Let's be all in!!!

Most of my posts are simply observations, things I’ve seen or noticed that have impacted me in some way.  Some of it drives me back to the Bible and some of it is just plain humorous or sentimental.  I observed something last weekend that was somewhat disturbing.  Two of my children (10 & 8) are involved in an activity called J.B.Q. (that’s Junior Bible Quiz).  It really is a cool opportunity for kids to get together, study God’s Word and get it inside of their hearts and minds.  Naturally when we learn things it follows that we want to test that information to see if we’ve actually soaked any of it up.  So to test their skill and knowledge they meet once a month and quiz kids from other churches to see who has memorized it “the best”.  Now there’s nothing wrong with memorization of course and even friendly competition, but what I saw as I watched the kids quiz went a little beyond that.

As we sat in the chapel area crowded with kids, parents and coaches there was a lot going on.  Teams were coming in, coaches were getting organized and kids were visiting frantically full of Saturday morning excitement.  The first thing I noticed was a wonderfully talented lady up on stage trying to lead everyone in worship and song before the morning competition.  The only problem was that no one seemed to care, much less acknowledge what she was doing.  As she stood up on stage worshiping, the room moved around her – with the exception of about a dozen kids who had moved up to the front of the stage to participate.  That visual blew me away.  We have a lot of clichés in Christianity.  They may get used a lot or seem old but that doesn’t make them less true.  Here you have someone trying to lead a group of Bible quizzers into worship, but few care.  Only a remnant of blurry eyed kiddos who are ready and willing.  Very cool.  Unfortunately this is not limited to the Sunday School crowd.  We need to be a people who make Jesus the #1 thing and get excited when we have the opportunity to be with Him.  Is He the main thing in our life or are we waiting to meet Him on our terms?

As we moved off to quizzing and competition I noticed something else.  There were a few teams who were pretty amazing little quizzers.  They had studied hard, knew the questions before they were finished asking them and buzzed in to finish the question and give the correct answer.  They wanted to win.  Now there’s nothing wrong with winning – driven people are compelled to do things to the best of their ability.  But here is what I saw.  There were 10, 20 and 30 point questions.  Each got progressively more difficult with verse quotations that had to be perfect.  One team wanted to win so badly that they had some of their kids memorize only 10 pointers, 20 pointers and so on.  They had developed a formula for success, and it was working.  It was working but was it good?  With some kids only memorizing certain questions they were missing out on whole portions of scripture.  Instead of a well-balanced Biblical diet they were cherry picking portions that would suit them best and in the process missing the point of the competition.  I wonder if we do that in our own lives sometimes.  Do we take the Bible and pick and choose which parts to read or obey because “it works” for us?  Have we boiled the Gospel down to a series of formulas because “it works doesn’t it”?  I’m afraid that too often we value formulas over the One who gave them to us.  Are we seeking a “reward” or are we seeking Him as the reward?

My hope and prayer is that all of those kids will not just make those questions head knowledge but that they’ll let it sink in and live it out loud.  My encouragement for those who may read this is to make Jesus the most important thing in your life.  Don’t seek the reward, seek Him. Instead of Jesus being one of the things that orbits around you, make Him the center.  Don’t be distracted by everything else around you.  Take everything that He has for you – the good and the bad.  The enjoyable parts of scripture and the uncomfortable parts that make us think, “Surely He doesn’t mean for us to follow that in our current culture?”  We can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. Let’s be all in!

Fire It Up!

So we’re finally into winter – colder temps outside make me realize how fortunate we’ve been to this point and also remind me that those racing slicks on my car known as tires aren’t going to make it through another snow.  In an attempt to warm up the hearts and minds (and maybe even a rear or two) I’ve decided to write about fire.

When I was sitting down to dinner last night, catered by Dominos, a discussion began about what the kids had learned from school that day.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear them talking about early explorers – men who are famous in history for their discoveries of new worlds and such.  I’m a history nerd and an outdoorsman so I like to fancy myself back in the early 1500’s exploring next to Amerigo Vespucci (you know that guy America is named after!? Of course I knew that).  It was fun hearing them talk about what they learned while I interjected facts that I remembered from my youth.  I’m a dad,so telling "fish" stories and showing off to our kids are what we do best. And we eventually got around to talking about the explorer Cortez.  One thing he was famous for, besides taking over the Aztec empire, was the story of how he burned his ships.

He was facing a mutiny from his men who were thinking about running away and selling him out.  To stamp out this potential threat he burned his ships cutting off any hope of retreat and squashing the rebellion. He did this calling the vessels no longer seaworthy…not safe and no longer necessary. As a result his men were well motivated to complete their mission.

