to a forefront again in our minds. But individualism, how? Perhaps it's individualism because of the mode of media. Media creating islands of isolation (when I'm listening to my ipod I'm in my own little world) and therefore the natural byproduct is separation and individualism. So, doing "spirituality alone" can be connected to the problem of underdeveloped thinking of how media impacts us in the most subtle and unseeming ways.

If we see some truth in the framework of media creating us into little separate isolated islands, then isolated spiritualism is bound to follow. Spirituality alone may manifest itself in many ways. One way are ministries is heavy in "events" and "socials" but really ultimately at the end of the day weak in fellowship. How does this happen? Simple, the "events" and "socials" are merely filled with shallow "gas pump fellowship." (I coined that baby, so don't you go stealing that on me unless you give me props. That idea is part of one of my chapters in my up and coming book.) This means that conversations only go as far and as deep as a conversation you would have with a stranger outside a gas pump on a crisp November morning. A solution I propose is simply to stop planning and holding "events" and "socials" for the simple fact that they are meeting their intended purposes anyways, which is or at least should be to build confidence in a young outreach team at these are easy places to mingle with new faces or to kick start Christian fellowship at the start of each term. Stop burning the energies and simply stop that hamster wheel altogether. Go to pray until you can figure out how to listen to God's voice again in learning how to build Christian community through other means other than by putting on a sound and light show at a youth rally.

Another way spirituality is done alone is much different. In the example above, there was gathering, which is deceptive. That would give the appearance of connectivity. But as I argue, that's only "gas pump fellowship" connectivity. The other way we see spirituality done alone is by the rogue or nut job. The nut job is out to lunch as far as a holistic understanding of God's message is concerned. His personal piety in some places may be truly outstanding, but his grasping of God's message of the need to "play nice" and the need for doing theology in a community is at around a second grade reader level.

Ultimately, I see exegeting the culture of our media-centric world today useful in peeling back the curtain of reality to tackle larger issues such the tragic isolated island concept and "doing spirituality alone." I must say I am grateful for Matt and the interns at Elmbrook Church as they have been a blessing on my life as I try to wade through the mud of my over-racked brain.

I shall continue to catapult myself to think about these issues. Catapulting myself into exegeting both text and culture. Tuesday I talk on media for a college ministry, hence my media contact points here today. I remain indebted to all of you who think about me and pray for me often. Thank you friend.

Make a Message STICK!!

2007-11-02T18:49:00.000-05:00

So I bet you struggle with this topic too. Whether its how to preach it and stick it to your audience or flip it around and have a great message as you're sitting in the audience stick to you. It about making it stick. To make it stick on others, analyze what it takes to stick it to yourself. AKA know yourself!

First off, holy humbleness! How many great messages do I hear, but no stick! Such a spiral of depression. But through the years I start to learn something about making my soul sticky. Brokenness, and seeing yourself in need of the message aids in making messages stick. Much discussion, reflection, and contemplation also aid in making the message stick. Practical prayer to put legs unto a great message starts to make the message stick to the feet in practical action steps. If these don't happen kiss goodbye to that great message. You won't remember it two Sundays from now guaranteed. Discipline thyself to mediate. Now, all of life is about making the Word stick. So pray for me and I'll pray the terrible process of sanctification onto you as well.

Now, there's few things harder in this world than to make "hearing" turn into "listening." At least loosely I think this is what Jesus' hearing/listening was about. To listen is to make the message stick. Anything less and the message bounces off, that is merely hearing. To listen requires the mental activity to make the necessary connections to how the message ideas can be fleshed out in experiential reality. To listen also gives the nod to obedience. As time elapses and you don't find yourself being obedient to the message, you never truly listened to it. It's as simple as that. Don't complicate it. Admit it. Call it what is it. I admit it. I hear, but my ears are uncircumcised and heart closed and clinging to things of old. Better to admit I have a hard time digesting messages and listening then to say I listen but am not moved by the message in practical outworkings. Be brutally honest with yourself and call reality what it is, so the Savior can save you and bring you to a better reality. Know thyself. To know vices is to know thyself.