It reminds me of the story of young Elisha before he became the famous Old Testament prophet. In 1 Kings 19 the Bible tells us that the prophet Elijah goes out to find Elisha and make him his successor.  In the story we find Elisha plowing a field with 12 team of oxen.  Now I’ve seen a lot of movies and tv shows but I have never seen a guy working in the field with 24 oxen!  Usually one or two, four at the most.  So what does that tell us?  Elisha was a pretty successful guy, you might even say a rich one at that.  Either that or he was trying to plow through limestone!  Okay so you have a well-to-do man who has been chosen by God to be His speaker to His people.  How did Elisha respond?  He burns his plows and slaughters the oxen and throws a BBQ for the neighborhood!  He actually uses the wood from the yokes to make the fires.  Why did he do that -why didn’t he just hand the reigns over to some responsible family member and ask him to “keep it runnin”? 

Could it have been to block the road of personal retreat and spiritual mutiny?  If things weren’t working out and the job was getting tough it would have been an easy road back to the successful farm life he left behind.  To avoid that trap and say to God that he was “all in” – he set a fire to plan B.  As a result he was not only well motivated but highly effective in the work God called him to do.

I write this for myself and hopefully it can be helpful to others out there as well.  What fires do I need to start in my own life that will set fire to my Plan B, cutting off my retreat from God and holding my own little spiritual mutiny?  All of us have something – something that gets between us and Jesus.  The question is when are we going to get serious about it so we can crucify our flesh and pursue Him the way we were meant to.  

A guy I know was fond of the saying, “It’s all gonna burn”.  So true.  Fire it up!

Time to decompress

Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”  While most of us now use laptops I think he was pretty spot on.

I haven’t “bled” in over a year and it’s been eating away at me.  This was an exercise that I used to do when things were pressing on my mind in such a way that they needed to get out.  In keeping with my personality I’ve simply bottled them up.  But like a six year old with a 2 liter they’re about to explode.  Maybe that’s too strong a visual but it’s healthy for me to sit down and put my thoughts on this little screen.

My wife and I just finished a two year discipleship course called INSTE.  This course walked us through the fundamentals of the Christian faith, what we believe and why.  It also took us book by book through the Old and New Testaments.  This was extremely valuable for us in a number of ways and not the least of which was to grow and mature as followers of Jesus.  During our two year program we did tons of homework, memorized lots of scripture and took more exams than we care to remember.  It feels good to be done. 

But now what?  What do we do with our new found knowledge and maturity?  The reason I got into the class was that I wanted to serve, but I didn’t know in what capacity.  So through study and devotion I would finally figure out what it was God had for me to do, right?  Well after the books are closed and the inks dried I’m not sure that I am any closer to that answer.  And that’s okay.

I’m reading a new book that speaks about our relationship WITH God.  It states that often times people, in their search for God meaning, live UNDER, OVER, FOR or FROM God.  Interesting take.  I’m still in the first part of the book but as I took a look at my own life I saw many attempts to relate to God that didn’t always include the “WITH”.  Deep relationship that abides with Him 24/7.  That’s what I want.

If there is anything that my studies have taught me it’s that God doesn’t want our time, money or things – He simply wants us.  There is much He can do with people who are wholly surrendered to Him.  That’s what I want to be.  I am all too aware of my own shortcomings, failures and sin.  I know Nathan….but so does Jesus and He loves me in spite of that.  And it makes me want to be WITH Him more.

*pffffttt* (sound of bottle opening)  Ahhhh, I need to do this more often.

A Self Centered Gospel

I never thought I would say this but I LOVE to read again.  It used to be something I despised - a chore.  But it depends on the reason you are reading I guess that determines your attitude towards it.  I picked up a new book recently that is really challenging me. That's one of the things I truly love about reading - the plowing and tilling up of my heart towards the things of God.  The book is "Radical" by David Platt.  In it he makes mention of a few observations that I took to heart.  I'm not even halfway through it yet but here are a few observations thus far.

In America we are living a self centered gospel - not the one Jesus showed us in the Bible.  If you were to ask most Christians what the message of the gospel is, they would most likely respond with a phrase like, "God loves me" or "Jesus loves me and He died for my sins".  And while those two statements are true they are not focused in the right direction.  Notice the words, "me" and "my".  Kinda makes ourselves the center of the message doesn't it?  David asserts that we were created for two things:  first to enjoy God's grace.  We like this part of course and we might be tempted to stop there as it fits in very well with our grace & tolerance theology so popular today.  Instead of allowing God to mold us into His image we have molded Jesus into our image to fit our culture.  But the other reason is that we exist to bring massive amounts of glory to our creator - God - and to take that glory to the ends of the earth.  That puts God right back in the center where He belongs.  There is also some action required in that statement.  This refers to the Great Commission where Jesus, in His last command to His disciples in Matthew 28, tells them to "GO - make disciples of all nations".

There is way too much to put down here but as I listened to my mp3 player this morning on the way to work I was listening to a group called "Jesus Culture".  They were singing their version of an amazing song written by Keith Green - "O Lord, You're Beautiful".  Here are the lyrics to that song:

Oh Lord, You're beautiful
Your face is all I seek

For when Your eyes are on this child

Your grace abounds to me

Oh Lord, please light the fire

That once burned bright and clean

Replace the lamp of my first love

That burns with holy fear

I want to take Your Word and shine it all around

But first help me just to live it, Lord

And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown

For my reward is giving glory to You
 
That last verse really hit me because it is so true.  When we have right relationship with Jesus we want to take it and shine it everywhere!  But first comes the preparation of living it out in our daily lives - God shaping us into His image for His purpose.  Oh and when we feel like "we" are doing a good job please help us re-center our attitudes on you because our true reward has nothing to do with us but is to bring You glory and make Your name known. 
God help me to do that.  Love You only, live in right relationship with You, make disciples for You and bring You massive amounts of glory.

Can Comfort be Painful?

I think I've mentioned previously that I am a bit of a workout fanatic - I love it.  I wouldn't call myself a "fitness" fanatic because that would involve eating right which I'm still working on.  Anyway the program I've been using for the past five months or so is pretty cool.  It's called CrossFit.  If you're looking for something new in your routine I highly recommend it (http://www.crossfit.com/).  As I patrol the main site where the daily workouts are posted I start to notice some of the athletes wearing these really weird shoes.  Shoes that have toes in them!  They look a bit like water socks or some kind of amphibious footwear but they're actually an alternative to barefoot workouts like lifting, running, etc.  As you can see they have no padding or gel built into them at all.  No air sacks or inserts that promise to make you the next #1 draft pick.

Now I've worn Nike shoes for as long as I can remember to the point where I admit to being a bit of a "brand hog".  But after weeks of running consistently on my nice Nike running shoes with built in shock absorbers, my knees were achy and swollen and my ankles were sore.  I couldn't understand it.  How could these not be the best running shoes in the world?  They're built for comfort!  So I started to research these weird shoes - Vibrams Five Fingers.  Everything I read lead me to believe that they might be worth checking out.  So for our anniversary this year my wife and I decided that these would be our gifts to each other.  As I started wearing them in the gym a few things happened.  First I got some strange looks from other people as I hopped onto the treadmill in my new kicks.  Secondly after a few weeks the aches associated with the running started to go away.  No more swollen knees, hurting ankles, achy back.  How could less comfort equal less pain?  I did some more research and here is what I found:

Most runners land on their heels and roll their foot forwards - this is heel striking which basically sends a shock wave up your legs and spine causing a lot of friction and pressure.  So most running shoes are cushioned towards the back where this striking takes place.  The Vibram's cause you to run more flat footed or on the balls of your feet which is more natural and less damaging to your joints.  Basically you are changing your running style and training differently.  I might not have believed it until I felt the results for myself.

So this got me thinking about my Christian walk and the way God is dealing with me.  Lately He has been stripping away some of the things I have used to "comfort" myself.  Things I use to identify myself or use just to "vegg out" or rationalize life.  Getting me to train differently.  I think its easy in our culture so surround ourselves with creature comforts that distract us from our purpose or how we're supposed to be living.  We can replace faith with worldly knowledge and stuff.  Why do we need to put our complete faith in Jesus if we have almost anything we want at our fingertips?  If we are in tune with God and really chasing after Jesus then it is my belief that He will continually stir us up and move us out of our comfort zones so that we can be used for His purpose. 

I think of some of the great characters in the Bible who were used mightily by God - most of them had a pretty rough road.  Abraham had to leave the only home he'd ever known and go out into the wilderness to a place where God called him.  Moses started out in Egyptian luxury but was moved into a totally opposite situation as a Hebrew slave so that God could use him.  It seems most of the prophets in the Old Testament lived difficult lives mostly in solitude.  Joseph went though extremely dire circumstances before God placed him in a position of power.  John the Baptist lived in the desert, wore animal skins and ate grasshoppers -the original Survivorman!  The Disciples left their businesses and families and went out into the world with nothing to proclaim the Gospel.  And of course Paul - beaten, jailed, stoned, whipped, shipwrecked and the list goes on.  But these men who gave up the comforts of the world and emptied themselves were able to be used in a big time way to affect the Kingdom.  Paul wrote this in Philippians 2 -

5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

So I am learning to run this race differently - to see that worldly comfort can be painful and debilitating in the end, leaving us "aching" for something more.  And while spiritual training can cause some momentary discomfort it will actually yield spiritual fruit and lead to righteousness.  That is what I want, less of me and more of You.