If you teach, teach to stick. Message content should be as follow. Pray, listen, pray. Exegete text, exegete culture. Then return to text with culture's questions and concerns. Do theology on the carefully exegeted text, and then return to culture. At culture, think about how to smash the message powerfully against the audience's mind and heart. The message must be memorable, if it's not memorable, it's a failure. Creativity in the message delivery process should be prayed about.

Lastly, if you give the message you aren't responsible for the audience's hearing, grasping, and eventual listening to the message. BUT any disciple is responsible for praying for his audience with relentless fervor.

Thought of the Day

2007-10-25T07:21:00.000-05:00

"Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract
with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility.
Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is
self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is
the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent
is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the
Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins.
Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the
voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the
inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty
persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into
vigorous awareness." St. John Climacus

"Now everybody hopes to be saved by a superficial faith, without the fruits of faith, without the baptism of trial and tribulation, without love or hope, and without truly Christian practice." -Conrad Grebel

Lord help me recall today the seriousness of your call.
Teach me repentance again,
Teach me how to think of others first again,
May this life not be mine, but wholly yours.

Success?

2007-10-24T20:02:00.000-05:00

Success. The word is elusive. The word makes me lose sleep to be quite frank. When do you know something is godly and God-driven in my line of work? When is it not the best human logic and thought with human tags of "success" and when is it stamped with God's approval as "successful." It is more than a bit disturbing trying to pin down what should be deemed as successful when doing ministry. Is the American Christian church culture close to reality when it defines success? I hope so, that would make my sleepless nights needless, and the ungoing mental energies expended on this topic totally unnecessary. However, I fear this is not the case. I must resort to a critical eye on these matters. In our depravity we sometimes forget how far our minds have fallen. Popular definitions of success finding acceptance in the majority of people's minds I find having no home in mine. Therefore, I must scratch even the most compelling definitions of success and suspend posing an answer until more thought is developed.

Is success in the Christian life easy to come by, no. Then, why should I think success comes any easier in my ministry job? The simple answer is that I shouldn't. When the majority seeks to believe the best, I know that I am depraved and am anything but good. Sure, sure, people can say this and that about my "extremist" stance, but ultimately I think that all of our lives experientially attest that wickedness still has a comfy home inside each of our hearts. So am I successful at my ministry job and my Christian life? I think the answer can be ultimately found when I answer the question of "How well I pick up my cross daily and follow Christ." When my conscience can answer this question with peace and ease, then maybe I'll be more prone to see things in more rosy colored glasses.

What does a successful College Age Ministry look like? The criterion I choose to measure the success is inevitably bound to tamper and taint the results. But I need to know if I'm moving in the right direction, or if change is needed. What I do know is that I'm too prone to think ministry matters as successful far too often and let myself off the hook far too easily. Now, others may see me as otherwise, but I contest still that depravity has me letting myself off the hook of responsibility far too easily and far too often giving myself a congratulatory pat on the back when quite the contrary is warranted. If depravity still reigns inside humanity, then I'm still prone to pleasant thoughts and self-delusional successful thoughts. And if people are tempted to say that I'm deceived the other way, this being that I don't see success enough, then let my retort be, "then why is American Christianity still "American"!?!" In churches still it's all about "me" "consumerism" "individualism" oh hell, we even do our marketing and prey off my people's materialistic mindsets. It's the "frozen chosen" filling our pews here, and there's no sign of this label getting up and taking action. No, our church in American isn't successful, at best it's backwards, and at worst...bite my tongue, it's Satanic. All this to say, who in their right mind can look at American Christians and then look at the Bible and say we've got it more right than wrong. So I ask again, "Are we succeeding?"

Definitions and criteria of successful ministry meetings can be how was the "flow"/"organization" of the evening. Was it meeting's atmosphere "lively"/"vibrant." I suggest these and all other such criteria which follow these guidelines must be rejected. To turn a close ear to the Lord's heart I cannot let myself think that such words used to describe rock concerts also can be used to describe how successful a Christian large group meeting was.