The Ever Encroaching Presence of the World

On my way into work this morning I was in a bit of a hurry.  You see I hadn't had my coffee yet and so I needed to make a quick stop at the gas station to get my morning "fix" before heading out.  I'll say upfront that my morning commute is not one of my favorite things - a close second to my afternoon commute.  Right at a pivotal point of my commute there was an accident - on a bridge - right where the highway bottlenecks.  So there is normally a backup in this particular piece of highway and the accident only made things worse. 

We were all at a stand still and the wreck was close enough I could see the lights blinking in the distance - about a half mile away.  I sat in my car thinking, "Well this is just perfect.  I'm already in a hurry and now this."  As we weaved back and forth to make room for emergency vehicles to pass it really hit me.  "I am so self centered".  Someone less than a half mile ahead of me is having a much worse start to their day than I am and I'm concerned about how long I'm going to have to sit in my car!  So I sat there convicted of my selfishness and prayed that the people involved would be okay.  Then I could see it.  An eighteen wheeler and a small two door car.  Evidently the car had gotten squeezed up against the median and lost the battle with the diesel since the car's back end was now up on top of the barrier. 

Bad situation ahead but the traffic, almost moving like a slow predator, kept creeping forward.  Slowing encroaching on this incident seemingly with the mindset of, "hey!  I'm going to be late here!  What about me!"  Calloused.

Matthew 13:15
 15For this people's heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.

Encroaching is defined as "gradually intrusive without right or permission".  That is what the world, aka the enemy, does to us.  He gradually intrudes on our lives.  He has no right to do so but if we are not actively fighting against it then we are passively allowing him access to our lives.  And so we become calloused.  Calloused to things that should appaull us and move us to tears.  We see this from time to time in our children and we think, "oh how sweet".  But its the innocence - before they've become so numb to their feelings and so focused on themselves that it's real.  I heard someone say once that the things that break the heart of God should break our hearts.  If they don't then why not?  How can we un-callouse our hearts?  Only God's Holy Spirit can do that.

Psalm 51:10 "create in my a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me"

As the three lanes of traffic merged into one we passed police cars and ambluances.  Fortunately it looked like everyone was okay.  And with a renewed awareness I headed on down the highway.  Who is sitting on the throne of your world today?  Is it you or is it Jesus?

A purpose greater than pain

Okay it's been awhile since I've posted anything here so let's see if it's like riding a bicycle...  I've had this thought bouncing around in my head for the past few months - purpose.  Specifically God's purpose for my life and those around me.  It's a topic I wrestle with on a consistent basis.  A few months ago I found out that my father had colon cancer.  My parents were just about to leave the States to head back out on the mission field.  Three days before their flight took off, the tests were done and confirmed - "you're not going anywhere" the doctor said.  A six month battle with chemo is underway.  This after a six month sabatacle to get re-energized.  That's a full year off the field.  I kept asking myself, "why would God take them off the field to seemingly be put on the bench.  They were after refreshment, not this.

Often times the pain of a circumstance can be hard to understand much less think about.  Why must my father go through the pain of cancer and chemo treatments when he's trying to do "the Lord's work".  The only thing that kept coming back to me was - there is a purpose that is greater than the pain - God's purpose.  The Bible says that God's ways are not our ways - certainly they wouldn't have chosen this path.  There are stories in the Bible - the great ones - where the central character must endure some trial or pain before they are ready to be used by God.  Moses, Joseph, Paul - all went through crazy trials where they had to be wondering, "God is this really what you have in mind here?"  And Jesus was the role model for them all.  Hebrews 12:2 says -


looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

When He was in the garden Jesus prayed - "If it's possible God my flesh doesn't want to do this! But not my will but Yours be done".  He wouldn't have chosen that path if there was another way but He knew there was a purpose that was greater than the pain and the shame of Calvary.  Pain and trials are what God uses to build character into our lives and mold us into the people He wants us to be.  Have you ever watched a metal worker mold iron or steel into a shape that he has in mind?  It's a pretty brual process of thrusting it into the fire until it "softens up" and yeilds to the metal worker and allows itself to be molded.  If it wasn't put into the fire and he just started banging away at it you'd have broken metal everywhere. We can either endure the trial - knowing that God has a purpose that is greater that He is wanting to accomplish in us - and be shaped into His image or we can be stiff necked and ultimately broken by the hammer of God. 
 

As I type this I am sore - my body is aching from workouts.  I love to work out.  I would  stay in the gym for hours if I could.  Why do I put up with the pain and soreness that I know I'm going to experience?  Because there is a purpose greater than the pain and I will endure it to get the desire results.  The book of Hebrews 12:11 again states, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

 

Are we willing to be trained by God regardless of the tool He uses and the circumstances He sets before us to get the desire result of looking more like Him?  Give me Your eyes God that I may see my life and the things You take me into, through Your perspective.  Amen!