Arrr, I'm not pirate, but I am frustrated. I am a fallen man without a map to God's heart. Or more exactly put, I have a map called the Bible, but I haven't ears to hear or eyes to read. I'm a sinner, not knowing the Holy Lord.

Book notes from, "A Divine Revelation of Hell" Part 3

2007-10-22T08:41:00.000-05:00

Last installment of book notes. Hope you find them challenging and striking the need for continual repentance as I have found them.

“”My child,” said the Lord, “Satan uses many devices to destroy good men and women. He works day and night, trying to get people to serve him. If you fail to choose to serve God, you have chosen to serve the devil.” –p.155

“If you fail to choose to serve God, you have chosen to serve the devil.” –p.155

“Many sinners want to serve God and Satan…” –p.157

“I once knew You, and You were my Savior.” –p.159

“In fact, all those who know My Word and My ways and have heard the gospel but still will not repent are in rebellion against Me. Many are in hell today because of this sin.” –p.161

“I once thought about making You Lord of my life, but I did not want to walk Your straight and narrow way. I wanted the broad way. It was so much easier to serve sin. I did not want to have to be righteous.” –p.161

“Be ready to meet the Lord at all times…” –p.181

“Yes, I thought of many things I could have done to lead others to Christ and to help someone when they needed me. I repented of the things I had done and the things I had left undone.” –p.185

“Jesus said, “O foolish people and slow of heart, awaken to the truth, and love one another with fervent love.” –p.199

“Fear not what man can do to you, but fear him who can cast your soul and body into hell.” –p.203

“Give your whole life to Me, and I will keep you.” –p.210

Book notes from, "A Divine Revelation of Hell" Part 2

2007-10-21T08:20:00.000-05:00

More excerpts from the book.

“Men will become lovers of themselves instead of God.” –p.129-130

“”Repent,” He said, “for I am a jealous God. Nothing can be placed before your worship of Me—not sons or daughters or wives or husbands.” –p.130

“They were lovers of their own flesh more than lovers of God.” –p.136

“But they would not listen to Me. They wanted the lust of the flesh more than the love of the living God. Because I am holy, you must be holy.” –p.137

“O earth, My holy people have fallen asleep to the sound of false doctrine. Awake, Awake! I tell you that all unrighteousness is sin. Cleanse yourself from all sin of the flesh and the spirit.” –p.144

“If you will return and repent and if you will honor Me with the fruit of righteousness, I will bless your homes and honor your marriage beds. If you will humble yourselves and call upon Me, I will hear you and bless you.” –p.144

“Do you think that I am blind that I cannot see and deaf that I cannot hear?” –p.145

“If you will repent and be ashamed of your sins, I will have mercy and compassion on you, and I will not remember your sins anymore. Pray that you may be an overcomer.” –p.145

“Keep the marriage bed holy.” –p.146

“I will bless My little ones, those that have kept the faith and have served Me in truth and righteousness.” –p.149

“Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the lands into My house, and cry unto Me. Alas, for the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night—the day is at hand.” –p.150

“I want to be in this army, but I know I must be pure and holy as Jesus is pure and holy. By the blood Jesus shed, cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Help me to keep a repentant heart, free of all hatred and bitterness.” –p.151

“Father, I know that many of Your people are asleep. I fear You will have to break our vessels of clay and humble us if there are to be fruits of righteousness.” –p.151

Book notes from, "A Divine Revelation from Hell" Part 1

2007-10-20T20:55:00.000-05:00

Today I share some notes from a book I read several years ago. Baxter claimed to have had a vision where she was taken to hell. She recounts her findings here. Whether the vision is true or not, I don't care. That is not the point. What I care about is how these haunting excerpts assault the human soul. The soul which is entangled in a self-made web of sinful habits. Sinful habits which we know not of, because we know not of the Lord's holiness.

Excerpts from a Divine Revelation from Hell
Mary K. Baxter

“Even though I died on a cross for you, you mocked Me and would not repent of your sins.” –p.26

“The pleasures in life were more important to you than truth.” –p.43

“You went on your own way and evil was your lord. You knew the truth, but you would not repent or true back to Me.” –p.43

“You knew the way of the cross. You knew the way of righteousness. You knew to speak the truth. But Satan filled your heart with lies, and you went into sin. You should have repented with sincerity, not halfway.” –p.43

“You gave heed to seducing spirits and enjoyed your double life. You knew the straight and narrow way.” –p.51

“You played with God, and God knows all things.” –p.52…”You cannot serve Satan and God at the same time.” –p.52

“Come out from among them, and be separate.” –p.52

“If people could only see that the lusts and desires of the world are only for a season!” –p.57

“You were not sorry, nor were you ashamed of what you were doing.” –p.60

“If you are sinning, repent or you will likewise perish.” –p.69

“There is greater punishment for those who once preached the gospel and went back into sin, or for those who would not obey the call of God for their lives.” –p.70

“There was a time when he served Me with all his heart and led many people to salvation.” –p.71

“This was so difficult for me that I was sick many times during the preparing of this record.” –p.101

“We did as we pleased.” –p.115

“”Yes said Jesus, “servants that turned back after I called them. Servants who loved the world more than Me and went back to wallowing in the mire of sin. Servants that would not stand for the truth and for holiness. It is better that one never starts than to turn back after beginning to serve Me.” –p.124

A portion from, "Soren in the Flesh"

2007-10-12T07:10:00.000-05:00

Since I've been writing the past couple of days I'd thought I'd keep posting on the book. This is from a pivotal chapter that started to take shape several months ago.

Was my lying since the very beginning scripted? Does the author know that I’m writing all this down? Well, wouldn’t that be convenient for you to know. I will tell you this, the author is a complete moron, and pretty unobservant that he doesn’t proof read and scratch all this out. Undoubtedably, if he did ever catch wind of my witty and quite brilliant additions I would be in deep shit. Him and I don’t really get along too well, can you tell? But if this actual part is meant to be in the script I just can’t tell you. What good is deception when it ceases to give you an adequate cloak? Therefore, I can’t tell you now. That would in part defeat my purposes of deception in the first place. I’m a human, and humans sure do love deception. But then again who’s to say that what is said now is the truth and just not another mirror employed by the author. Maybe I, Soren really do want to tell you, but the author forbids it. Maybe I really do hate deception, but the author forces me to deceive because he loves deception. Maybe I’m bound and gagged, and being held hostage against my will. Damn this author, he won’t allow me the right to speak. I wish the author would quite with all this deceptive nonsense. I guess you’ll never really know what you can trust. How many authors are there? Why all these confusing voices? What does it all mean? But then again even if you knew the truth from deception would you ever get around to doing anything about it? Now, that, that, that’s the point.

A portion from "Nasty Addiction"

2007-10-11T07:24:00.000-05:00

This entry is for the hundreds, even perhaps thousands of dedicated people who read my blog. Here is a section from my hope to be published book, "Pointed Nails." The title of the chapter is called, "Nasty Addiction." Below is a portion. Feel free to share your thoughts.

The addict craves an emotional and experiential Christianity. It is a state that only happens when you work yourself into a tizzy, get lathered up in sweat and play make believe in your mind. This Christianity only lasts for a moment. Your drop from the high is as quick as the time it took you to reach the summit of the emotional euphoria. The summit experience tumbles back to earth when the crowd leaves. The art of following Jesus escapes you, because you are hell bent on chasing after the summit emotions and not the Christ. The heart craves the drugs. You know you need a Savior, you just don’t think you need it for your drugs. The heart craves the fantastical and the emotionalism. Like a mosquito, the sick Christian is infatuated with flying into the mesmerizing flickering buzzing light. When he reaches his destination he is zapped in an instant and falls back to earth. There is no life for the sick Christian but the cycle of valley and mountain top experiences. There is no Christ, there is only counterfeits perpetuated by our churches. We have replaced Jesus following with emotional mountain climbing experiences. When the songs stop, our Christianity stops.